The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-05-01
The Fate of an Agitator.

Mr.. Denis Kearney is in the House
of Correction. The Sand Lots whit
knew him so well will know no more
for at least six months. His speech
during that time will be of the hfIe'-
est description, aud not in the leAss
remarkable for violence or vitupef9.
tion. We have no desire to offer tne
least indignity to a man when he IS
down, and Mr.. Denis Kearney Is Qe*
-cidedly down, with but slight pro-
pect of getting up again. He depar-
ted fer Jail without any demonstfA-
tion whatever on the part Of the
populace. 1t really looks as If his
followers were tired of him ann glad
to get rid of him. Not one of them
came forward to shake his, b: -'sSi,,, 4,
Theresamorafin It whichthose whose
trade is agitation ought for their own
sake to heed.
There is lesson which demago-
CUES of the Kearney stripe never
learn. A designing man, with a
voluble tongue and with tact in STIR
ring up strife, finds certain class
with grievance real or fancied, but
usually the latter. He gets upon the
top Of cask, or, from some other
coigne of vantage, he makes speeches.
He tells his hearers that they are
grossly wronged that who would be
free themselves must strike the blow !;
that they ought to destroy the prop
erty of railway corporations; that
they are so oppressed and so down.
trodden that if they bear the dishonor
they cannot be considered as human
beings. Sometimes the crowd thus
stimulated content themselves with
bowling. Sometimes they 60 further
and commit arson or are guilty Of
malicious mischief. But if at this
critical moment the officers of the
law take their rhetorical leader in
their grip, and march him off to Jail, /,
it is astonishing to remark how those
who are fondest of him acquiesce in
his punishment in perfect silence. He
might be hanged without arousing
them to action. The Jail does not look
so pleasant to them as their chance of
getting into it increases. Not to put t
teo fine point upon it, they sneak
away, leaving their late leader to don
the prison uniform. to subsist upon
the prison rations. and to engage in
the prison toll. Mr.. Kearney knows
by this time that the kind of popu.
larity which he thought so potent il
but poor protection against com
mitment duly signed by the clerk O
the Court. He may say that the peo
Dle are ungrateful and cowardly. He
may regard himself as martyr. His
opinion of human nature in genera
may have been lowered at least fifty
degrees. lie may stamp, and bite
his lips, and talk like Timon O
Athens, but the humiliating fact re-.
mains.
The moral of the matter should be
seriously considered by the Kearneys
of this country who are still at large
1t was settled by the expounders o.
the common law long ago that one
may commit a crime with his ton
que, and that hs who offends through
another is himself an offender. 1t is
easy for a man skilled in garrulous
harangue to say, "Burn rob kill ~
but if his advice be followed, the law
holds that though during these in
teresting processes he may be at home
in his bed, or even dead drunk in q
gin shop, he is nevertheless one o
the incendiaries, plunderers and
homicides. Our advice to all leaders
of Kearney's kind is to take warning
from his fate. The sober, industrious
right minded people of this country
are tired of fragrant nonsense, and
the drunken, the lazy and the ugly
minded are powerless against the
constable with the posse com,itatus at
his back. When Mr.. Kearney comes
out of prison he will be nobody. a
like fate will reduce the longest.
wind d and the loudest spoutsr to
the same insignificant condition.
". Y. Tribune.