Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-11-07
THE SACRIFICIAL CHANCE.

the mist resembles the rain we guessed when
we read of the summary looping off of the
head Of Hon. Mahlon Chance by the Civil
Service Guillotine, worked by the godly Ruth
erford, that there something behind the
scenes which, being exposed, would rob the
spectacular piece presented by Mr.. Hayes S
friends of the Associated Press, of something
of its roseate coloring. We suspected that
there were reasons which made MIR. Chance S
beheading an investment rather than sacrl-
fee. He would fetch more as a political cad
aver than he was worth as living office holder.
Nobody knew anything about him SO long as
he was tucked away in one of Mr.. Evarts S
official pigeon-holes But strike his head off,
and as the bleeding neck is exposed to the
shuddering spectators, exclaim in tones of
awful solemnity that This is the fate of those
who violate the Civil Service rules put forth
by the President, and even the skeptcal would
be convinced that another Jeptha had come
and that a more than Roman frmness had
found an exemplar in President Hayes. Mr..
Chance held the position of Consul at the
town of Nassau on the Island of New Provi-
dence. He obtained furlough last Summer,
and, returning to his native city of Fremont,
in the State of Ohio, he proceeded to place
his work and his influence where they would
do the most good. Very soon after the cleo
ton lately held in that State, he was broken
of his consulate for having presumed to VIC
late the rules of Civil Service Reform as pro
mulgated from the White House. 1t matters
not that he had been at pains and expense to
help sustain the policy of Mr.. and Mrs. Hayes
he had committed the objectionable sin and
must die the death political. So they made
short work of him. Now the Sun lets its light
shine upon the secret history of this proceed
ing as follows What, therefore, must have
been the feelings of the Hon, NIahlon Chance
when he read in the newspapers that he had
been removed from his consulship for vioat-
ing the civil service order during the Ohio
campaign! John Sherman had made speech |
and had written electioneering letters, yet he
had not been removed Comfy, Minister to
the Sandwich Islands, had stayed at home and
run his newspaper in the interest of the party |
until public opinion drove him to his post. |
Not only in Ohio, but all over the Union, |
there had been violations of the order ten
times as fragrant as poor Chances. Why was
he, the FRIEND neighbor, admirer, and pecu-
mary patron of Hayes, singled out to illustrate
the danger of outraging a reformed civil ser
vice Was it to make the example still more1
terrible? II so, the willingness of Abraham to
offer up Isaac was hardly more heroic than
Rutherford's to sacrifice Mahlon. Unfortu-
nately for civil service reform, there is another
side to the story When Stanley Matthews
was running against Father Taft for a seat in
the Senate, the Hon. J. C. McLain rendered
certain lobby services to the husband of Mr..
Hayes's sister in law and was promised pay
ment in the shape of the Nassau consulship.
This was one of the minor bargains by which ,
Stanley went on to glory. To pay McLain it
became necessary to get Chance out of the {
way. The doom of that unhappy diplomatist ,
was accelerated by honest John Sherman s c
In former years, it is said, Chance c
had been engaged to be married to relative 7
of the Shermans, and had broken off the a
match. In announcing his removal from the +
which he had creditably held for e
seven years, the Administration did not dwell h
upon these personal reasons. Chance was t
sacrificed as an example to all who stand in n
the way of civil service reform, and emphasis C.
was put the fact that he came not only O
from Ohio but from the fraudulent Presidents
own town. We do not know that the coun- il
Try at large is deeply interested in the per- tc
'onal fortunes of Mr.. Hayess fellow towns
men. The world will move on as usual, even
hough McLain, and not Chance, represents "
American interests at the metropolis of the -
Bahamas But the case deserves attention u
because it illustrates very well the humbug of -
1ayes's pretended civil service reform. That %
eform has mostly been paper, and in the u
windy speeches Of the sham reformers There '"
ave been few instances of practical applica- 20
ion of the principles paraded by Schurz, Ev- ~
rts and Hayes. Every instance that has w
ONE under our observation has resolved itself III
pom examination into factors like these in We
hances case-reward for political service, "a ~,
ersonal favor or dsfavor, and real corruption -
ehlnd sanctimonious sham" ''i-
lNCoMPETENCY IN THE RUSSIAN ARA1Y.-A cal
tier to the London Times dated Bucharest. of