The Portland daily press., 1881-01-03
The Scapegoat's Load.
my. Tribune.1

1t seems TO be, for the Twelve Tribes of
Democracy, the month Tisri and the Day of
Atonement There has been the preliminary
season of publication, the goat has been led
out, the scarlet garland inscribed "For Azazel'
fastened to his horns, the sins of all the party
laiaupon his head by, High Priest Hewitt, and
mass-meeting has in devout series of reso-
luton said 'Sh0o!' to him. The only remain
ing question is that which always rises at the
solemn moment when the High Priest lifts his
hands from off the loaded goat--Will the goat
go? -F' sfhn AZ .'
Many things in the history of this party
suggest involuntarily the story of the Chosen
People Analogies never run precisely on all
fours. The history of the Democratic party
does by no means furnish a precise parallel
for that of the Chosen People, but at how
many points does it suggest it! There were
the plaques. the 'spoils'' collected before the
Exodus, the longing for the fesh-pots after
ward, the calf-worship, the forty years wan
dering in the desert, of which the Democracy
are now in their twenty-frst, and the failure
of that whole generation that made the Exc
dus to see the land of promise. Then, too, the
temporary successes of the Democracy during
few years past by the aid of the Greenback
alliance: how vividly they recall the occasion
when the Chosen People escaped slaughter
over there in the plains of Moab through the
simple reinforcement of q false prophet and an
ass! But not to dwell on these suggestive
points in the two histories, let us pass-with
simple allusion to the strong probability that
if at the end Of their forty years the Democra-
l cy1 do mr. ba of 10
! by some connivance with the Rahab of that
| period--to the consideration of the ceremonies
| at Cooper Institute, and their probable effect
upon the Chosen People and the goat. gr
| In the days of the earlier Wandering it was
the custom to choose by lot from the goats the
| one which should bear all the sins of the poo
| pie and be driven out into the wilderness
Judging from speeches made on the same
evening in different places, we should say
there were two goats in this case, but that
each tribe had selected its own-Mr. John
Kelly being the Anti-Tammany, and Mayor
! Cooper the Tammany goat. At Cooper Insti-
tute the sins of the party are laid between the
horns of Mr.. Kelly; at Tammany Hall they
| are laid between those of the Mayor. There
| has been no casting of lots since the united
| tribes disposed OF the Taxpayers by that
L pIOCSSS IN OClOD6r. AL llDafmOQlOuS 1e6llQg
having resulted from that jogging of the dice,
it seems to have become a mutual understand
| ing that each tribe select and load its
own goat. This, though an apparent innova-
| ton, is for the present time a wisely ordered
| arrangement. The load is too great for any
one goat. 1t is by no means certain that two
| can carry it. Quite likely Mr.. Henry Bergh,
whose philanthropic ear is ever open even to
the scapegoats piteous bleat, may step in
front of the procession as it starts, and, inter-
l pOSinO the maiaSty Of the law tho
tion of cruelty to animals, demand a smaller
| load or more goats. rcd
And speaking of cruelty to animals, it may
not be amiss to consider this ceremony for a
! moment in the light of the act referred to.
| Probably no sturdier scapegoat ever stood un-
| der High Priests hands with scarlet garland
| on his horns than Mr.. John Kelly. But look
| how he is loaded! On that broad back are
| laid the sins of the whole party. Recall for
moment the false pretence of having been de-
| ira .ded in 1876; the weakness of deserting the
victim of the fraud; the folly of nominating
| political nobody; the false claim that he was
stateman; the hypocrisy of their praise for
| his military achievements, the insincerity of
| the tariff plank in the platform; the coward
| icewith which they abandoned it; the disgrace
of the Greenbaek Alliance; the treachery on
| the financial question:; the filthy blacksua
| ism of the ''329'' outbreak; the scandal of the
Morey letter, the forgery that produced and
| the perjury that bolstered it;-think, in short,
| of the inconsistencies and contradictions, the
| mud and filth and folly, the conspiracies, lies
| and crimes of the last campaign; and on top of
the whole the shameful record of the party
for twenty years. All these and more on poor
John KelIy's back, and he pointed wilderness
ward! These we're the things that defeated
the Democratic party; these are the sins that
| Chosen People have to answer for; and a
mass-meeting of the party sits in Cooper In-
J stitute. while Mr. Hewitt, as High Priest, lays
| them on the scapegoat's back. Surely this is
| tho Day of Atonement, in the month Tisri
WeH the ceremony was impressive and the
goat is loaded. Now, will he go? Probably
not. How much better it would have been
to have adopted the more modern form for
this observance, which substitutes a cock for