The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-07-06

They look like the eyes of sleeping OK
They have vacant stare, like the glass
eyes of wax figure. l examined
the old man closely in the bright sunlight
His lower jaw was almost continually dropped
down. 1t shook with palsy Every now and
then he would close his mouth and brace up,
for he noticed that we were observing his
palsied jaw. Then the jaw would drop again,
the mouth would open an inch and the lower
jaw would shake with the palsy. When any
man says Mr.. Tilden is not very feeble old
man, with one side paralyzed, one arm use.
less and mouth shaking with palsy, he simply
lies. Mr.. Dana, who knows how feeble Mr.
Tilden is, does not deny this statement II
Henry Watterson says differently he lies.
There is no use of lying about the old man
any more He is in his dotage. His rela-
tives know this. They surround him ST.
iently and patiently as friends surround
SICK man. They minister to him like sick
man. They watch over him as they would
watch over a sick man liable to drop with
paralysis at any moment His obituary is
written in every newspaper office in New
York. And still, every now and then, some
politician starts the story that Sam. Tilden is
stout and hearty. Metropolitan newspapers,
claiming to be honest and truthful, publish
such reports when the editors know they are
lies. Sam. Tilden is a tottering wreck,
shaking with palsy, incapable of walking,
and only able to feed himself slowly with
his right hand, and that hand shaking with
the palsy, while the left hand is as helpless
as the arm of skeleton.
The old man is shrewd and foxy even in
his old age. His shrewdness consists in slow,
thoughtful cunning. If he has a political
letter to write he thinks it over a week. Then
he dictates a rough draft of it, His confden-
tial friends come in and read and reread it
Ind suggest polite alterations. Finally it is
rewritten and submitted again to friends.
Then the crafty document is sent forth to
the world. Mr. Tilden is a natural dema-
gogue. And still there are editors who men,
ton him in the same breath with Madison
and Jefferson. What State paper did Mr..
Tilden ever write? He spent weeks on a let
ter to the Cincinnati convention declining to
be the Democratic candidate in 1880. 1t was
full of thin clap-trap, which the convention
discounted at once. When they took the
sly demagogue at his word it broke his heart.
Smart, you call the old man? Why, every
schoolboy saw through his game of bluff at
Cincinnati. 1t was Chinese cunning, not
statesmanlike diplomacy.
And now dozens of politicians are talking
to Mr. Tilden every day about running again.
They play upon the old mans dotage. 1t is
understood by Mr. Watterson that Mr.. Tilden
will run, which, of course, means that Mr..
Watterson is to be, in case of success the
White-house Warwick. Sam. Tilden can
wreck a railroad when he is its confidential
attorney, but he cannot fool the great DEM
ocratic party. Mr.. Watterson and Mr.. Dana
ought to let the old man drop into private
life. 1t is wrong to fool him, and wrong to
f1atter him up to make q fool of himself
He is in just that feeble, childish, putty state
in which any three average men can mould
him like dough. But any man who would
persuade old Sam. Tilden to run for the pres
idency again would be as wicked as the men
who led poor Charles Francis Adams into
faro bank.