The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-09-24
AN IRATE SUBSCRIBER sPEAKErH.

y
the n. n. w. 1 believe my time is not quite
out, but don'twish it any longer. find women
politicians can be as dishonest as men. You can
try TO ignore whitney as much as you please
but don't want to be viewing your dishonesty
every time look at your articles. G.J.GILL.
"Whew! What are you going to do
now, Chief?" writes our sage Associate
in postscript at the bottom of the above
effusion, as she incloses and forwards it
from our home Office to our temporary
place of retreat from angry politicians,
in the shades of Junction City.
"Why, print and reply to it, to be
sure" we mentally respond, as we read
it aloud to friends, who join with us in
hearty laugh at the expense of an irate
subscriber. And so here goes for the
reply:
My Uery 'honest'' tiriend:- Your letter
is received, and contents noted. Very
sorry to refuse to obey your angry be-
hest, but learned long ago, from the
example of your "Independent' favor
ite, Horace Greeley, now deceased, sufi-
cient "honesty" to fulfill my business
obligations whenever possible. So I
will not discontinue your paper till your
subscription expires; and think you
will by that time have recovered your
wonted equanimity, and become so
thoroughly ashamed of yourself over
the above outburst, that you will renew
your patronage like gentleman.
Wondering what ignoring Whitney,
could mean, have searched the back
numbers of the NEW NORTHWEST for
several issues, and can find no solution
to the mystery. Indeed, that gentle
man has received special mention every
week since his nomination. If, some
times, some of the statements made
have appeared in print after a new and
sudden change in his mind, it has been
because his partisans have failed to post
me in regard to such changes long
enough ahead for me to order the type dis
tributed before going to press. If you,
friend Gill, knowing of these changes,
failed to advise me of them in season,
and thereby led me into making any
statement which the gentleman veered
from before I could overtake him with
substantial print, must accuse you of
such criminal negligence in regard to
your candidate as throws the blame ofmy
alleged dishonesty" upon your devoted
self.
"Whom the Gods destroy they first
make mad" Brother Gill, your anger
is the strongest possible proof that you
are in the wrong and feel conscious of it
that any one could give. Those who
are on the right track can afford to
laugh at the impotent rage of those who
persist in getting stalled on political
switches.
I freely forgive you for coloring my
motives with the taint of your own
mental optics. Such demonstrations
are not new. The man who steals your
money will cry ''stop thief' in louder
tones than anybody else; and many a
thief is caught by experts, through
their knowledge of this fact So, the
politician who is always impugning the
motives of every person who fails to be-
come a gudgeon to be caught on his po-
litical hook, but proves his affiliation
with "the ways that are dark and the
tricks that are vain," of which he i'm
agines his hoped-for victim to be guilty. |
A word now, friend Gill, upon the po-
litical situation. do not know your
partisan antecedents; but, from your de-
sire to slaughter Mr.. Whitney in the in
terests of Mr.. Lane, judge them to be
Democratic, and therefore in opposition
to the real principles of Mr.. W., who, as
you will remember, proclaimed himself
a Republican, desiring the nomination
of that party. AS your letter proves
you to be guilty of the political dishon-
esty of which you frantically accuse me,
allow me to say that your "dodge" to
divert half-votes to Mr.. Lane, over the
devoted head of deluded Whitney, is Ito
speak "classically") decidedly thin.
Were Mr.. w. half as wise in political |
intringue as his bad advisers, he would |
see through the plot and turn abruptly
from the utter ruin in store for him. A |
man whose reputed friends, from inter-
ested motives, attempt to corrupt him
from the highways of good preacher
into the byways of poor politician, is
sadly to be pitied. Mr.. Whitney does
not lack honesty, but he is badly def
cient in political insight, else he would |
not suffer himself to be led by the nose
by men who are only using him to de-
feat, if possible, his own ends. Person.
ally, should not object to his election.
Indeed, were his election even possible,
L should not hesitate to throw the
mighty influence of the Peoples Paper
in the scale in his favor, provided 1
would be certain he could abide long
enough by an one decision to make the
effort worth while. But 1 know that
you, and every other politician of the |
land, knows well that he is simply be-
ing used as Mr.. Lanes cat's-paw. Were
he anything but the devout Christian
preacher that he is, you couldn't fool
him so easily. But you have led him
into strange pastures and gotten him
bewildered by your so-called 'Inde-
nandentU sonhistriau and ,,o+L;,,. -