The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1880-05-14

~ We no mot eNpcCt any dselStnnCp, In our al
tempt to have these persons who have robbed
Vermont year after year brought 10 justice, from
prohibitory newspapers. Such papers attempt 10
hide all such little trivial matters as stealing by
~parading the awfulness of the South and the dis.
honesty oftlc democratic party in general, while
such n paper as the Middlebury Register, which
is the avowcd champion Of adulters, thieves
and hypocrites, and places itself on record as
such, goes out ofits way To publish what is falcs
OF us, for no other purpose, seemingly, than to
show Its supporters that any newspaper which
has the moral courage to show up stealing must
be discouraged and its editor hung without ben.
CIT OF clergy; rs in the opportunities for stealings
under the present rum law, depends 1t existence,
same ms the covering. up of party misdeeds dc.
ponds the success OF the party. While we do not
think strange that the Register does not admire n
paper like the News, of eminent fairness, which
by its honest devotion to the interest of tax pay
es and its encouragement 10 farmers and stock
breeders, its decided stand against ring and clique
rule, and rascality In every form, has made IL
the leading weekly in western Vermont, but we
did not expect that model of sweetness and per.
fiction who runs the Register to take our article
week as a personal matter. But every time he
mentions our paper as lying. he weakcns himself
Tor the News Is official and SO understood, and he
might as well accuse the official records of the
town As being FALSE Brandon News.
There is an irresistible plcasantness
and sweet complacency about the above
which lie only equallcd by its spelling
and grammar, which latter are only
surpassed by its logic. The News man
seems to think that any paper which is
opposed to rumselling and in favor of
its suppression by law, is also in favor of
official stealing, and is the "avowed
champion OF adulters, thieves and hypo-
critics." The natural inference which
the News seems to draw from this is,
that a paper which is in favor of free
rum, and champions the cause of Il o
rimseller. and by consequence defends
all the lawlcssncss, wickedness and
w%retchedness resulting from the rum.
sellers traffic, is also in favor of right
%eousness, law and order. The same
mental obliquity pervades the whole of
the News mans effort, not excepting
what he has to say in praise of himself.
His "eminent~ fairnessv" This is from a
man who was imported into Brandon
from a distance by a clique in that town
who wanted somebody to assail N. T.
Sprague, and recognized the News
mans eminent fitness for doing their
dirty work. His "honest devotion to
the interests of taxpayers" means SIM
ply that he would ave the Taxpayers
the expenses of proceedings against
violators of the prohibitory law, by re-
pealing the law and making rumselling
and its attendant consequences a legiti-
mate business. His "cnconragement to
farmers and stock-brceders" refers TO
his habit of frequently going ont OH a
tramp among tho farmers, writing up
and printing undiscriminating pufIs of
them and then demanding that they
subscribe for his paper in return. So
well understood has this become that
all sensible farmers are ashamed to
have a puff of themselves in the News,
on account of the inference IL affords
That they have submitted to the News
mans blackmail. We have been told
by farmers that encouragement" was
a good word for it, but that they called
1t a nuisance. Farmers and stock
breeders need no other encouragement
than success, and a system OF cheap and
indiscriminate newspaper puffery of
expected patrons has no tendency that
we are aware of either to produce first
class stock or to control the clements TO
the growing of Astounding crops. Its
"decided stand against ring and clique
rule and rascality in every FORM" is
only the usual style of talk of every
worthless sheet which has made itself
obnoxious to decent and honorable
men. The newspapers which are not
all the time praising themselves, which
mind their W business, and which
pursue a course marked by respect for
self and for the public, are the ones
which are doing useful work for the adj
vancement of the community.
We have never accused the News of
lying except in its representations of
the motives of temperance men, and In
its hired attacks upon men like Hon.
Joseph Battell and Judge Knapp. We
intimated in the article to which the
News takes exception that its asser-
lions In regard TO the stealing Of fines
by justices of the peace were likely TO
be untrue, because they appeared to be
made from the same low motives which
have actuated the paper on many FORM
er occasions. But however contempti-
BILE Its motives may be, we repeat that II
1t a prove Its charges true of general
corruption prevailing among the off,
cials who have charge of the execution
OF the prohibitory law in this state we
will second its exposures. But though
IN may nrovQ that In N fow oaoaa Gnaa