New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-12
4 VOJCF FR0V RJOCE rsytND

reduction Of railroad rates, nor can it at any
time subject the railroads to ruinous loss.
--
4 VOICE FRON BLOCK ISLAND.
1t is a question if the sea-air to a person
from the interior or the West is not some
times too bracing Take, for instance, the air
Of Block Island in its effect upon a person.
say from Kentucky. A case in hand is that
of an eminent publicst from that very State
who has actually been lowering over that very
island for now several weeks. When we say
an eminent Kentucky publicist we are well
aware that the imagination will fastcn at once
upon the Hon. Henry Watterson. We are en-
tirely careless about it, however, since as q
matter of fact he is the person referred to.
and is without doubt the only one who answers
the description. Not but that there arc other
publicists in Kentucky, and more or less
eminent. n rap with the butt Of n riding
whip on the bar of any crossroads grocery in
the State will bring together enough of them
at any time TO make a man sorry he had
not decided to drink alone. "The woods are
full OF em." But it must be said that only
two or three Kentucky pubicists are definitely
known outside the State. The two hest known
are the Hon. Henry Watterson and the Hon.
Joe" Blackburn. Both are fluent and have
enormous hands for EraSpng affairs. And
each has been of great service to the country
in beating an unc0mmonly ear piercing snare
drum and blowing IA particularly stridulous
lie upon occasions when their party was en-
gagged in what is called "still hunt,n and
drawing stealthily toward the Government
pay-rolis. But Watterson-in the parlance of
the Blue Grass region" holds over" Black
burn through having n newspaper. This gives
him opportunities Blackburn being only n
member of COngrcss-which Watterson has
been, hut gave it up because ii put him under
limitations-is necessarily subjected to periods
of comparative silence during the Congressional
recess. Wattcrson "goes on forever And so
we speak of him not merely as Il, but as tie
eminent Kentucky pubicist
But we digress. TO resume. The too brac-
ing effect of the salt water atmosphere of the
air, say of Block Island, has been made to
appear, as we think, in the case of this emf
nent Kentucky publicst When he reached
Block Island few weeks ago he struck at
once into a sound and healthy mental condi-
ton, in which he seemed lifted to the phil
osophic brd's-eye view of things-to that
judicial altitude mt which partisanship and
perso nalities shrink downward and men and
affairs are seen III their periphery. His vision
was enlarged. His discourse was high. He
talked like an Administration Republican,
Into the columns of his newspaper at Louis
VILE KY, he wired the most patriotic sent-
ments The broadcast and most liberal states
manship mingled with truths of the most
wholesome and edifying character concerning
the unparalleled stupidity and predestinate
foolishness of the Democratic party. He saw
like Saul on the way to Damascus and
he talked like one with lips touched by a live
Il
Island air. 1t braccd him little too much.
Or perhaps he has stayed under its influence
too long. On the 9th of the current month he
writes in different vein. He has descended.
The coarse personal aspect of things presents
itself to him. The sphere has lost its rotund-
ity. The perspective has disappeared. The
outlines of abstract humanity have faded, and
in their place rise up the features Of the Of
fensive concrete man; the unpleasant indi-
vidual man, who edits another newspaper and
through its columns emits the crude statement
that whoever talks in the way the Kentucky
publicst does is liable to be n liar very likely
a hypocrite and PROFESSIONALLY an ass Mr.
Watterson in his letter of the above date in
Inmates that his contemporaries, chiefly, we
infer, OF the Democratic press, have been say
ing such things as these. The drop was too
sudden. Ordinarily he could have borne it,
and has, with serenity. But he had been too
much braced up with sea air, and he falls into
a wall over "The Licentous Pressn
Having read over the "pile of journalistic
garbage" sent to him from the home Office
with an Obvious desire to chasten his too soar
ing spirit, he says:
i look at myself and say: "what have done that
these irresponsible should me the object OF
their vulgar abuseP can't talk back for atter my
self have something to lose and assaants have
not cant laugh for it isn't funny to be called names
wont swear, because that would be profane wouldn't
cry II felt like IL, and don't feel like IL bu: wonder
marvel that the journalism OF the perodwhch IA 40
froward III small things-is timd, short
and so low that cannot bear to truth spoken
upon great and grave occasion without flying into
sensecss rage, wasting its energies upon immateria
points and spending its wrath in epithets.
Moralizing still further, he proceeds to saw
that 'the press, which has vast power and
capabilities, knows the use of neither. AS n
public force, it is u curse instead of BLESSING.
1T is vehicle, not merely of disonted
thought, but of mean and paltry thoughts;
sensational and unreliable in its news, coarse.