The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-11-26
MONKEYlNG WITH A BUZZ
SAW.
A Warning the President Should
Have decided.

A Washington correspondent of
The Philadelphia Record writes
I"Doan't munkey with the buzz-saw
while in moshun" was the legend
on rough board nailed to tree
just in front of a modest saW-mill
near the Presidents birthplace, in
Vermont. / don't believe he eyer
saw it. If he did he was not salts
fed. He wanted to go step fur
ther. He wanted to see whether he
could not monkey" without get
ting hurt. He probably realizes
now that he can not. How they
went down, the! bosses, one after
another, last Tuesday, before the
despis5d masses who have hereto
fore worn their collars meekly and
even contentedly, as though in ''the
bond of peacer' 1t means somuch,
that rout OF Tuesday, that we can
not grasp it all in moment. Dem
ocratic assemblymen; democratic
mayors; democratic governors
democratic representatives; demo
cratic senators; democratic Presi-
dent in 1854; more democratic Pres
idents in the years to come; civil
service reform; revenue reform
these results crowd fast one
upon the heels of the other,
until we can not contain
them. But 1t can all be summed up
in a word. The slaves revolted
the rebelled against their masters
they were successful; therefore it
was a revolution. That is what it
means. The people got tired of the
bosses The great national buzz-saw
IF popular Indignation began to
revolve. The bosses did not under
stand it. 1t had been so quiet for a
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 appreciate the sit
uation. 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 fairness, and they do
not see. Faster and faster goes the
saw, and the buzz sounds louder and
louder, but still these fatuous fools
trifle with it. Why, they can stop
it in an instant if they will! They
have but to put out their hands. Let
them dose. All! how swiftly, silent
ly, certainly the cleaning circle
cuts through those hands. Fingers
and blood, blood and fingers, and the
floor is drenched with the thick red
gore. Perhaps it will teach them a
lesson. Perhaps not. Who cares !?
It will teach the people, at any rate,
what their power is. That's the
main thing. Bosses can be dispensed
with. Perhaps it would be better
for the people if they were. Some
years ago western hoss-a
corduroy trousers tucked in his
coWhide-boots boSsNotso dangerous
as your perfumed Prince Albert
frockcoat boss of the east, with a
primrose in his buttonhole), threw
the boots aforesaid upon the stove
N the village GROCERY and re-
mark ed to his followers in his own
sweet way, with many soul-stirring
oaths: s'If 1 should PUT up yaller
dorg with a 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" nomi-
mated him. 1t is not SO generally
true now. 1t is not so true, for ex-
ample, to-day as it was last
Monday. After a few more revo-
lutions Of the buzz-saw in politics
it will be true nowhere, and
of NO man or body of men. The
American people, with characters
tic charity, patience, forbearance,
good nature, and what not, have
stood more from the picayune poll
ticians who have undertaken to boss
politics, than would have been
borne without a revolution 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 gene.
ric boss) has said "wig-wag," their
supple fingers have obediently wig
gled. That is all over. Of course
Che millennium hasn't arrived,and of
course the bosses aren't dead. Per-
feet peace will only come when all
factions are sitting quietly side by
side on the collins of the bosses.
There will be struggles, bitter con-
tests, sharp fights; sometimes the
bosses will be on top; sometimes
the people. But the significant fact
is that the buZZ-saW is Sin moshun.'