The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-05-07

lating upon them for years, spectators who
have been committing themselves to vast pay
ments on account of projects which turned
out TO be chimerical and proftless. cannot help
heip feeling how opportune a thing it is to
nave all these disagreeable scores wiped out as
with sponge. Their castles in the air are
demolished by the process it Is true, but not
until they have become objects of quite as
much disfavor in the sight of those who reared
them, as of those whose credulity furnished
the means for their erection.
1t is not surprising, therefore, that the crowds
that are tiocking to the bankrupt courts are so
dense that they block the way. There are
enough left to keep the procession toeraby
full up to the 1st January. 1t is one of the
signs of returning health and sense that there
is so general a recognition of the necessity Of
resort to this plan of liquidation as the only
course left to be pursued by those who are
bound down by financial endorsements. For
quite while after the panic a great many peo-
pie who were in trouble imagined that they
could be helped out by legislative panaceas,
such, for example, as a largely increas issue
OF irredeemable paper. They were mistaken,
unquestionably, but they ought not to be criti-
cised too harshly for having endeavored to
clutch at any spar that might possibly keep
them afloat till they could reach haven of
safety. 1t was the redundancy of unreal
money that occasioned their embarrassments.
The welfare of the country demanded that
there should be less instea1 of more of it.
The process of reduction was bad for the few
who happened to be heavily in debt at the time
it began, bat good for the many to whom con.
traction was paramount necessity whether
they were aware of it or not.
But it is propitious omen that the idea of
bringing about public prosperity by adopting
the very financial policy which was the source
of all our calamities is no longer entertained by
any considerable number of thoughtful men.
The fact that it has bsen abandoned is demon
strated by the readiness with which so many of
its former advocates avail themselves of the
chance the law affords them of striking bal.
snee with the world by simply conceding that
their effects are not worth enough to make
item square with it. 1t is great point gained
to have convinced the multitude that there is
no virtue in initiation. The prospect is that we
shall see the incubus of debt which has pros-
trated the industry of the country so long. re-
moved by the bankrupt law before the year is
out, and then there will be as little occasion to
invoke the help OF expansion as there would be
chance of benefit from it If it were tried. IL in
not to be expected that all the financial enthu-
siasts will be restored to reason. There are
many OF them in whose minds the hallucina-
tion has become too deeply rooted to be easily
OF quickly eradicatei. "This kind can come
forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting"
But enough will be brought to an un-
derstanding ard acceptance of the truth to give
assurance that the onward progress of the
country towards stability and wealth will not
De DISTRACTED by the counteracting influences of
charlatanry and false theories
Among the latest applicants for release from
pecunary liabilities in this city are two local
politicians who in their day were objects of
great notoriety. One of them is Ben Wood,
brother of Fernando, whose career points a
moral without in the slightest degree adorning
tale. he had for great many years q virtu-
al monopoly OF the lottery policy business, an
illegal pursuit that under our lax administra-
ton of justice could be carried on with impu-
nifty. The profits of it were derived from the
weakness and ignorant folly of the Door
dupes who were often willing to pawn
the necessaries of life to get money
TO throw away upon chances Of draw.
ing prizes which had no existence save in
their imaginations. There Is no doubt that
wood and his confederates made large sums of
money for series of years By this Illicit and
dlsreputable calling. So far from being inter-
fered with by the municipal authorities In his
defiance of law, he acquired by the help of his
gotten a rka kad
conduct of public affairs and was elected to the
offices OF State Senator and Congressman. He
established newspaper-the Daily News
which in the days of the "Ring' enjoyed a high
ly lucrative allotment of city patronage. When
the Tweed dynasty was overthrown, there were
advertising bills of his in the Finance DEPART
ment which the comptroller refused to nav un.
less proper vouchers were furnished. To meet
this requirement Wood manufactured a file of
his paper containing the matter for which he
was demanding payment. Unfortunately there
were some fatal anachronisms in his exhibit.
For example one number contained an account
OF the Boston fire under date several months
earlier than the occurrence of that great disas-
ter. After that discovery the claims were rot
pressed and are by this time either outlawed or
thrown aside as fictitious
However, what with his lottery traffic and
his patronage, Wood must have been in the re-
cept OF an enormous income for an extended
period. But he was the victim OF an inveterate
passion for gaming; and his losses by this vice
finally swallowed up his fabulous gains. The
Common people have happily outgrown their
superstition in respect of "playing policy" to
such an extent that the business cannot be yery
profitable, there is no longer any revenue to
be derived from Advertising and this redoubta-
BILE chief of the metropolitan democracy seeks
refuge from his pursuing creditors in the Bank
rupt Court.
The other party who invokes the friendly in
terposition of this statutory restorative is Ex-
Senator and ex-Court House Commissioner
Michael Norton, who for the two or three years
preceding the catastrophe OF 1871 was one of
the magnates of the corporation. This man
was curiosity in his way. There was a GER
tain openness and unreserve in his participa-
ton in the spoils Of the cabals in whose service
he enlisted that gave rise to a doubt whether
he possessed even the infnitesimal amount
OF moral sense requisite to make him conscious
OF the offenses in the commission of which he
"sSo - AOooy aOOoHpllCo. Ilo was raLQef DOaSt-
ful OF his associations with the ra.cals of the
Ring,and made ostentatious display of the gains
ne acquired by that dangerous fellowship.
Just previously to the grand explosion he
made voyage to Europe and astonished his
fellow passengers by the gaudy glitter of hi,
diamonds, and the freedom with which he dis
coursed about his equivocal political career.
He shamed decent Americans who happened
to be sojourning in the capitals of England and
France by his vulgar parade Of himself. 1t wa.
as difficult for foreigners to comprehend a, it
was for our own citizens to explain how such a
person ever came to be an official in the chief
city of the United States. When he returned
he found the fabric of fraud he had assisted to
rear, crumbled ruin. His next departure,
which followed soon after, was as fugitive
from justice. Subsequently he succeeded in OBJ
tanning pledge of immunity and came back to
New York, and has since as it seems been
dwelling here in an obscurity which led to his
being practically forgotten altogether. At last
he turns nm an insolvent dahtor ano,ko-