Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1878-04-13
An ExquisiseIy ABSURD Thing.

ically the party which has always
opposed the prescription of the for
eigner. 1t will continue to occupy
that attitude to the end. No deser.
ton of its fold by the element for
which it has ceaselessly labored
will weaken its devotion to the
grand doctrine that this country is
the asylum of all oppressed races.
We are somewhat amused by cal
low orators who assume to dispose
OF the Democratic party by flow
OF rhetoric which would be desig-
mated, by all the canons of correct
taste, as "rot." The Democratic
party will find itself abandoned,
here and there, by men whom it
has defended for very nearly q hun
dred years. 1t can support the de-
sertion with q philosophic indiffer-
ence, in the perfect certainty that
its temporarily alienated follow
ers will, some day, return to the
fold.
While every Democrat, in SYM
patty with the immemorial teach
ings Of his party, will stand
staunchly to the right of men from
every cline to come here and abide
with us, to become citizens and 10
partake of all the blessings of Re-
publican government, there is a
lack of modesty and propriety,
which we cannot fail to note and
grieve over, in "brash aliens,
who acknowledge that they are not
yet citizens, "bouncing" the
American people. 1t is not diff
cult to draw pen picture of these
gentry. They are generally gifted
with that little learning which
Pope has pronounced a dangerous
thing. Their flow of oratory may
be denominated a diarrhea and of
that pronounced species of diarrhea
which, in cattle phrase, is called
the scours." They are the sort of
people of whom Curran spoke
under q striking smile of carrion
in water, which, as 1t rots, rises.
One of these callow geniuses, pos
sessed with redundant and soph-
omoric flow of words, with about
the allotment of ideas of an aver
age. Chimpanzee or Balloon, sup.
poses, as soon as he has gobbled,
without assimilating, some of the
ideas of Tom Paine or Rousseau,
that he is perfectly APP
pointed for the game of
politics aud that he is amply
qualified to dictate to the new con-
tinent. With a few crude ideas
treasured up in skull of the thick
ness of one of our California Big
Trees, he thinks, the moment he
lands on American soil, that he is
master of all he surveys. He has
not breadth of soul enough to rec
ognIze the unspeakable obligations
he lie under to the frank hospitality
of the American people. Without
ability enough to organize himself
into self-respecting, modest man,
he Is imbued with the idea that he
can reconstruct everything on this
continent instanter. Watching
the antics of this strange animal,
the volatile look on and laugh,
while the judicious grieve over the
outcome of a sort of human sewer
struck by lightning.
Do we intend to impeach the
genuine Workingman, as contra
distinguished from the aspiring
and shallow demagogue, by these
remarks? Not whit. We honor
labor, and it can attain no eleva-
ton, social or political, from which
we would wish to displace it. We |
despise the demagoguism which
would seek to establish the doc
trine that the only man who labors
Is he who works with his hands.
The American people, as a whole,
are workers. Everywhere in this
country the drone is treated with
contempt. If the workingman
whose hands only are employed
desires to separate himself from
the rest of his fellow citizens, and
organize political party, we have
no objection, and we are quite
willing to see him succeed, if he
can. We have treated that organ
ization not only with courtesy but
with positive good nature. Some
of the advocates of the Working
mans organization, however,
think it necessary to assume fe-
rocity and brutality of speech
which they bring from the slums
Of Europe, but which are not only
not necessary to the success of
political organization, but which
are inimical to its success. The
sooner the Workingman's party is
freed from this species of fungi the
better, If it desires to become a
power.