Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-11-16
CURTIS DEMONSTRATES.

nurse of his own weak, sexless, vagary of
Civil Service Reform This airy conception
of an infatuated poet and dreamer contempla-
ted, in its original form, class of clerks whose
tenure should be for life or during good behav-
ior, and an incumbency which should be the re-
suit of competitive examination and the re-
ward of superior attainments. Political pref
erence, party service, patriotic inclining was
to be ignored. Virtue was to have its reward
virtue being another word for such scholar
ship as might be discovered to the satisfaction
of Board of Examiners appointed for the
purpose There was to be higher sphere,
something lower than the angels and higher
than any human passions. President Grant
gave the inventor a chance to test his theory.
1t proved delusion and hopeless perplexity.
1t might have done for Arcadia but unhap-
PLY for Mr.. Curtis, Arcadia is not the present
residence of the American people. So, in
course of time, Mr. Curtis quarreled with
President Grant. The latter, in his plain
way, had dealt with men as men Sin the ago
nizing present and not at all as incipient
saints He had found the way to the great
results which stand in his name, not by the
pursuance of fne-spun theories, but by the
use of such strictly human appliances as pre-
sented themselves to his judgment and his
avail Still filed with the phrensy of his
pretty conception-a conception that con ured
up system of Civil Service which should be
far above the vulgar herd, nice, genteel and
fitted for the ends and aims, ambitions and
requirements of our best society-Nr Curtis
let his heart 60 out to Rutherford the Good,
and toward his promise of party -of-ne-party,
whose pure and sanity existence would date
from the day when no National officeholder
should know or care which side was successful
in politics. There are signs that Mr.. Curtis
hailed the coming of Mr.. Hayes as the COM
ing of the genius of Purity. The grossness of
GraHtism was to be succeeded by the lofty
tone of Passionless Policy which should lead
the way to Civil Service Paradise where |
none but the refined and educated might find |
recognition, none but the best and most spirit |
uelle obtain employment. We were to have
political establishment based on Esthetics
(that beautiful Boston word); and the vulgar,
the coarse handed, and the unrefned whose
plebian tastes found safety in primary meet
ings and conventions, were to be denied access
to this higher sphere. 1t was to be one thing
to be the Elect and another thing to have as
sisted at the Election. Mr. Curtis saw in his
minds eye political fabric woven of the deli
cate textiles of Taste, within whose domain
none of the vulgarities of American Politics
should be suffered to enter. He robed Mr..
Hayes in garments of ''white samite, mystic,
wonderful" and set him in the midst Then
he closed his eyes and dreamed of land
where all is sweet and decorous and where no
Conklings are. Then, mounted on his hobby s
horse, he rode to the tourney at Rochester.
Roscoe, the Stalwart, put lance in rest and
tumbled this dainty knight upon the ground a
And now is seems that this weaver of transcen-
iental theorems is oppressed by the suspicion
hat even Rutherford the Good is of the earth Q
earthly. In the current number of Harper's
Weekly Mr.. Curtis thus pleads with the
President b
1t is for the administration to take care that n
he expectations of its friends shall be fulfilled
The sincerity OF Its support comes from the r
confidence that it means what it says and that
has the courage of its own opinions If its
rlends have seemed to lack enthusiasm it is IL
because it has seemed to be hesitating and re- n
nctant, hoping to be friendly all around. s.
hat is a fatal delusion. Indefniteness and
lmidity will repel friends, but they cannot =,
in foes. The administration in some way NJ
tempted the same kind of negotiation in
Pennsylvania, and the State is lost by heavy ST
Democratic majority. In Massachusetts the -;
republicans heartily sustained the bravest "
cts of the administration and held the State IN
lore strongly than ever O.
Is the illusion dispelled? Is the conceit of ha
lperhuman goodishness so soon evaporated HI
suspicion troubling the mind of the author u
the Civil Service movement that the Presi- fe
emit Is playing fast and loose with the politi- an
ans Oh, Massachusetts, What favored Az
epublic this is that it has your constant ex- II
nple before its eyes. How glad should we be of
at the sisterhood of States has so beautiful wa
Guide to lead the steps of the erring and re- of
ind the less exalted of the possibil- pls
IS of Brahministic culture Let Ohio and
contumacious Radicals look at Boston and Co
rebuked Let Pennsylvania contemplate the
'vernor Rice and be ashamed Oh vanitas
nitatum! Ohhumbug, humbugger, humbug- are
'us There sits within the White House,