New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-03-09
Glass HOUSES.

Plenty of stones are flying about nowadays.
We all take certain satisfaction in a we'll
established case Of public fraud; just as our
Indian brothers rejoice when prisoner is SET
in the lines TO run the gauntlet. There is the
wretch Pelt him down. We all can have a
throw at him. And the bigger the stone and
the harder we sling it the more securely we
establish our Own claim to virtue. We all
have Joined in this cutlery against one den-
quent after another in Washington, thereby
taking the place of tho tribunal that Judges
and condemns, knowing and caring very little
that the lash was being laid on our own backs,
and that the delinquency was held by other
peoples to be national, not individual. The
war. which taught the American what n full
blooded, ul-pOcketed fellow he was, taught
him to care less for the opinion of the people
over the water of whom he used to stand in
dread.
Nor il il half so necessary that we should
vince under the lash IA TO convince ourselves
that we deserve it as the first step to reform.
Now the corruption in Washington may be as
deep and widespread as is asserted, and the
lack Of honesty there in the men may have
been prompted by the mad extravaganza of
the women but the fact remains that there
never would have been corruption in Wash
ington had not the social atmosphere of the
whole country nourished the growth. The
noxious plant comes to full head and flower
there in the broader light and waiting oppor-
tunity but its seeds are scattered from one
sea 10 the other. Let us look mt home.
Bring Belknaps. walls about his ears as
we choose, but let us see that our
IL.
enough to assure our English critics
that our best class of men do not represent us
officially. We are fond of asserting that poll
tics il q trade; that the virtue, religion, en-
hghtenment of the country ia to be found IN
her quiet homes. Whose fault is that If the
prize fighter or the professed gambler directs
our ward politics and our State affairs or rep
resents us at Washington, while the honest
man. the man of refinement the Christian, sits
quietly ut home, who il to blame II we vol
unfairly suffer these men to become our repre-
scntatives they do represent us fairly enough.
The man who sooner than ~ soil his hands with
"the dirty business of politics remains tran
quill at home and gives over the country to
bribe-takers and blackmailers, has no right to
whine on the score of honesty or intelligence.
Nor does the extrayagant folly of fashion in
Washington differ from the same folly IN the
village except in degree. One woman with
fair face and love of display reigns q belle at
the capital, and to keep up that display re-
coiyes a bride from rich man. The secret is
found out and the scorn of the whole people
is hcaped on her. Another woman Chow many
other women y with IN fair a face perhaps
and the like love of show finds herself in an
inland town or village. She dresses fur
nishes her house, chooses her carriage
and horses, models her whole daily
life and habit, not by her husbands
income, but by the effect she wishes to pro
duce on the world. She lives on credit and
teaches her children the same system TO carry
into the next generation; finally her husband
fails She has taken the money to keep up
her false state not from one rich office holder,
but out of the pockets of poor men,. grocers,
butchers. tradespeople, the very servant who
waited on her at table.
How much of this accredited swindling is
going on in every town and villagcf How
many American middle class and laborIng peO
pie are living within Their means to-day, or
honestly paying their way as they got God
forbid that we should justify the ill-doing at
Washington! But common sense forbids that
we should be blind to the ill-doing ut home.
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