Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-06-20
Documents.

: The crazy little old woman who haunted
the Court of Chancery in the story of ''Bleak
House" carried reticule stuffed with what
she called documents" There were only
scraps of paper, bits of matches, fragments of
lavender leaves, and q variety of miscellane-
Gus rubbish in this melancholy collection, but
poor Miss Flite clung te thenf as the muni-
ments Of an immense estate, and used to hold
up the bag with the explanatory explanation,
documents, my dear, documents. The
Democratic party, which is prosecuting a
shadowy claim to the Presidency with an in
sane pers,stency that reminds US of Miss
Elites imaginary suit for fictitious riches, las
the same regard for worthless documents.
Anderson is dreadful sort of person to use
as a witness, but then he has letters, tele-
grams, memcronda, and other written things
in his pocket; there is q wondrous virtue in
pen and ink; and ignorant persons who would
not believe q spoken lie, have superstitious
revcrence for lie in writing 'fYou see,"
said Mr.. Potter, Andersen may be very
bad man, and he has the fault of never telling
the truth; but then he is corroborated by the
papers which he presents to the committee.
Documents, my dear sir, documents" And
then Mr.. Potter slaps his hand down upon
the heap Of forged agreements, and dubious
affidavits, and other odds and ends from the
Night Editors capacious pocket, and.consid-
ers the case closed. E -
1t seems to have escaped the attention Of
the Democratic investigators that if Anderson
is utterly worthless except SO far as he is Cor
roborated by the documents, the documents
on the other hand are equally worthless .ex-
cept so far as they are corroborated by An
derson. These papers, to be of any value,
should tell their own story without outside
Interpretation. but taken alone those which
do not prove Anderson to be liar prove
nothing at all. The supposed Sherman letter,
even if authentic, contains no evidence
whatever that bears on the subject of invcsti-
CATION. The Matthews letters. standing alone,
are entirely empty. 1t is only when yAnder-
son steps forward and tells US that these let
tiers refer to SO and SO that such and such
secret understanding preceded them, that
they properly bear not the plain meaning
which lies on their face, but some hidden
meaning Ineligible to him and to nobody
else-it is only when Anderson, rogue,
swindler, confessed pcriurer and blackmailer,
holds up bit OF apparently worthless paper
and says, Gentlemen, this is an incrimi-
mating document,' that the rubbish of his
budget can be made to do service for the
Democratic investigators. Thus the docu-
ments ara expected to repair Anderson's dam
aged character is to give lustre to the docu-
ments. But 1t surely does not need argu-
ment to show thai;thisis not 'tcorroboration."
In fact, cautious Democrats are beginning
to see that documents which cannot stand
alone are entirely worthlessin such q case as
this, and that the attempt to verify Ander-
sons documents Is. q blunder Of which .
schoolboy ought to be ashamed. 1t is like
trying to reduce an equation composed en-
tirely Of unknown quantities, or to prove 9
theory by the use of nothing bat suppositions.
In. Y.Tribunc. sai 10 isao qoob is.n ssai