The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-06-24
washington letter to the Boston POst.l

lures, neaVy unuer up AuA O0"iN' "N
dome.shaped head rather scantily fur
nished with hair. a sleepy eye, large
loosely. iointed body, heavy in bis mo-
tions, and with a general expressiveness
about him that denotes the weakness OF
his characteristic is the Republican
candidate for che Presidency. l do not
want to paint Mr.. Garfield with an I'M
friendly pen it will be the duty of Dem
ocratic journalists to speak of him with
hardness many times before the cam
paign shall be over, and there is no &C.
casion for Fastening to the canvass, the
character which can not fail to make it
an unpleasant one. For this, however,
the Republicans are responsible. II
they did not desire the personal charac'
ter of the candidates involved they
should not have selected Mr.. Garfield.
His record is too bad for the Presidency.
Mr.. Garfield is a scholar. Against adj
verse circumstances he made q fight for
education and position. He has been
courageous in this respect. He worked
his way through College, and he has bat
tied successfully with fortune ever since.
He has won something by intellectual
strength, more by pliancy and a certain
yielding to party demands, whenever he
has expressed an aspiration after some.
thing better than his party wanted.
The courage with which he gained his
first advance in the world as a graduate
of Williams College was the last exhibi.
ton he even gave of that quality. Since
then he has been the coward of politics.
As the Washington Post expresses it
this morning, he has "the voice of a lion
and the heart of a sheep" Mr.. Garfield
while in Washington resides in a large ..
story brick house, on the orner of 18th
and l streets. He bought the house a
few years ago, and has added to it since.
His home.life is very simple, the only
difference between it and those who live
around him in the quiet neighborhood
consists in the society Of bright men and
women, largely from the world of let
ters, who graVitate to him as they do to
all of the very few public men here, who
are scholarly. Otherwise the life is that
of a plain well-to-do village or farmers
family. The house is furnished very
plainly and without much taste. Very
few pictures are on the wall, and those
few not good. Mr.. Garfield talks about
art, but, as is true of him in other rela.
tons, LIE expresses more than he feels.
In the second story of the L of the
house, Mr.. Garfield has his excellent Ii
brary, and there he is at his best. He
knows books and talks well about them.
A PRETENDED AND DIssEMBLER.
In character Mr.. Garfield is a preten-
der. He makes pretensionst to an order
ly life, modelled on the pattern of New
England Puritanism, He knows all the
time that he is hypoCritical, He is not
a bad man and he is not a very good
man, What he does would not injure
him as the world goes, but he thinks it
would. and he conCeals it. He would
have the world look upon him as one
whose life is pure from the little vices
that mark other men. ] imagine he
smokes a cigar with the feeling that he
sacrifices votes by his devotion to this
habit. He would not have his Western
Reserve constituency know that he had
ever tasted whisky, and yet he has seen
a deal of 1t. He loves the pleasures of
the table, good eating and drinking, as
DO most men of healthy bodies and
minds, but he hides his healthy appe-
tites from the world as he would hide
excuses, His appetites and desires are
coarse. What he is can be read in his
heavy sensuous face; but worse than his
natural tendencies is his deCeptiveness.
During the flibustering against the force
bill when Randall, aided by Blaine, was
leading the minority, and Butler the
majority, Garfield, Foster, Frye, and one
other whom l do not recall, were in the
Speakers room, dow n stairs, playing po-
ker. During their absence (they were
voting with the DemoCrats) they were
regularly voted by the tally clerk. Fl.
nally Butler discovered the trick and
protested that the four had not been
present during the roll call, although
their names were recorded as voting
Blaine rushed down stairs to inform the
poker players of Buffers discovery. One
by one they entered the chamber thro'
different doors and appealed to the Re-
cord as IN answer to Butler. 1t was a
little thing; but Garfield will say, and
tries to say in all that side of his life
that is turned to the public gaze, tina he
knows not poker nor any other game at
cards that betting is abhorent to him,
and that he is an enemy to cheating and
immortality Of every sort. He wants the
world to believe that he is a clear.mind.
ed man that his thoughts are elevated
and his language pure. In this, too, he
plays the hypocrite. He has a strong
mind, of coarse fiber, 1t is vigorous, but
it lacks refinement. When he unbends
he loves common and gross things. His
wit ID very coarse, and the stories he
will tell in the company of gentlemen at
a dinner table are some Of them revolt
ing in their ~vulgarity. As a distinguish
ed Senator said of him yesterday "He
paints his iniquities On a Sunday school
banner"
A PRETENDER IN POLITICS.
Mr. Garfield is a pretender in politics
also. He is not what he says he is, nor
is he what he has succeeded in making
some people believe him to be; while
he would appear strong he is Thoroughly
weak, and whereas he would have the
reputation of an independent statesman,
he is in reality one of the most subserv.
lent Of partisans. He is a weak and very
honest politician. In the extra session
he said more than once in open session
and in private conversation, that he
would vote for the repeal Of the Jaws
torbidding the use OF troops TO keep
the peace at the polls. He announced
1t once too often, however, for when his
party saw that the Democrats were
about to profit by his promise, Conger
and uOnna Aha, oka1uro,ko o1o-l =