Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-17
BLAINE IN HIS TRUELIGHT
HIS ACQUAINTANCES SHOWN TO
DETEST HIM.
Arrant Knavery and Contemplate SnOb-
berry His Chief Characteristics-The
Philadelphia Record" Goes into Busi-
ness to Fight Coal MOnopolies-Eyes
Turning Toward New Orleans.

dLOus seem likGly W 6NdpOTdIe never TO
turn. On the whole, Washington is glad.
Clerical Washington, with its dependencies.
The biggest end Of Washington dislikes and
| fears the change of administration. The
higher officials know that they will have to go.
The lowest classes of officials, who are not
included in the protection Of the civil service
| reform law, feel convinced that they will
| have to pack their trunks, and the medium
classes, who are specifically within the pale
| Of the civil service law, do not feel so safe as
they would like to feel. They cling desperately
| to that civil service reform law which once
| in imitation of the machine politicians they
anected to dlsplse. They try to believe that
| Cleveland means what he says about civil
| service reform, despite the fact that long ac-
| quaintance with Blaine and his school of
politicians has led them to doubt truth to
| be lie. But it is hard work They do not
| feel the much coveted need of security. Day
| by day, however, they are coming to reason
| more clearly and sensibly about it. They
| begin to see that some changes would inevita-
| bly, have been made under any new admlnis-
| tratiOn. Then they advance step until they
| realize that Blaine would probably have made
| more changes than Cleveland will. Then they
| remember how disagreeable the Blaine
| family are and how disagreeable the White
| House would have been under their admins
| tration, and so some Of them are reconclled.
| To Washington society Blaines defeat IS an
| unmixed blessing. 1t removes from Washing
ton, it is hoped forever, family of snobs, who
| were uOlDk EOCl6Ly III w ds0lQXLOn all the
| harm in their power.
BLAINE is MUCH OvERRATED MAN.
The campaign showed his character his
ability and his attainments in their true light,
| to the confusion of his friends and the defeat
| OF his cause. Let me say a frank word or two
| about the social side of his life, which will
| show why Washington is glad to be rid of him
| and his family. Blaine is no more the cOurte-
GUS gentleman than he is the honest man that
| he mas been said to be. He is a snob Of
| the first order. He meets all the requirements
| of Thackeray's definition. He is simply
| smooth tongued politician with a certain
| brazen aHectatlon of afability. He is at
| times vulgar, rude and ungentlemanly to the
| last degree. He is toady by nature, and
bully by education. He Is a faithless friend
| and a cOwardly enemy. He never holds to q
| friend any longer than he can use him, and he
| would lick the boots of his worst enemy to-
| morrow if he could make point by so dong
| His wife Is snob of much greater preten-
| slOns than himself. She is large, loud, coarse
woman with fish wife's tongue for slander.
| Wlthal she is as arrogant as Queen Victoria
/ and as dlctatorlal as the Empress Catherine.
| You can Imagine the tone of her receptions.
| But what rallied Washington society was not
so much her manner, although that was
| enough, as her ambitious attempt under Gar
| field, whom she considered as her husband
| did, as merely the forerunner of President
Blaine, to construct courtly order IN official
| society, with rules OF precedence and forms of
| court etiquette OF novel, burdensome and
unrepublican sort. Against these this Wash
| ingtOn rebelled, and 1T is because of these
| things that large number of Washingtonians
are glad to see the last of the Blaines. OF
| course those Of us who, as mugwumps or De-
| mocrats, have taken an intelligent part in the
| ca npaign, rejoice with joy unspeakable for
| much higher reasons than these.
THE PHILADELPHIA 'ERECORD'7
that remarkable penny morning newspaper
| which has in six years climbed into a circuia-
| tiOn of nearly 10000, has for several weeks
| been doing rushing business as retail coal
| dealer II came about through the efforts of
/ q 1vnr hrir Flnor Tol,v,
| is its city editor. He became famous in day
| several years ago by breaking up the bogus
| medical colleges" of Philadelphia after the
/ officers OF the law had completely failed in
| every attempt to do so. Norris has a very
| good head for figures and does good deal Of
| hard thinking in the course of a day.
| He came to the conclusion last spring, after a
careful investigation that tn people of Phil
| adelphia were paying too much for their coal.
| He found the high price asked, Sc so a ton
| (the weight being almost always less than the
standard), was the result of an effort on the
| part of the Reading Railroad, the great coal
| carrier, to pay interest on its drOpscal debt,
and of combination on the part of the local
retail dealers to eXtort the largest possible
| price from the cOnsume ers. He determined
| to break the wrong up. The
| Record opened up at once. 1t an
| nOunced that the price of coal must come
| down. and thatit would come down one dollar
| ton before the spring of 1885. In pursuance
| of its determination that it should come down
| the record announced In October that until
| the lst of November it would sell full ton of
coal to any consumer at So IS a ton. 1t
| meant business, as it always does. The retail
dealers kicked up an awful rumpus, but the
| Record held right on. Some dealers came
| down peg or two, that is to say to S. rs and
/ S6. They thought they could go back to Sc 50
| on the lst November. But the Record saw that
| they proposed to crawl out in that way and so
| announced on Nov. that the retail coal busi-
ness would so right on in its handsome build
| ing, next thepost office on Chestnut street.
| Up to the present time 1t has sold $4,000
/ worth OF coal. That's a tidy little business
| for half dozen weeks.
THE AIR is FULL OF EXPOSITION TALK.
We are talking first of all about the New
| Orleans Cotton Exposition, to which the
| of the two Houses of Congress will go
next month. The interest in this
| exposition is spreading rapidly in the
North now that the election is over, and l see
| that the attendance will be large even from
remote New England.
Business men in Boston and New York are
already forming clubs and organizing excur-
| sions to New Orleans during the Exposition, at
which the best the South has to show is ex-
pected. Then we, who are of an inventive
| turn of mind, begin to look forward to the
| London Exhibition of Inventions. just an
| nounced for 1885; to the American Exhibition
| in London, announced for 1886, in which none
| but American exhibits will be set forth, and
which Will have a distinctly American stone"
| throughout, American features, the log
| hut, the tobacco field, the cotton gin, the
| coach attacked by road agents." to say moth
| been rapidly introduced already abroad
| Then will come the Paris Exposition of 1885,
| and then the exposition in celebration
| of the four hundredth anniversary of the dis
| cOvery Of America, Oct. IS, 1892. Some
| shrewd and influential st. Louis men have
been quietly at work all summer to secure
this Exposition for st. Louis. They will be
| on here presently together, probably, with
| the representatives Of rival cities to get from
Congress official recognition on behalf of the
United States Government of their project.
| don't pXaCtlV the connection bqt
lumbus and St. Louis, and don't believe Chi
cagO will, but perhaps the st. Louis men will
demonstrate it.
YOU HEAR GOOD DEAL
of Isthmian inter oceanic canal talk about
the hotels these days. The representatives Of
the three great schemes for inter-oceanic
communication across Central America are
already here waiting for Congress. The Pan
ANA people say that they simply want to be
let alone. They are having just the success
they expected to have in their attempt to
pierce the isthmus, and they see ultimate tri-
umph just ahead. Meanwhile they do not
wish to be interfered with. The Nicaraguan
canal people, on the other hand, would like a
little something, if you please, sir, from Con-
and a more liberal subsidy. Admiral
Ammen, of the Navy, a little nervous, near
sighted old man, and Captain Bedford
Pinn, of the Royal Navy, pompous old man
with a great flow of language, one of the
foremost leaders Of the Nicaraguan move
ment. The Tehuantepec ship railway inter-
est, DV which, of course, the ever fresh Can't.
James b. Eads is meant, is represented here
only by subOrdinates. Eads has other fish to
fry. He is running between New York and
New Orleans preparing to exhibit at the New
Orleans Exposition, for the benefit of the
South, very elaborate working model of his
ship railway twenty feet long, which he has
had constructed in New York at a cost of
100000 This model, / am told, is attracting a
great deal of attention in a basement room of
the Mutual Life Building in New York. 1t
must be that Eads has gotten money for his
scheme somewhere. But where? l know he
tried in vain in England last summer. Per-
haps he only hopes to get some.
AM AFRAID THAT GRAND CASINO,
which we hoped to see completed before
Christmas time, will never be built. It's
foundations were laid last spring, but then
stimulus Of the first excitement over it gave
out, and no more could be had. So there the
low lying foundation walls have stood. Offer
ing mute testimony to the poverty of Wash
ington. l.. z. Letter, the Chicago dry goods
millionaire who lives in Blaine's Dupont Cir
Gle palace, was the leading spirit in the
Casino enterprise. He says he is completely
disgusted with the ''slOwness" of Washington
SO are some other people. The Casino site
will. however, be utilized for an apartment
house which will accommodate the New
Workers who will come on here with Presi-
dent Cleveland.
ONE OF THE WEIGHTY ARGUMENTS
advanced by the Blaine orators during the
late campaign as conclusive against Cleve-
lands election, was that Cleveland had never
been in Washington. AS the gorgeous DR.
George b. LOring, Commissioner OF A o-rlcuI