The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-12-15
Notes and Opinions.

Florida, who is still in Detroit, think
that he is insane.
A SIGNIFICANT fact: public discus
sion of Mr.. Blaine as candidate in
1888 is very general.-HarUord Post.
ABOUT eight republican postmasters
a day are retired to private life in the
interest of democratic "civil service
reform"
GOVERNOR ORMsBEE has appointed
II. G. Fisk of Morrisville trustee of
the reform school, vice T. G.. Fletcher,
resigned. The appointment is fitting
one.
IT is said the President feels better.
One would naturally think he would
after having been relieved of all the
superabundance of language contained
in the message.
No, the republican justices on the
supreme bench show no signs of going
on the retired list The ambitions of
democratic jurists must be appeased in
other directions.
EVIDENCES of democratic fraud in
New Jersey are so numerous that it is
probable that if democratic senator is
chosen by the legislature his seat will
be contested in the senate.
AN assistant United States district
attorney in Ohio has given a written
opinion that a convict's mail is sacred,
and that no prison official has the right
to open prisoners letters.
THE eighty-five democratic members
of the house who are left out of the
iiftieth congress are not enthusiastic
Cleveland men. They trace all their
troubles to the White House.
REV. DIR. MCCosH laments the evils
growing out of too much devotion of
students to athletic sports, and proposes
that colleges take concerted action on
some simple restrictive measure.
CONGRESSMAN CIRCUIT has introduced
bill to enable the people to select
their own postmasters and Congress
man Stewart one to appropriate $50, 900
for the Bennington battle monument.
THE appointment of Colonel A. NJ.
Dickey as postmaster at Bradford is be-
lieved to have been made on the recon-
mendation of Postmaster-general Villas.
with whose father Colonel Dickey
studied law years ago.-Erchdnge.
THE Lowell Courier characterizes
President Clevelands second annual
message as tediously long, unneces-
sarily verbose, plainly demagogical and
Enthusiastically dishonest. 1t is Ike
the man and his whole history, personal
and political"
JEFF. DAVIS says that confederate
prisoners were " inhumanly treated and
often done to death in cold blood in
northern prisons " during the war. In
the language of Isl Prime" he " could
prove it if Old Bill Jones were alive. p
Springfield Union.
UPON the question of revenue reduc-
ton the President is less explicit, and
it is evident that that part of his mes
sage which has to do with the tariff
was written with one eye turned to the
clamorous free-trade West and the
other to the protective East.-Philadel-
phid Inquirer.
SEE that Mr.. Blaine is likely to be
the republican candidate in 1888. All
| have to say is that, whether he or
another shall be chosen as our standard
bearer, see nothing better for us than
to follow the republican flag. We have
not gained all that we have a right to
expect under it, but under it we gained
all that we have.-Fredelick Douglass.
Mr.. BLAINE is reported to have
turned his back on Senator Edmunds,
refusing to take his hand at the Ar
thur residence on the occasion of the
funeral of the ex-president. Well,
what of it? A man has right to Sc
lect his friends, and we would sooner
see Mr.. Blaine decline to shake hands
with Mr.. Edmunds than to play the
hypocrite and put on the semblance of
friendship he did not feel.-1oledo
Blade.
THE attempt of the Rutland Herald
and Burlington Free Press to incite re-
publican opposition to Mr.. Blaine by
pretending to believe that Mr.. Atkins
has been taken into the confidence of
the "Blaine republicans" and that the
democrats would be pleased with Mr..
Blaine's nomination, reminds us of the
democratic scare-crow they set up in
the last state campaign, and which the
results of the election showed was moth
ing better than shabby political de-
vice to brighten republicans. 1t won't
work another time.
If the democrats sincerely believed
that Mr.. Blaine would be weak can
didate for the republicans in 1888 it
would be reasonable to expect that they
would do what they could to encourage
the republicans to nominate him. But,
on the contrary, the democrats and
mugwumps are doing all in their power
to break down Mr. Blaine and to pre-