Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-08-31

GAIL HAMILTON, in Saturdays Tribune,
broucbt TO a close her series of twenty
articles on sham reform and reform talk
which has degenerated into SANDER In
her last article she takes two or three OF the
so-called independent" papers, with which
reform talk mas in an especial degree degen-
Grated into SANDER, across her knee, Tor
final admonition. This is administered with
yigor refreshing to behold and which 1t Is
to be hoped may be salutary to the eulprlts'
In the glass which she holds up for the
Springfield Republican. in order that 1t may
see itself as others see it, she says:
1t seems that the ordinary division OF
labor in the Republican office is that the
gentleman whom the cditor-in-chief does not
know is to be slandered by his subordlnates,
while his personal friends are reserved to be
slandercd by himself
This last suggestion strikes US as hardly
correct. The personal friends, OF the
RcpuJEoaH, OF of its editor, are the ones to
whom is allotted the small modicum of praise
that paper has to bestow. 1t can praise a
railroad magnatc like Mr.. Chaplin, though
guilty of practices which in others are I'M
pardonable. because he Is a townsman and
friend. 1t can uphold and hatter conceited
and malicious blatherskite like Theodore
Tilton because he went to Cincinnati with
the editor of the Republican and was a
Greeley man with him. Any person or
paper that will greatly admire and praise the
Repu5licar or its editor, can have patroniz-
ing patting On the back, and small allowance
of commentator in return. These will be
tolerably free from SANDER in its columns.
All Observation-Disclosures, institutions, papers,
parties-are Liable to be sandered in it or by
it. To find acceptance in its columns it is
only necessary that the news or story or
article shall be to the prejudice of somebody
or something The reform talk Of a
journal showing such loving prOclivltY to
SANDER has naturally largely 'degenerated
into SANDER Of these slanderous reform
ers, Gail says:
proved first, that the reiOrmers had
flagrantly slandered their opponents, and
then from time 10 time | speRred and reared
aloft few of the stories that were ahOat
about the reformerS, in order, if may bOr-
row an expressive eolloguialism, that they
might know how it is themselves Evident
Nv they 10 not like it. Ii is creditaDle To
them That they do not like it. But they may
rest assured they like to- be slandcred by
their opponents precisely a. well as their
opponents like to be slandered by them. |
fancy discern signs that my mission has
not been in vain. The sudden distaste of
Mr. Schurz and his friends for mean and
frivolous and malicious personalities"
and "played-out campaign stories is sign
Of returning sanity and reyiying conscience.
| trust the dlstaste may be permanent.
trust that hereafter it may sccu to them
a. mean and malicious to love and
make Il lie into campaign story, as it is to
hold it up to the light after the campaign is
over. ! trust Mr.. Schurz will remember
that there are 10000 Federal ofhccholders,
American citizens, some of them as accom-
plished, many Of them AZ intelligent, most
of them as honest, as proud and a. sensitive
a. himself and that 1t is lust a. offensive to
every one of them as it is To him to be
branded political mercenary. | wish
him to remember that President Grant and
Secretary Fish and Judge Taft and Mr. Nor
rill, and most Of the leading men officially
composing the late administration were men
whose honesty and honor were az dnm-
peachablc g. his own, and that when he
stood up before the Chamber of Commerce
and intmated that it Was only after their
withdrawal and his own advent that the
American people could look once more for
an honest government, he Was displaying
traits which, though perhaps not incOmpat-
ible with, are entirely unallied to, honesty.
| beg also to tender my Acknowledgements
for the very delicate and distinguished com
pliment that has been 50 widely paid me in
attrbuting the authorship Of my letters to
the Junior Senator from Maine. NV com
mentatorS have rightly Judged that no tri-
butte could be more gratifying. But while
yielding to no one IN admiration for that
gentleman, | cannot admit that he mnnop-
oliLes the UaiOr promise. Those editors
who have done me the honor to think it i'm
possible that one brain should have produced
these articles, have magniiicd the difficulty
Of the undertaking. The gentleman To whom
the credit, if credit there be, chiefly belongs,
is Archbishop W bately. late of Dublin, now,
trust, in glory. \ Speaking acquaintance
with his test-book on Logic. or even a care
full and prayerlui pcrusil Of his Easy Les
sons in Reasoning, following close upon 4
god, thorough old fashioned orthodox
" change OF heart " would enable my be-
wildered admirers to DO the same thing
themselves