The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-09-02

blazed away, and concluding that he must
have killed the animal instantly, ventured
up and found him dead. The trophy Of
this shooting exploit was exhibited about
town, and the verdict Of the great public
who had visited Barnum's show was that
the unknown animal was seal and the
various theories as to how he came here
finally narrowed down to the one that he
had made his way up the river St. Law.
renee. up the outlet Of Lake Champlain
and up the Otter Greek, all for the
purpose of reaching a good Republican
state where he could live Ia quiet and
peace and die at ripe old age. But,
at length, wicked youth who was always
known to know too much, disclosed that
BIO was one of Barnums sea lions who
unfortunately died on the passage, and
was thrown out Of tho wagons as they
passed, and that he was dead as smelt
when Mr.. O'Connor first sighted him.
This announcement spoiled beautiful
theory and took away hard.earned glory,
and was thought to be too bad; so
another theory has been propounded,
namely, that the animal was no seal at
ALL but only an otter common in this vi.
cinity at an earlier day. This theory
has some drawbacks. however, in that the
animal had the seals fur, the seals head.
the seals Aippers and the seals fishy tail
and, in fact, was seal. The body had
so far undergone the process of decompo.
sition, as to scent within o few hours Of
his capture.
The Democratic rally in Middle
bury, on Thursday afternoon and even.
ing, was quite success for the erring
brethren in point OF numbers. and if the
enthusiasm was not very lively, it was
as much SO as could be expected for a
cause so unfortunate in its candidates.
Maj. j. Haggarty of New York spoke in
the afternoon to fair crowd, mostly Re.
publicans, in the Episcopal church park.
He did not make any converts He was
not red hot Democratic speaker,in fact,
he did not light nearly SO hard upon the
sins of the party as some of the Republi.
cans present have done many times. He
contentcd himself with showing at great
length that the business condition Of the
country was not what it should be, from
which he with exquisite logic dejuced
the conclusion that the Democratic nom.
inecs should receive the support Of every
voter. Thought Hayes was nice man (;
could say nothing against his character,
but considered him mere nobody, with i
out convictions Of his own, who would be
as putty IN the hands of cunning Repub.
lcan managers. He did not seem to
know that Hayes had been three times
elected governor Of one of the largest
states in the Union, which is pretty we'll
for q nobody. Tilden was the greatest
statesman in the country; gave him the
entire credit Of overthrowing the Tweed
Ring, which was rather cool; and was
competent to write his OVID messag.
cs. Didn't say anything about his
war record; his close union with
Tweed until the latter's downfall his
railroad swindllng operations; or his
dofrauding the government out OF HE
income tax, and the perjury whereby he
did it. Spoke Of himself as having once
been Republican who lett lucrative
Office to labor for Greeleys election. Neg.
lected to say that he was turned out Of
said Office for certain theft Of bonds,
which rendered his name conspicuous
about five or six years ago. In fact. his
speech was chiefly remarkable for it's
omissions, In the evening A. D. 3rews.
ter OF Boston delivered ranting speech
which was listened to almost without q
manifestation Of enthusiasm. A torch.
light procession wound up the affair
Something less than two hundred torches,
which were sent down from Burlington
Tor the occasion, were borne in long
procession, making fine appearance
as it wound about the streets. About
one third of the bearers were Middlebury
voters, the rest being from out OF town,
with very liberal proportion Of small
boys. On the whole it was not very
inspiriting affair; and the rally as whole
was hardly calculated to benefit the
" cause"