The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-06-04
BEEcHER AND BLAINE.
Btuins the Beeehcr 81 Pelitic.-A Similarity
~ scenes.

nom me Hsto FORA Tines.
Mulligau Is the Mutual Friend and
blaine the Beecher Of politics. On certain
day. according to Moulton, the eminent defend
ant In a celebrated suit went upon his shoulder
and adjured him by all that was good and great
to keep his mouth shut. According TO certain
testimony. the defendant said that " the whole
truth came out In brooklyn he would 60 and
kill himself He knew certain deadly poison
which, like the lightning bolt, left no trace be-
hind lie had found IL In q photographers Ia
boratorv. II was coiorless, inodorous, and swift.
One gup and all was over, and IN that gulp
what heart-ac aches were cured, what Sian
forever locked in .obllyionl Thus Beechsr
AZ reported by Momton. According 70
known track. When Mulligan arrived In WASH
inston, the defendant ran and fell upon his
neck: he did not say he was the best irie END
had tied up the storm but he did say, while
Mulliean s;erniy sat ~ a BARRIERS chair at the
hRgs House, waiting for his turn, " James, they
report that you are here "a an enemy Of mine.'
James, thus addressed, replied, says blaine,
served high neutral ground. The defendant
knew that Mullisan was to testify against him.
He said so. Yet he fondly and faniliarly adj
dressed him a. James and sought him out, and
endeavored to hold sweet council with him even
after he heard that he came a. an enemy. The
refused to be caloled, and submitted his chin to
the BARRIERS blade.
There was a more tragic scene. II was In Null
ligan's chamber IL reminds one irresistibly Of
the Brooklyn study. when the eminent defend
ant sat ON the ragged edge. wished that he were
dead. and talked melodramatically Of suicide,
DEATH and the rest beyond the mixture Of the
photographer. So the ex-Speaker, almost on
hearted man - business to think Of his ths
petitioners wife and six small children. aud
pause before he drove him to self-destructiOn.
The Mutual Friend hesitated. As RO-between
and general agent he had the letters which had
passed between Blaine and Fisher. In these
Mysterious documents were all the ragged
edges and the gloomy aud guilty suggestions
with which a certain famous trial has made the
world unhappily familiar. There was not even
wanting the intimation that IN the whole
J truth came out. the chances ut Cincinnati
would lie knocked higher than "A Kite"
There. too, were the hints that other hearts
might bleed Hut the Mutual Friend was OBJ
durate. Justice should be done, he said and
here he rolled he EYES heayenws,rdl though the
saw the imprisoned exchange between the de-
PENDANT and the Mutual Friend. Finally. the
ex-Speaker took the dreadful Letters and nut
them in his pocket. Mulligan should have risen
SYSTEMATICALLY from his chair, locked the door,
and put a pistol ON the top of the bureau, re-
marking. as he did 50, that he had come for
those letters lie did nothing Of the sort. He
rushed to the committee room and made a
statement This word ha- a melancholy In
terest. We have heard It before. There was a
time when every man with any pretension to a
figure In the Great scandal made a statement
Mulligan has made his.
Now, II Beecher, when he had a chance, should
nave grabbed ana DOckcteu the fateful packer
Of letters In which he even wished that he were
dead. sat ON tho ragged edge, referred to other
hearts that would ache, agreed to step down and
out. and otherwise used expressions which are
now historic, aud had marched out triumphant
ly. hs would to-day be "A happier and less dam
aged man. He might have told the court that
his letters not the property Of the Mutual
Friend, and that having taken eminent legal
advice on the subject, he had concluded to keep
them TO himself as not relevant 20 the main
issue. Haple-s man that he was, he had no
such chance. Nevertheless, when he had wept on
the shoulder OF his Mutual Friend. and had dark.
ly limited a. cyanide OF potassium and Other
Oblivlun-producing drugs. lac went jauntily into
court and cracked his Jokes with Judge, jury
and counsel with most delicious unconcern. SINH
larry Mr.. Blaine was amused with Mullgan : i'm
perfect grammar, which he jocularly trayested
for the benefit Of the Judiciary Committee, and
he lightly dismissed with Quip the letter.
which Mulligan had said would deprive Blaine
VI political honors and which Blaine hal said
would send his children Borrowing to the
grave
The moral Is obvious. Mutual Friends anC
letters OF true inwardness arc more dsngerou:
/ than edged tools. The man who writes letter.
/ which lie Is afraid to have shown or explaine,
| is the perpetual occupant OF ragged edge. II
! he goes into politics, let him beware OF tn,
/ Mutual Friend. At last this deceiyer will bit,
/ like serpent and sting like AN adder Worse
/ than this, he may be prevailed ON to tell tn,
truth. which il more dreadful than adders o
cyanide Of potassium.