The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-06-04
Current Notes.

If we desired to find the most narrow and
hopeless protectionist in the country, we
should search for him among the Democratic
members of Congress from Pennsylvania
Neao York Erening Post.
JEFF Davis and Andrew johnson should
be persuaded to swing around the circle to-
gether. While johnson clings to the consti-
tuition, like the mariner to the last plank,
Davis should unfurl the American flag and
wrap it about his manly form. The spec
tacular effect would be something superb
Cincinnati Commercial.
We take it that murder is repressed not SO
much by the method of punishment as by
the certainty of it. As long as we catch only
one murderer in dozen, there Is no saving
grace in hanging him over imprisoDing him
for life 1t IS the failure to catch the other
eleven that demoraizes those whose low in
stincts tempt them to murder.-Sprinatiet
Republican.
So we fear that Gen. Grant will find, in
less than month, that the honesty and can
dor which characterize his letter have been
lost upon the very men for whom this decla-
ration was intended and that, as those who
forced the issue upon him did so for the pur-
pose of keeping it unsettled, and not for the
purpose of settling it, so they will continue to
misconstrue his utterances and to pervert his
manifest meaning.-St. Louis GLobe-Dem0-
crGt.
A reviewer in the New York Tribune de-
fines real poet as "a singer whose verses
haunt your twights." This definition Is
undeniably a good one, and if accepted, at
once places the musquto in the front rank
St. LOais Republican.
One reason why the purposes of the Glib
erals'' have attracted so little attention is
that they are excessively vague in themselves.
and that they are subject to an indefinite
amount of change.-Ne,o York Times.
This is what the st. Pau, ,Minn., Pioneer
Press thinks about it: Let the conviction
once obtain that change from repablicanism
to democracy is only a change from bad 10
worse, and the latter may bid good-by to all
their hopes of greatness. Such dismal tricks
as the one which has been perpetrated by
Gov. Weston and his council in New Hamp-
shire will produce this conviction in short
ORDER"
Political movements, like all other good
causes, are constantly betrayed by the igno-
rance which thinks itself smartness, and the
contempt of ideas which is called practical
common sense" Public affairs, as we are
constantly learning, however little we heed
the lesson, are subject TO the same great laws
which regulate everything else in the world;
and shallow and ignorant knaves can be no
more safely trusted in politics than in ocean
navigation.-Harper's Weekly.
Ex-Gov. Curtin of Pennsylvania, in spite
of his reputation for gool sense, seems to be
a believer in the weak delusion of soft money.
In conversation with reporter of the Cincin-
natl Enquirer recently he is represented as
saying: pennsylvania is suffering in the
present financial stress, owing among other
things, to lack of currency, more than any
other state in the Union. An agricultural
state like Ohio did not feel the embarrass-
ment so much. II an embargo were laid on
the commerce Of France and all her ports
closed, she could survive the affllction, be-
cause her strength lies in her agricultural
greatness; but the result would be far differ
ent if the ports of Great Britain were closed.
All her manufacturing interests would be par
alyzed. Pennsylvania Is in this condition.
Our wealth consists in our manufactures and
our iron interests, and our population is
largely floating one, that delves in the
earth or tolls in the mills. 1t is impossible TO
estimate the number of meu who are idle to-
day--out of work because there is not capital
to employ them"