The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1878-01-22
Ihegntelliq
BAKER.

he further from the truth. We do moi
seek a quarrel with him Of any kind
and il he was man who respected the
decencies Of speech in the discussion OF
newspaper topics he would never have
had his record alluded TO by US. But he
i. not man Of that kind. lie know,
only one way to do business or conduct a
discussion. His unconquerablc propen-
sity il to be crooked and indecent. This
/, the bent Of his nature under all cir
cumstances, as the public are we'll aware.
For instance, when he had obtained tue
city advertising by bidding ii down so
per cent below his charges to the general
public, and that, too, after whining over
the Standards bid last year, for the
annual statement, he Immediately
sought to turn it 10 account at
the expense OF his neighbors by
trying 10 impress the public with the
idea that he had been selected" on &C.
couu, OF the merits OF his paper to do the
aisertising, and that the public must
look to him and to him only for correct
information through the city advertising.
Because we rebuked him for this trick,
and quoted his own language on him
year ago towards the Standard, he at
once fell afoul OF us with his customary
inlecency Of speech. This kind OF abuse
coming from man whose personal record
is a. rascalIy as that OF Lewis Baker we
did not and do not propose TO stand. A
man Of hard sense, who had such record
a, he has, would not provoke exposure
by using brutalities Of speech, and when
foolhardy knave does SO he deserves
neither quarter from his antagonist nor
sympathy from the public.
The public have read the same sort oil a
rebuke administered to him by Demo.
cratic paper at PsrkerSburg, for falsely
stating in his weekly paper that the
Register ia the official paper Of the State.
He was rebuked by being told that he was
endeavOring "to secure by false represen-
tations standing and position" for his
paper that ut never could reach on its
merits" This rebukei Baker knows was
well deserved, and yet il he was now TO
commence throwing filth at the editor, as
ia his habit under such circumstances,
and was thereby to provoke an exposure
Of bis venal life, he would, il closely
pressed, lie down in the same spaniel
fashion as he did yesterday, and cry out
that war was being made upon him.
When we rebuked him for his under.
handed meanness on the occasion referred
to, he Immediately, like a criminal caught
in the act, turned about with view Of
changing the issue, and seizing hold upon
a dispatch in our paper that supplement-
ed several hundred words Of special Of
our own, clipped from the Cincinnati
EaguirG Of a previous date, and that was
included in our special, cried "thiei"
at us. And yet this same rascal knew
full well when he was raising that
cry that he was daily publishing
dispatches clipped from other papers
without.a::lin OF credit, mixing them
with his Associated Press report Since
the day that Reynard, the fox, got in
front Of his hole, with the feathers Of
stolen chickens sticking out Of his mouth,
preaching honesty to the wolf that had
scented the poultry 10 his den, we have
seen nothing so thoroughly brazen and
hypocritical as this dodge Of Bakers.
And yet II was entirely characteristic OF
the man. Like the Scnttle fish when
pursued, he will always blacken the water
around him II necessary to effect his
escape. "Thisfn is sorry word for such
man to apply to anybOdy-a man like
him, whose facial lineamcnts, as Daniel
o'Connell once said, "might we'll bespeak
him lineal descendant of the impeni-
tent thief upon the cross."
Lewis Baker is cold, coarse grained,
yenal man, who pursues politics as
business, and who looks upon
men in his party in the light oil
what they may be worth to him. He
looks upon politics as game to be "set
up for whata person can make by it, and
10 this end, when he wanted to go to the
State Senate in 1870, in order to call a
State Convention and secure harvest oi
public printing, he deliberately got hold
Of the Republican tickets through the
cooperation Of pal, and in the dead ol
night pasted out the name Of his oppo-
nent-a man whose shoes he was not
worthy to untie-aud thus by fraud se'
cured the position where he was after
wards enabled to practice n fraud upor
the multiplication table by deciding that
Il isa majority Of 90. This fraud hal
made Baker'snsme'perpetually Infamous
among the Republicans OF Ritchle dis
trict, many Of whom would have gladly
joined with the late Holstein Harden
when he met him on one Of the street cor
ners Of the city, and denounced his vii
lainy to his face in the most emphatic
language.
Had we the space, we could call up inci'
dent after incident Of Bakers unworthy
career as a public. man in our midst
Nearly every. year Of his residence has hat
its own peculiar crop. The consequence
oI them all is that to-day he Is the mos
thoroughly unpopular and suspected mar
within the ranks Of the Democratic part!
inthis State. Had he been decent mar
it is not probable that a jury Of his fel-
citizens, who knew him we'll, woult
have given such exemplary damages
against him as they did in tho iamoul
verdict for $1,000. A man who uses hi
paper to betoul people must expect tt
pay for it. Who does not remember til,