The Portland daily press., 1879-05-20
THE GhO1llS

The men who are seeking to throw re-
proach upon the name of Cashier Barron
have set out upon perilous path. Their
only safety now is to prove beyond reason
able doubt that Mr.. Barron was thief and
a self-murderer. Unless they prove that
they will be looked upon by their fellow-men
as slanderers of the dead, who are seeking to
hide some misdoing of their own under a
cloud of accusations against one who can no
longer defend himself and whom it is there
fore safe to assault.
The assault, however, is not so free from
danger as these people think. In this case
as in many others success is the test of mer-
it. They have got to ruin Mr.. Barron's rep
utation or be ruined themselves. They will
not be permitted to open graves on a trivial
preteXt. The failure of the latest charges
they have made is disastrous. Ugly things
going round. Unless they can at once and
completely substantiate the accusations they
bring they are disgraced men. Not one rep
utation but many will be ruined.
The condemnation which awaits the insti-
gators of these charges if the charges cannot
be maintained, is severe but not unjust. The
controversy is of their own making. The
ugly stories people hear were first instigated
by them If the stories are now about them
they only are at fault. They who have had
so little charity, who have been so eager to
assail the defenceless dead, have no right to
complain if others quite as unmerciful though
less ghoulish assail the motives of the living,
and angrily ask why the accusers are so ca
gerly and relentlessly trying to blacken the
memory of dead man. If motives are to
be inquired into the inquiry must be thor
ough, and will not be confined to Mr.. Bar
ron.
1t behooves the men who impute theft and
suicide to the late cashier to speedily prove
their charges or withdraw them. His repu-
tation must no longer be used as football,
kicked about by every blackguard who cares
to go into the game. If the public once get
taste for this sort Of amusement they will
not draw the line at Barron. They will de-
mand something more lively to kick.
IF we may credit the foreign correspon-
dents, and there is no reason why we should
not, the twenty-ffth anniversary of the mar
riage of the Emperor and Empress of Aus
tria was the occasion of a good deal OF
''gush' in the Austro-Hungarian country.
For day Germans, Magyars, Croats, Tyro-
leseF and the rest, thought themselves
one people! Now the merry-making
is over they will fall to quar-
relling again. The scene is something like
those we saw in our centennial year, when
North and South rushed into each others
arms. The Vienna show was, the World cor
respondent says "a peerless pageant" An
empty one, it is to be feared. The World
says editorially: Certainly no pageant in
our time has had the good fortune to be ar
ranged by SO consummate a master of spec
tacular art as Hans Makart. Our specia
correspondents description shows that the
artists intentions were all fully carried out
and that the effect as reverberated from the
enthusiasm and theenjoyment of the popula-
ton was what may well be imagined of com
munity made up of many races which COM
bines with the German fondness for guilds
and for public holiday-making an italian
sensitiveness to form and color, and an Ori.
entail delight in sumptuousness and splen-
DOR" We have suspicion that these words
of the World are rather more spectacular
than the show itself