Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-12-15
Breaking Up.

up a stream in fetters begins to yiel
under the pressure of freshet, ther
comes first a loud report, great crac
or issure extending across the crust
then smaller assures seem to dart tx
ward it to meet it, and soon what was
short while before a solid cake, become
drift of broken and melting fragment
swept along on the stream. "The Soil
South" crust of prejudice, mass o
crystalized and petrified conservatism
and fogyism, that has for fifteen year
fettered the flow of progress and pros
perity in the South appears to be break
ing up in this way. The defeat of Bour
bonism in Virginia was the first fssur
iu the crust of the Solid South. 1t RAM
out with report like piece of artil
leay. 1t showed that the strong cur
rents that had been moving beneath thi
leaden and stolid repression were in
.creasing to torrents, and that the tid
of social and political prosperity coult
no longer be stayed by caste, prejudice
fossil traditions or wooden-headed con
servatiSm. The Bourbons lament an(
wiring their hands and say that Virgini;
is ruined II this means that Bourbon
ism is ruined, they are not far wrong
BY and by it will be perceived that Vir
ginia is far better off industrially, polit
ically and socially than ever before. a
new life is already evident there. But
the liberation of Virginia is only the be
ginning of the break. In South Carroll
ma the same forces are at work with III
creased power. The duel. fighting, rsck
less, tissue-paper ballot Bourbonism oi
South Carolina has brought that state tC
most unhappy condition. The frauds
by which the elections have been carried
for the Bourbons of that state have been
open and fragrant. They were justified
like duels, by public opinion. With
naughty frankness the Palmetto states
men admitted that to cheat the negroes
at the ballot-box was better and safer
than to terroriZe them or drive them
from the polls by such events as took
place at Hamburg and elsewhere. This
of the negroes was at first only
winked at. The clean-handed cavaliers
would not personally touch the defile-
ment, though they accepted the results.
The actual cheating was done by low
er set of sharpers. But these soon be-
gan to cheat on their, own account. and
are now pretty well in control of that
state, and-hold it with grip that moth
ing short of revolution will relax. But
that revolution is coming. The next
election in South Carolina will be a rep
etition of That in Virginia. The tissue
ballot and the false count have had their
day, and like the shotgun and the ku-
klux mask, must be laid aside. The
agricultural and industrial
progress of Georgia, as shown in the At
Ianta Exposition, is an eviderce of the
LIBERAL spirit that must soon throw off
So also in Tennessee. In
the recent state elections re-
vealed profound dissatisfaction with
Democratic conservatism, especially
when-iron-bound by ring rule. 1t was
not, however, merely the disposition of
the Democracy to split into factions that
showed this. 1t was their readiness to
combine with the Republicans to fight
each other that was the most significant
fact. Though the Democratic leaders
fought this with desperate energy and
with partial success, still their half vic
tory was almost defeat. Some of the
strongest and most eloquent men of the
Democratic party, especially in Howard
were ready to unite with the
to break the ring. The
elections terrified the Maryland Bour-
bons. The Republicans carried many of
their and Republican strength
is growing, while the Democrats are
in petty factions and uniting
their fortunes to this leader or that
a thought of principle or policy
in their schemes. 1t is within the pos
sibilities that Maryland may at the next
election be added to the Republican col
urnn, and that an end may be make to
MARYLAND Bourbonism.-Bal American.
The fraudulent part of the medical
expert in infanity in murder trials is
that he pretends to know better than
other men, and to know positively,
a stated line of conduct proves
insanity. In fact he knows no better
than other men. Another part of his
fraud is that he pretends that there is a
defined line between the sane and the
insane, and that he is expert to tell who
is on one side, and who on the other
Y ct he can not define insanity, nor de-
fine the relation of what he calls insan-
ity to moral responsibility. Another
part of his quackery is that ne assumes
to pronounce, upon certain line of ir.
rational conduct, that the person is in
sane, and thereforeis not responsible for
the crime, as if he did not know its ma.
ture, and did not know right from
wrong. The insane experts are a pretty
bad lot of cranks, and are largely pro.
moters of the numbering cranks.-[Cin
Gazette. -
To THE literature of cranks" may be
added SOME curious statistics recently
compiled in England, showing the ex.
tent of mental alteration among the
members of various professions and
trades in that country. Among the 5,234
civil engineers in England, last year, "a
became insane. The same unhappy fate
befel 10 of 5,S04 painters and sculptors