The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-01-25

GraDma sitting there SO placid
Clicks cleaning needles bright;
Cheerily rocks AMI tender sings,
O'erlain with golden light;
Then cry, so naughty Robin
Tell such wicked tale;''
While the velvet cheeks hot crimson
Bleaches the poppes pale;
Then clasp my neck the round white arms
Drown pansy eyes in dew;
Broken murmurs the soft bird voice.
Sorry-Odoo want you.'
Wise fatterer; I hug the elf,
My chiefest of lifes blisses,
And kiss the red-god hair wherein
hide the tangled Kisses
-Iser writes, apropos of recent things said: !:
The dispute in regard to Latin pronuncia-
ton cannot be very modern, for Pope says In
the Dunciad:
.''Tis true. on words is still our whole debate,
Dispute Of me or te, of Gut or at,
To sound or sink in cano, o or A,
Or give up Cicero to or K.'
Your description of John Holiness man
sion reminds rue that I have set of Voltaire
in hundred volumes, each bearing his
name. After his death they were sold at
auction and widely scattered. Having se-
cured a part of them diligently traced and
purchased the rest. All we're finally found
but volume 21, and that did not turn up for
ten years, when the late William Edwards
appeared With the lost sheep and gladdened
the bereft ninety and nine.
Speaking of the politicians of past gen.
Grafton suggests to Yorick what may be called
family politics. There are certain names in
this State that we recognize as Democratic,
and set down the bearers at once as Demo-
Gratis. They may not be; but they are put
upon their defense and the burden of proof,
contrary to custom in other cases, is upon
them. We know the Bradburys, Ripleys.
Fairfields, Andersons, Gerrys. Palmers, Cliff
foIds, Jordans, Sewalls. the SulIivaus,
mother of governors" and the allied branch
the Wells's, the ChadDourns of York and
many others, as Democratic families, and If
we find man bearing any of these names
who is not Democrat We are surprised, and
search into his pedigree. With these fami-
lies fidelity TO party is an inheritance, a ques-
ton of faith, not matter of reason, just as
religion is to some European families. 1t is
a sentiment; stronger than reason because
it cannot be argued away. They are Demo-
Gratis because their fathers were.
1t is a sentiment that Republicans cannot
sympathize with nor even easily understand; !;
fof the Republican party is new party, a
party Of protest against old things, old beliefs,
old forms, party made up of restless, pro-
gressive spirits, Of doubters, of experimental
ists, of men who have broken off old party
attachments or who never formed them.
They are the Protestants of politics as op-
posed to the old Church, its corruptions and
its venerable and accumulated errors. 1t is
scarcely to be expected that they can do else
than laugh at or impatiently condemn SEN
timeut that keeps men within the old organi-
zation and bound to its errors. Nor are
these columns the place in which to eulogize
Democratic fidelity. But we may contem-
plate that fidelity from its romantic side as
we contemplate the fidelity of the Scotch
Jacobites to a bad cause and a worthless
king-plty while we deplore.
With many old men Democracy is re.
ligion, superstition ii you will, or at least a
military allegiance. They glory in its his
tory, and proudly declare that other parties
come and go, the Democracy lives forever.
1t is fanaticism, and these grey-beards
firmly believe that no good can ever come to
the country until the Democratic party is re-
stored 10 power. In that restoration they
have implicit belief, ard have been waiting
tor it through weary years with patience
that is almost touching, and faith as strong
as that of the French Legitimists. Like the
old man who calmly waits at Frohsdorf in the
firm conviction that his erring and estranged
people will one day return to their allegiance
and call him to the throne of Henri QGatre
they believe that the eyes of the people will bt
opened and the line of rightful succession re-
stored. They are upholders OF divine right
the divine right of the Democratic party tc
rule. This is their dream, and they are per
haps happier in it than they would be in its
realization. Their devotion in part arises
from the affection which always attaches to
ancient institutions, in part from the mag
nifcent discipline of the old Democratic
party, in which each man considered himsel
soldier enlisted for life, and where "bolt
ing" was like desertion from the army, and
lack of zeal like sleeping at ones post II
was strict discipline, that. Think of pub.
lie officer who had many appointments to be-
stow, a sheriff for example, requiring OF his
deputies their undated designations when he
handed them their commissions! and remem.
ber that the sheriffs were in like manner de
pendent upon the Governor! The military
spirit thus engendered shows itself to-day IL
fidelity to the standard. Let the old banners
bearing the old devices be raised and it mat
ters not whittier the march tends or wha
the object of the campaign. If the hard
money flag be unfurled the army gathered
about it will march into the soft-money camr
and help hold the lines there against the
assaulting hosts of ofresumptionists and bullion
lists, making scarcely murmur and sincerel.
unconscious of the incongruity of the situa
tion. The old state maxim that the KIN,
can do no wrong is adapted to the theory O
a republic and made to read, the Party car
do no wrong. The ancient Democrat is lik,
the devout Catholic. With him the Party i
infallible, as with the other the Church. 1
may seem to contradict its former teachings
to reverse its former action; but the seeming
is an illusion. 1t is only applying the oil
doctrines to new circumstances, seen AM
provided for in the scheme from the begin
ming.
1t is natural and to be expected that thos
Democrats whose active lives belong to tn
completed circle of the past should cheris
this faith. The aspirations OF their boyhoo,
were for the old party; in their manhood
they fought its battles and shared its tri
umphs; and to it they are indebted for tb
calm honors of their age. The memory of it
deeds stirs their hearts like the sound of {
trumpet. Curiously enough the young men
who bear the old names, are subject to tn
same spell So generally true is this that W
always expect to find them Democrats and
If one is not, almost believe that he is
changeling, that the fairy folk played som
trick about his cradle. The old Democrat