Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-05-23

goOd man In the worst sense of tn
word"
Il But our western reformer knew
more excellent way. 1t did not, in
deed, discountenance the publication
OF impertinent private matter
but it rose superior t,
any attempt at ascertaining facts il
those matters. While simpler soul
were wasting strength in hunting NJ
authorities throughout the country
the Chicago Ilfbune calmly sat dow,
in its office and loved and made lie
Moreover, the facts when come a
were not suited to its purpose, Will,
those which it should manufactur,
could be warranted to fit. According
ly, with upturned eyes of holy horro1
at the prisons of st. Louis, with sucl
a hcaven-directed glance over the dis
tilleries of Kentucky as Samivel bes
towed upon the elder Weller in til,
courtroom, and with ill-concealed
disdain toward those Innocent.
Abroad who were breaking theil
necks in a hunt for facts, the an; el o1
i the Reform Church in Chicago writes
4 "Mr. Blaine was born and reared a
Roman Catholic
] 1t so happens that Mr.. Blaine was
not born and reared q Roman Catho-
/ lie, but so much the worse for Mr.
Blaine. 1t is necessary for the ad.
yancement of reform that he should
be: accordingly he is.
Ellis parents were Irish Catholics
and decent people,"
His parents were neither Irish nor
Catholics, and before admitting thsl
they were decent people should like
to know whether the definition of de-
cency includes the Chicago Tribune
"Are yc looking at me now? % asked
the puzzled but purloining customer
OF squint-eyed salesman who had
accused him. eyes. / am" "Then
We saw me take it !" If the Chicago
Tribune is decent people" l indig-
nantly deny that Mr.. Blainc's parents
were "decent people,"
It is a matter, however, of public
record, easily accessible to those in
terested in the facts, that Mr.. Blaine's
parents both belonged to old coloni-
al families settled in Pennsylvania
long anterior to the Revolution, in
which struggle his ancestors on both
sides bore an honorable and not incon-
spicuous part. The whole Blaine
family in all its branches were never
anything else than Scotch Presbyte-
rians. In this faith Mr.. Blaine was
himself reared, and his father before
him, and all the generations of his
paternal ancestry. HIS mother acds
fhs.n1 fnL L
esteem. not only by her own church,
but by the Protestant churches, and
followed reverently to her honored
grave, not only by Catholic priests
but by all the clergymen of the differ
ent Protestant denominations in the
community where she was born, and
where, after a sweet and pious life of
three score and ten, she sleeps with
the sacred dead of her kindred and
her blood. Mr.. Blaine himself set
tied in Maine when young man, and
his Presbyterian faith and rearing
naturally transferred to the Congrc-
gational church, of which he has been
a member for nearly or quite twenty
years. His "amiable and excellent
wife," whom the Chicago Tribune,
without qualification, declares to be
"also Catholic" was born in the
New England town where she lives
of a Puritan family that has eight
generations of New England ortho-
doxy behind it.; family for which |
have some right to speak; of whose
character have some reason to be
proud; and of whose history | per.
haps know as much as the Honorable
Joseph Medill, Editor-in-chief of the
Chicago Tribune and whilom CON-
missioner of Civil Service reform.
l speak as fool, but l am compel
led by knave. Imcntion these facts
which ought not to be so much as man,
ed among us, simply to show the wea-
pons which the Chicago Tribune
weilds in the publication of the Civil
Service. Without even paying to
truth the tribute of probability with
out flincing at the thought that thou.
sands will instantly detect its men.
dacity, it fabricates and launches it,
falsehOods with portentous calmness
1t knows well that the remote com.
munity and the thousands everywhere
who will see its falseness and discern
its motives are people who would
never be won away from Mr.. Blaine
or won over to its own candidate,
while those who do not recognize its
falsehoods might be influenced by
them to marshal themselves under its
banner. Moreover, one cannot dis.
claim Catholicism as one disclaims
dishonesty. Any denial of such as
sertions would carry somewhat OF
odium to large number of interest
ed partisans in time of great politi-
cal excitement. To that it seemed
highly probable that a cool, brave.
well-arranged series of simple cate
gorical fabrications might hinder the
advance of Mr.. Blaine without mar
ring the fortunes of its own candi-
date.
The Chicago Tribune came up hand
somely to the emergency, and issued
the series! The delicate domestic
compliment difl'uscs an air of candor
over the whole paragraph, while the
touch of sentiment whereWith the i'm
uendo of the closing paragraph is
| winged reveals master hand. For
the Head-Centre rampaging over the
God-forsaken wastes outside of all
churches, it can say little; but, being
a magnanimous foe, it will not thrust
his family also into that outer dark
ness. Nay, this eminent Purist, over
generous to the erring, holds out the
hope that the "amiable and excellent
| WIFE and the religious mother NAV
between them, at the last gasp, lug
even the miscreant himself through
the pearly gates, though, let Prostes.
tants be warned, the gates will most
likely be opened by a Catholic key.
Before this spectacle of falsehood
raised to fine art, how coarse and
clumsy seems ordinary abuse by men
who arc not reformers Now,
maintain that smuggling silks across
the border, or distilling midnight
whisky, or even taking part in con-
vcntion-in short, any fraud whatever
upon the revenue of the country,-is
harmless and honest compared to the
ingenious, elaborate, and malignan,
mendacity of the Chicago Tribune
The silk-and-whisky thief steals
money from rich, remote, intangi.
BILE corporation called the Govern.
ment. He doscn't mean harm to any
one else, only benefit to himself. And
the harm which he does is harm to
property and of q definite valuation
But the Civil-Service reformer delib.
crates definite and specific harm, a
harm to reputation, a harm to a Ger.
tain designated man, harm of vast
and incalculable extent and in car.
rying out this design, he filings truth
and honesty to the winds. The organ
OF reform Is willing to strengthen its
cause, not by showing the ability and
avail ability ofits candidate, but by
wantonly, willfully, and with malice
aforethought, uttering ISLANDERS
against rival candidate.
A great point will be gained when
revenue theft is prevented; but a
greater will be gained when the or
gans shall have risen to the level OF
thieves honor, and cease their busy
SANDERS of the party whose banner
they borrow only to befoul, and of the
faith which they profess only to pro-
fame. GAIL HAMILTON.
Ar.;J % lott