Frostburg mining journal., 1880-12-18
"KUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING"

The advertisement of the County
Commissioners for proposals Of sites
for the location of the lunstio asylum
has brought upon those gentlemen
not q little unnecessary animsdversion
and subjected the pre.eminent claims
Of Frostburg to deal of attempted
ridicule. As is usual, VIXEN there
iH bone to pick, large or email, real
or supposed, great hue and cry ema-
mates from G Cumberland, if there ia risk
of that city losing the picking. "The
people and the taxpayers are wild in
oppoaition to the location of the insti-
tuition at Frostburg," say self-consti-
tuted exponsnts of popular feeling
with ominous tone and lugubrious
countenanoo. Naturally enough the
uninitiated conclude that the last
parody of hackneyed political axiom,
so far as concerns this county, reads
a government Of the people by Cum
berland for the benefit Of Cumberland.
Say what you please, people, that is
the only and entire upshot of all this
"wildness" we hear of. If Cumber-
land did NOT on any and every occa-
sion similar to this assert its super
eminent cupidity, it would be faith
less to its traditions, disloyal to its
habits, and for the first time in its
history wholly forgetful of its long
and unintermitting series of successes.
1t is . poor compliment they thus
pay to all the county outside Of itself,
but it is a poverty that pays. If,
therefore, Cumberland "knows her
self, and she thinks she do" no
crumb shall ever drop from the mas
tsr's table. Even the husks allotted
by common consent to the swine must
be husbapdsd against the perils of a
hazardous precedent.
Those folloSers Of omnipotent pop
ular feeling in Cumberland, the news
papers, have also risen in judgment
like "sscond Danisls"-ths Nevs less
Extensively than the Times. The
former comedies Frostburg's eligibili-
ty as cite in very fair style, but
"the people" o, the psople-of
Cumberland Cats have been known
to gaze at kings, but catch, if you
can, Cumberland newspaper staring
the Cumberland public in the face !
The latter, aired with the notion that
it has stirred up tho Jslrore, comes
up with fulsome array of "fances
which never fail" and figures that
never lie" to prove that Frostburg is
not the proper place. $50 plain was
the proposition" it says, "it was a
noted fact that many people of Frcst-
burg voted against the measure be-
cause by implication the Commission
ers had agreed to erect the building
on the county farm. and that town
gave "big majority on the other
side," which no other district in the
county did" when the fact is-no
such "implication" was understood.
The ostensible ground CT opposition
here was exactly similar TO that urged
by the Times against Frostburg-
with this difference, that the instilu-
ton, located any,ohere, would cost
more than it would come to-" "Yet
Frostburg is pushing hard to have
the asylum located in that town
in spite of its vote against it. Is that
all, 70 perturbed populace of Cum
berland? Nay, more-in spite of
that other fact that ut is conceded
in physieol science that high elevations
are injurious in mental naladies !"
In the first place, Frostburg is not
pushing hard" there is no acram-
Bile here; no excitement-only calm,
unalterable conviction pervading the
popular mind that old physical
silence is the biggest fool Of the
century-this with no malicious re-
fection upon his disciples.
But, fat and Aescy taxpayers Of the
county, it is net for you that the great
Cumberland heart blssds. 1t never
bled in your behalf, and it does Lot
now. The Times says the location
makes no difference to Cumberland (;
"were the cost to the Taxpayers no
greater the people of Cumberland
would caro- little where the asylum ID
built; = but when the cost
of maintaining it in one place will bo
SIC. 900 year, and in another but
$4,000 or $4,000, then we have
right to complain of the onus placed
upon us to crafty the laughable am
bition of little runty town stuck