Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-12-15
Monke1Ing With a Buzz.sar.


"Don't munkey with the buzz-saw
while in moshun'' was the legend on
rough board nailed to q tree Just in
front of a modest saw-mill near the
Presidents birthplace, in Vermont
don't believe he ever saw it If he did
he was not SATISFIED. He wanted to go
a step further. He wanted to see wheth-
er he could not ''munkey" without get
ting hurt. He probably realizes now
that he can not. How they went down,
these bosses, one after another, before
the despised masses who have hereto
fore worn their collars meekly and even
contentedly, as though in 1.-The bond Of
peace" 1t means SO much. that rout,
that we can not grasp it all in a mo-
mont. Democratic Assemblymen; Dem
Ocratic Mayors; Democratic Governors;
Democratic Representatives; Democratic
Senators; a Democratic President in
1884; more Democratic Presidents in
the years to come; Civil-service Reform;
revenue re!orm-these results crowd
fast one upon the heels of the other un-
til we can not contain them. But itcan
all be summed up in a word. The
slaves revolted; they rebelled against
their masters; they were successful;
therefore il was q revolution. That is
what it means. The people got tired of
the bosses. The great National buzz
saw of popular Indignation began to re-
volve. The bosses did not understand
it. 1t had been so quiet for time.
They began to- think that it would only
revOlve when they pleased that it
should. Now it is actually going round
and round. Still they do not appreci-
ate the situation 1t goes faster and
faster, and keen ears detect the first
'buzz. But the bosses have fat ears,
dulled by rich living, and they do not
hear. Their eyes stand out with fat
ness, and they do not see. Faster and
faster goes the saw, and the buzz sounds
louder and louder, but still these fatu-
Gus fools trihe with it. Why, they can
stop IL in an instant il they will! They
have but to put out their hands. Let
them do so. All! how swiftly, silently,
certainly the cleaning circle cuts
through these hands. Fingers and blood,
blood and fingers. and the floor is
drenched with the thick red gore. Per-
haps IL will teach them q lesson. Per-
haps not. Who cares? 1t will teach
the people, at any rate, what their
power is. That's the main thing.
Bosses can be dispensed with. Perhaps
it would DE better for the people if thew
were. Some years agoa Western boss
a corduroy-trousers -tucked-in-h is-cow-
hide-boOts boss (not SO dangerous as
your perfumed-P Prince Albert-frock-coat
boss of the East, with a primrose in his
buttonhole), threw the boots aforesaid
, upon the stove in the village groggery
and remarked to his followers in his
own sweet way, with many soul-stirring
oaths: IF l should put up yaller dorg
with n stump tail you'd vote for him. ="
That was true then. in the days when
some partisan or other volunteered to
vote for the devil himself if the party
nominated him. 1t is not SO generally
true now. 1t is not so true, for exam
pie, to-day as it was the day before cleo
ton. After few more revolutions of
the buzz-saw in politics it will be true
nowhere, and OF no man or body of
men. The American people. with char
acteristic charity, patience, forbearance,
good nature, and what not. have stood
more from the picayune politicians who
have undertaken to boss politics than
would have been borne without a revo-
luton by any other Nation. They have
allowed the bosses TO have their own
way. They have unselfshly given up
every time; they have cried over the
bloody shirt; they have shivered under
the tariff scare; they have danced
when the bosses piped, wept when they
wept, and whenever Simon (whO may
stand for the generic boss) has said
"wig-wag" their supple fingers have
obediently wiggled. That is all over.
OF course the millennium hasn't arrived,
and of course the bosses aren't dead.
Perfect peace will only come when all
factions are sitting quietly side by side
on tho collins of the bosses. There will
be struggles, bitter contests, sharp
tights; sometimes the bosses will be on
top; sometimes the people. But the
significant fact is that the buzz-saw is
lin moshun. " Washington Cor. Phild-