The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1884-09-17
OUR SNOWY DEMAGOGUE.
Puck's Chisel Illustrating the "Blus-
terer and Braggart" Blaine.
Impotence is Not Brilliancy-There
Can BE No Aggressive Campaign.
lPuckl
puck
We have received the following letter:


We have received the following letter:
To the Editor OF Puck:
SIR-Notwithstanding your opposition to James
G. Blaine, don't you really believe he will be
elected next President OF the United States? Come
now. give honest opinion of thoughts. as
they occur to you during your moments of sober
second thoughts. ana you will greatly oblige
REPUBLICAN, READER OF PECK
who will vote for Blaine and Logan.
No. We do not believe that the American
Nation will disgrace itself by electing Mr..
Blaine President.
And If he were eIected-what them
Would he be any the less tricky and dis
honorable politician Would John A. Lo-
gan be anything but a turn-coat slave
Gather? Would dishonesty be honesty;
would unprincipled smartness be wise in
tegrity; would a demagogues tricks be
craftsmanship? Would lie be the truth?
#a@
We publish the above communication be-
cause it is 3 fair example of the desperate
tactics Of Mr.. Blaine's followers They have
had from the beginning but this one argu-
ment: He will be elected. Yes, he is dis
honorable man; he has proved himself I'M
faithful to his public trust; he is not
statesmaD-at the best but a smart and
SNOWY demagogue; he is utterly unfit to be
President of the United States-but-he will
be elected: therefore, let Us support him.
This has been their one solitary plea And
at the first, we will admit, we thought it
might be to some extent effective among the
people. We saw that it was possible that
sustained effort of brilliant lmpudence might
carry the delirium known as the Blaine
boom" through to q successful conclusion.
But now two months have passed since Mr..
Blaine's nomination. and the sustained
effort of brilliant impudence, which the
Blaine managers would call an aggressive
campaign" is not seen.
-
Impudenee enough there has been in all
the conduct of the Blaine campaign, but it
has been stupid impudence. We have had
the dull and futile lying of the Tribune; the
fatuous misrepresentation of the country
press-such part Of it as still clings to the
disgraced party; the blatant extravaganza of
the campaign orator; the contemplate apollo
gies OF the few respectable Republicans who
have been whipped in to support the man
they denounced ten weeks ago, and we have
had the base and brutal SANDER of Mr.. Cleve-
land, for which the Boston Journal and an
unnamable paper in this State must bear the
responsibility. Here and there excited Office
holders have gathered together the I'M
willing citizens and hung across the high
ways the flag of their country, and fmarred
its sacred stripes with the portrait of man
whose greedy heart never knew one patriotic
throb. And the hired brass-bands play ana
the hired orators spout, and the hungry
politicians yell. and the Tribune misquotes
the Post, and Hon. Mr.. Hoar's defense" of
Blaine is carefully hidden from the eyes of
Mr.. Blaine's supporters, and Mr.. William
Walter Phelps declines to earn SIC, 900 for
Yale College by proving his candidate to be
an honorable man, and Vermont the strong
hold of the party, gives a reduced Republi-
can majority in the local election.
So
There is impudence here; but where is the
brilliancy? We were to have an aggressive
campaign" Blaine was to sweep the country
ike whirlwind. He was to go into the
White House on a great billow of popular
enthusiasm. His opponents were to be "kept
on the run" And what do we find after
two months? Mr.. Blaine, cast off and con-
demned by the best men and the best papers
of his own party, conducting a hating,
besitating campaign OF trickery, evasion,
shifts and lies, the only ''aggressiveness'' of
which is seen in Infamous and indecent
methods OF unmanly warfare. Why is this?
So
Because the man is a coward at DO tom.
He always has been blusterer and a brag-
CART; smashing fellow, of great martial
promise and no performance. When it comes
10 the crucial moment. when the point of
trial is reached, he turns weakly; be runs;
he pleads for safety. He is the loudest to bid
defiance to danger; in the face of danger he
slips away. Such he was when he all but
went on his knees to Mulligan to get back
the letters that damned his fair fame before
ali the world. Such he was when he pleaded
with Lot Nj. Morrill,, with tears and entreat-
les" TO use influence in his behalf Such he
was when be took refuge in a sudden and
mysterious illness, as he saw the hour OF con-
demnstiOn close at hand. Such he was when,
unvindicated, his name tainted with dis
honor, he slipped into the United States
10 h1fu hrura a1
of Representatives.
Such he is now, when he brings per.
functOry suit against a paper that, if it has
liheed him at all, has hbeled him Grim
inally. Such he is now. when he counter
snces an UNANIMOUSLY slanderous assault on
Governor Cleveland; and stabs his adversary
in the back with a weapon that no other
politician would touch. Such he is nov,
when man after man, newspaper after news
paper, rises up to tell him that he has been
an uDfaithful public servant and to thrust
the proofs of his dishonor in his face, and ne
remains silent.
Such he is now, when he forms an alliance
with the cheapest charlatan of American
politics on the mere chance of stealing few
votes from the Democracy. This is surely
the last resort of cowardice. To pick up
this clown. who for years has been the des-
picable butt of the Nstion-a sort of dis
graceful living JEST sc0ned at, yet feared for
his capacity for mischief-Why, what self
respect can be left in the man or the party
that will consent to such association? A
pleasant reelection il must be for respectable
Republicans, that the nominee of their
party has joined forces with a man whose
only claim to public recognition is his hold
on the cupidity and credulity of that float
ing communistic element which calls itself
! working Glass; and does not know the
meaning of days work
Sc
No, there will be no aggressive campaign.
| If his supporters had begun campaign of
aggression, and his opponents had responded
| with a campaign of retaliation, Mr.. Blaine
would have retired from the canvass long be-
| fore this. He is the last man in the world
| who can afford TO go into an aggressive cam
| paign, and he knows it. If by underband
] means, in crooked ways, he can steal into the
| White House, he will do it Honestly and
fairly to fight a way there he leaves to the
man whose watchward is, TELL the truth"
! GILL SYKES" IN REAL LIFE.
/ A Young Philadelphian illustrates the
Tragic Act and Hangs Himself.
| PHILADELPHIA Special