Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1883-12-06
.Nahone and Benedict Arnold.


The St. Joseph (Mo.) Gazette contrast
Billy Malone aud Benedict Arnold. Th
editor po-trays Malone with the genius of
I journalistic Dore.
Politically dead, damned, and disglaced
little Billy Malone has gone to join Bene
diet Arnold. And yet he was not an attrac
tive renegade. He burrowed. lie opera
ted from the centre Of all sorts oflittle secre
rings and all kinds Of specious little con
spiracies. For tragedy there must slway.
be real actor, and this man was simply
m0untebank To deny the comradeship o
war to kiss the hand which had smitter
his checks until the red blood rushes there
in protestatiOn to debase his own color FOL
the sake of gain; 10 suppress The voice o
human nature 10 abolsh the immemoria
usages of decency and social intercourse
to overthrow all pride of birth and caste
to sully the very nameOf feal'y end deYo-
lion; TO hire the vicious; to war upon neigh
bors and oid-time friends TO stab tho
mother State and desecrate the graves Of tho
dead who died that she might tleast be au-
gust in her terrible bereayement-to do al
these things, we say, and DO them well, there
should at least be 4 Colossus OF political
scoundrelism; and yet this man, Billy Ma
hone was only railroad wrecker.and quite
Z commonplace one ut that.
lie meartto fill this bill to perfection
end be did DO the best he could in each par
ticnlar lire that he knew how; butthe Pat.
tern of the nan vas too shrimp and blood
less. Benedict Arnold was a giant. He
had a voice like war god. He loved mag
nifcent women and magnificent horses
Battle transfgured him. He charged like
. knight errant, and fought like . man at
arms. He was colossal in his treachery
liz Iewould have sold his country, but hewould
have had an empire. lie would have gone
to the devil, but not at q snail's pace. count
ing his profits cent by cent, and higgling here
over postofice, and over the division OF IN
ferior spoils.
Crafty, hungry, pinched, tape-wormy
weaselly, this creature Malone had no hori-
zon or heaven except an office. lie was cum
ming like the wolf He knew how to get
food. Under certain conditions he would
have been mendicant; in Virginia he had
it in his power 70 become species OF low
vulgar tyrant. At first he utilized with some
skill the hate .of that seryile crowd whoi'nd
private benefs in public disorders, and who
prefer always the favor of a master, 80 only
he is tnscrupuleus, 10 the inexorable equali-
ty of the law. All that corrupt, yenal
and ignorant in Virginia politics came to
him because they scented plunder and grease
to grease their frying pans. Shoddy from
head to foot, as was Malone, another unut-
terable shoddy thing, called Republicahism
took him up-a thing which is one vast
sham, one incarnate phariseeism-a specu-
lator in opinions, an adyentnrer in devices,
4 humbug in ethics, hypocrite in morals,
a charlatan in domestic economy, an infdel
in religion, thiefin o!tice-this compound,
we say, of Grantism, Beecherism, and Inger-
solism, took up Malone and helped him 70
DO the worst and the mcgnest OF his devil
ment.
It was the alliance Of two productions
that of assassination ard that of repudiation
and when the bastard was born it was
called Mahoneism. As it grew and grew
what else could the thing do, made mon
strous by coDgenital scoundrelism, except
to rob, plumber, debaccb deny deccncy, drag
down manhood crush the State, beget race
conflicts, poison the civil service, and final
ly die q dogs death and rot in the potter's
field -