Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-08-28

away 10 indulge our OlfaCtories in lit
tie purer air. But the New York Nation
comes to the rescue in a style so renlorse-
ly reasonable to all virtue that we turn
that way once more ~Yor a moment to
bear it as best we NAV.
The Nation, of course, sneers at the
Rev. DR.. Ball, of Buffalo. He neither
needs defense from the Advance. nor can
be harmed by the Nation His reputation
as a Christian minister and author long
time resident Of Bu.salo, stands n.gher
than the New York editor has
strength to throw his missiles.
Another, Presbyterian pastor of Bull
falo, OF as high position as he affirms.
with even stronger emphasis. the same
facts and more Indeed, says Or. Ball,
" if am a slanderer, dozen other pas
tors stand under the same condemna-
ton, and two score more of them stand
as iudorsers."
But we have to do, Just now, not
with Gov Cleveland, but with the n; =
tons jefense of him. After garbing
and mluifying the facts to a very c;.rri-
cature, that Journal attempts to
BEs1BAR WITH IT'S DRIPPING FEcULANcE,
the most illusruous names in recent I'm
glish and American history in hope of
burring the contrast between them and
the reputation OF it's fsvorite
There mas been no great benefactor
Of the human race 1t informs u.s. who
has not been truthful to his trusts. dis
interested, self-denying. There have
been veFy few VINO have been chaste
The standard by which some ministers
now propose TO exclude Cleveland from
high place, would have prevented Wash
ngton, Franklin. jefferson, Hamilton.
not to go any farther from taking any
prominent part in the foundation of the
American republic. 1t would have ex-
cluded from Office in England nearly
every great statesman or reformer of
the last 100 years, except perhaps per
haps, observe) Romilly, Wilberforce and
Gladstone. Itwould have visited nearly
every prominent politician in the repub-
lican party since 1860 with peculiar
odium."
Those sentences ought to whittier the
hand that wrote them. We must thank
this inspiring instructor OF our sons and
daughters for a new version Of an old
proverh. II is not ambition but a
greed for pollution, which 81 is the last
ln1rmty of noble minds
English statesmen aGd reformers Of
the last 100 years include scores Of
men like Erskine Macintosh. Canning.
Buxton Clarkson. Howard. the Macau-
lays, John Bright, Lord Salisbury.
The filthy tattle as to our own Wash
ington. formerly current in the capital
has never dared, like the sad lapses of
Charles James Fox, for instance, TO show
its face in history. ltls the congenial
BUSINESS OF a GHOUL
to eXhume it now for the purpose The
Nation would make it subserve. Near
" every prominent politician in the re-
publican party since 1860 " suggests such
names as Sumner Buckingham, Chase,
Andrews Ferry. Hawley, Hoar and 9TH
ers like hem. We believe that if even
so radiant a paragon as The Nations
hero is TO be gained at the expense of
such men as these, the American people
will count mm a costlier delcacy than
they can afford.
We are not defending incontinence,
says this preacher of the new gospel OF
righteousness. Chastity is a great vir-
tue, but every man knows in his heart it
is not the greatest of virtues. that often
SEES against it have often been consistent
with the possession Of all the qualities
which ennobe human nature. etc. He
is defending incOntmence. If he cannot
see il, we may excuse his heart only at
ruinous expense to his intellect No man
who knows anything of human nature
is ignorant that the most plausible and
insinuating of all methods of defending
vice is the old cry: " 1t is the way of the
world Everybody does it, you know
The noblest men have been given to it, y
If The Nation is not teaching precisely
THAT DANINABLE DOCTRINE
to the youth among its readers, then
words have no meaning.
In exquisite harmony with the general
tenor of the article, it closes with lord
~ rebuke Of whoever dares, at so incon-
venient time for its candidate TO
denounce the pollution it excuses:
Preaching of this sort at this time is
cant in its most loathsome form. for it
fills every household in the land with
filthy suggestions and insinuations turns
the press into a common sewer and con-
verts scores of its editors into hypocrites
who must blush in secret over their own
ridiculous sermons and their simulated
righteousness"
The very sort of super-sublimated
phariseesism that is shocked by the hon
est Saxon of our English Bible, denounc-
ing the practices on which The Nation
smiles so tenderly. If any vile sugges-
tons are set aAoat, who is accountable;
Who is telling us that the iniquities 10
which they point are among the unfor-
tunate irregularities of the best of men
Whoever would trace home the respon-
sibilty has only to calculate the latitude
and longitude e the office of The Nation.