Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-10-08

OF New Orleans and Memphis. A grand
ball at the Academy of Music will be given
at night in honor of the French commits
sioners to Yorktown. The festival is the
conception of the leading business men of
tie city and it cost many thousand dol
lars which has been paid by voluntary
subscriptions. 1t is expected that fully
20O, 600 people will visit the city during
the three days and many visitors to York
town will witness the Baltimore pageant
DEMOCRATIC SINCERITY.
An Esteemed Fellow. Citizen Rises to
For the ISrELLIGESczR
Some Of the Republicans belong to that
selfish and unappreciative class represent
cd by the B'hoy" who reproached his
juvenile neighbor for crying at the funeral
OF said B'hoy's father with What are
you crying for faint your funeral ."
| HeEco they seem astonished that Demo-
Gratis should manifest sincere sorrow for
the death of the president of the republic
unless they confirm it by abjuring their
political principles. During the rebellion
men had been told that their sympathy for
| the union would not be respected or be-
lieved unless they resigned the offices to
| which they had been elected by Demo-
cratic votes and united themselves with
| some Union organization. This was very
severe and very unfair, but those were
exciting times, and the painful position
had to be patiently borne and it is paiu-
full to be practically told in time of
general sorrowing that you have no bust
ness to be sorry, for sit aint your
funeral.' One who is jealous Protestant
or Jew might be in sincere sympathy with
an afflicted Catholic without being called
! upon to abjure his religious faith in order
70 prove that his sympathy is really sin
cere, and no one would unchristianizc
Or uniudaize himself 50 far as to
| demand such test Of sincerity.
But you were quite mistaken in your edi-
torial of the 9th inst, when you suppose
the Rev. Brother, of Reading, is the only
man that challenges the Democratic
| sincerity" He las a contrere in the editor
! of the Omaha Republican, who alleges that
"the Democrat as man, may DO honest
in his expressions of sympathy, but as a
Democrat he is the most disgusting hypo-
| crite." The Democratic inclination to
take = advantage of their position in the
United States Senate by electing a pro tenn
pore who would succeed Gen. Arthur, if
he unfortunately should die before the ex-
piratiOn of his term, seems to be the thorn
| in his side hence he says $50 long as
this inclination is so patent, let us have
less effusiveness from the Republicans
| over Southern Democratic cOmmiseration
| with the president and tho afflicted nation"
Poor man, he does not seem to sec how
sorely he is affecting himself, by cherish
| ing such uncharitable sentiments.
God only knows who is really sincere in
anything, and the depth of that sincerity.
Josh Billings very significantly says,
"Some people profess to be pions, when
in fact they are only bilious" or words to
that effect. 1t is possible that this also
may be the case in external sorrowing. 1t
is not the broadest phylacteries, the deep
| est hens ON the garments and the profus-
est funeral trappings that always indicate
the deepest and profoundest internal
| mourning. 1t is the same also in the
much vaunted patriotism manifested on
| special occasions. The sclf-interests and
self-aggrandisements lurking behind or at
the bottom of such manifestations often
outweigh and add deeper color to human
conduct than all the love of country or
equal rights that can possibly be smuggled
| into them. And yet the masses do sim
cerely mourn, and are also trlly patriotic !;
but no political party can claim 4 monopoly
of these emotional virtues, and it is rank
phariseeism in any party to set up such a
claim, for it only exhibits the ugliest kind
Of AL assumption in doing so. A father
may sincerely mourn the taking off of
reprObate son, with whom he had pre-
viously expostulated, and severely repri-
manded for his wicked doings, without
being compelled to recant or abrogate his
former chastiscments in order to convince
carpjng critics that his mourning was sin
cere.
What pity it is that Guitcau was
Republican (but this the Omaha Repub-
lican sort of denies, unless Republicanism
and lunacy are synonmous), for that fact
so persstantly stares the party in the face,
that it takes off the points OF many bitter
paragraphs which otherwise might be ap-
piled to the rascally Democrats. But
there stands in burning letters the signifi-
cant paragraph, an Stalocart Of iStal-
aoarts, and Arthur aciN be president" No
doubt it would be moro agreeable il the
country and the world could be brought
TO the conviction that Guiteau was insane
when he proclaimed that horrid sentiment.
1t would furnish an additional lash to lay
on the backs of the Democrats and miti-
gate Republican folly.
1t may be truc, as the Reading divine
intilnates, that maligning men who are
candidates for public office, engcnders
disrespect for them and cxcites an ali
mostly against them that is altogether
wrong.
1t may also be true that the doctrine in
VOWED in the political maxim " To the
victors belong the spoils' often leads
unworthy men to entertain expectations
which never can and never ought to be
realized but these do not constitute suffi-
cient cause for the preparation of crime
and especially that of assassination. 1t
Furthermore may be true that when any
man who has occupied a high position in
society, as man Of moral and business
integrity and ability, and as consequence
has monopolized large proportion of
public confidence; and then it suddenly
becomes manifest that he has all the while
been guilty of frauds, dcfalcations, and
debauchcries-that such development of
character acts as a relaxation Of the moral
restraint of the whole community, or at
least that portion of it whose moral fabrics
have not had their foundations built upon
rock. But an excuse for crime founded
upon such a contingency, would not bear
the scrutiny of court OF justice. 1t might
in some measure palliate, but it never
could justsfy crime.
Guiteau was not an ignorant or illiterate
offender, but, on the other hand, is a man
of intellectual culture at least; and,
A. A..