The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-04-24
lFrom the Louisville Courier-Journa
The nafamatOrv Age.

The readiness of the public to believe i'll of
those who stand under its disfavor is equalled
only by the readiness of ones friends to keep
the latest and liveliest scandal going. Prima-
rily it is mans cronies who are his most dam
gerous accusers, for they speak by shrugs and
innuendo, leaving the verbal gaps to be filled
ia by the imagination of the liberal, perhaps
hostile, listener. The boon companion always
knows, if he would tell, how you got your fast
horse, what was the cause of your quarrel with
your mother-in-law, who gave the lie in the
little affair with Smith, and how you came by
the cut over the right temple. He grieves in
his inner sonl that you are so reckless and im-
moral, and, indeed, has tried to stop your
downward course. Your wife is most charm
ing woman, none more virtuous, but really her
intimacy with Brown is getting to be talked
about, and he, this amiable friend, has serious
thoughts of telling her just what people are
saying. The private enemy comes in posses
sior of these things. then the public ehemy, so
that finally, if man be of any consequence,
he discovers that he has q very bad character
The discovery that Mr.. Blaine's career has
had its ms and outs is the last sensation. The
story of the Indianapolis Sentinel is hardly out
string, no doubt, to signalize its existence by
something noticeable, prints very scandalous,
as well as very false, narrative of the ex-
Speakers Kentucky record. All this Mr..
Blaine laid himself open to when be made that
dreadful mistake last winter. No one who
knows him believes him capable of entertain
ing settled malignance Or venom. His Ander-
sonville squirt was therefore the more censura-
BILE because it was insincere. But for the
Democrats, who fell into the trap set for them,
xunul6 hove hppn q fQiluro o0ngiOninU lis
author to merted ridieule. The ex.Speaker is
a master of parliamentary tinesse-part of
which is just estimate of the temper of the
house. In this respect he did not miscalculate;
his biz of unworthy enterprise produced the
effect designed for it; and, whilst in the long
run it will injure him, its current impression
seems TO justify his design.
The cases trumped up against him, however,
like those trumped up against Bristow, Tilden
and Hendricks, will come to naught. They are
offshoots of the time. And what time it isl
There are epdemics; but there never was
such an epidemic as this. Every period has its
idiosyncracy; but what age has furnished so
many mangled regulations? 1t is essentially
an epoch of exposure and disgrace; of disgrace
without exposure and exposure without disgrace.
Already the public sense is becoming blunted.
Beecher grows respectable by the side of Bah
cock, and Belknap is comforted by. Pen
dleton. The purest come in for detrac-
tion and Tlden is made to vie with Bristow
in corruption whilst it is nip and tuck be.
tween Hendricks and Thurman which is the
greater rogue. Last we have the ex.speaker,
who, for the time being, is the worst of all.
Thus the confusion of honest men and thieves
defeats the ends of justice, and those who set
themselves as prosecutors become the instru-
ments of corruption. Partyism makes martyrs
without much regard to questions of right and
wrong. But for Belknap's panic he would to-
day be a martyr as Sch5 nck and Babcock are.
He squealed, and he made wreck of his own
case. Look at Boss Shepherd! model of sa-
gacious acumen, who holds bis own and has
plenty of flunkeys to lick his boot. Besides
there are Robson, Meiggs, and Rufus Ingals.
The newspapers are certainly carrying the
business of defamation, based on insufficient
and irresponsible information, TO an extent
which is tolerably sure to bring about reac-
ton. There is now hardly public man, from
such as Thurman to such as OConor, who has
not had himself smirched. If one remains, be
be as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, he shall
not escape calumny. This cannot last without
its legitimate result,-a more dangerous state
of indifference as to public morals than we
have seen, and, by consequence, greater lati
tude to thieves Every lie that is told balances
n truth. Confuse the classes and degrees of
guif. and, the standard being gone, the cor
ruptionist becomes the companion of the most
upright. The newspapers do not discriminate.
They refuse to spoil sensation by dsbelievng
it. 1t is SO easy to accuse, personalities are SO
popular, and the party set upon is so little like
~ to make it warm for his assailant. We need
few successful libel suits. They would mend
matters decidedly.