The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-12-01
For the Democratic Advocate.
A Double Assassination.


To the Editors Of tile AdUocate Can YOU
inform an inquiring public who it is that wan
dered down two-thirds of the first editorial
column of last week s Sentinel with nothing
to mark his course but his own blood and the
scattered fragments of the English language :?
In that remarkable editorial two things are
attempted First, the assassination Of Mr..
Difenbaugh's character, in which the writer
does not succeed. Mr.. Diffenbaugh has his
faults, doubtless. like the rest of us, and some
things which he says and does are not to be
commended, but his reputation for honesty
and integrity in this community is without
stain. and surely no honorable man who
knows him will believe that he would swear
to a lie. But while the writer of the editorial
has failed to shake the public confidence in
Mr.. Diffenbaugh's veracity, he has seriously
damaged his own reputation in that respect.
He shows how lightly he regards an oath, and
how easy it might be for him to make false
one. Thus in striking at another he has
wounded himself.
The second thing he attempts is the assas-
sination of the English language, and in this
he has achieved signal success. For a
sample of his butchery take the beginning of
the fourth paragraph of his article:
$50 far as his reference to Mr.. Huber's eff
forts to induce members of the Brethren
tax payers are concerned-which the Dunkard
circular tried to preventive no doubt at the
proper time will eXplain-if such zeal in the
interest of his party has anything to do with
the case What is the subject of the verb
are concerned! 1t cannot be reference, for
the verb does not agree with reference in
number. 1t cannot be NJ. Hu6el's efforts,
for they are in the objective case governed by
the proposition to. 1t cannot be members, for
induce governs them. 1t cannot be rights, for
they are governed by exercise. It cannot be
citizens and taxpayers, for they are governed
by Of. Perhaps it is the editor himself, for
he is more concerned than any else about the
F"Dunker Circular" | suppose he uses a
plural verb to agree with the editorial 1--WE
with which he starts out Again, how shall
we construe she no doubt at the proper time
will explain" Who will explain, and what
will he explain? Does the his in the last clause
mean the same person as the his in the first
clause, or the same person as the he who
will explain? or are all the he's and hiss diff
ferent persons, and if so who are they?
Another good sample is the last sentence of
the article: 'He will no doubt learn before
he is many days older that whatever else he
in his Imagination is fitted for, that of writing
anonymous politico-religious letters is not one
of them" What is the antecedent of the pro-
noun LHut IN Une Clause 'InaL OF WrlIlng, &C.,
and what is the antecedent of the pronoun
them, the last word in the sentence? What
do they relate to and what does the sentence
mean?
Newspapers, as a rule, are not remarkable
for the elegance or correctness of their Ian.
gqage, but nothing have ever seen in print,
which assumed the dignity of an editorial,
was quite so remote from sense or meaning as
! this article in the Sentinel
have been told that Mr.. A. H. Huber, the
postmaster at Westminster, wrote it. Can
this be? He is charged with the same thing
that Mr.. Diffenbaugh has denied under oath.
Can he so far have forgotten himself as to
have thus destroyed the force of the affidavit
which the public expects of him by declaring
that an affidavit is of no account? Besides,
Mr. Huber claims some literary culture, and
is one of the examiners of prize essays for
Western Maryland College. If this is the
kind of English he sets before the readers of
the Sentinel, his literary attainments are of a
very low order, and the authorities of the
College had better get someone else as an ex-
aminer, for the judgment of a man who knows
no more about grammar than the writer of
that editorial is not of much value in deter
mining the merits of prize essay.
INQUIRER.