The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-09-05

&Cn PtAott4Cg teStSAsI V@-~SS-
ssMike" Mullone's exit from journalism
reminds us of the story that used to be told
of a young minister who was permitted by
an eminent Scotch divine to fiji his pulpit
one Sabbath morning. The young dominic
went with pompous stride into the pulpit,
but broke down in the middle of his ser :
mon, and had to climb down, confused, in
the presence of congregation that would
have jeered him if they had not been in a
house of worship. ''If thee had gone up
as thee came down, sssaid his elder patron,
who witnessed his discontinue, s'thee
might have come down as thee went up. ,
So with ex-Editor Mullone. If he had
begun as modestly as he ended, he might
to-day have had property worth many
times the price for which he has at last sue
ceeded in disposing of the argus. But
modesty was not part of his programme.
He had imbibed the notion that nature had
cut him out for a political boss, and he
Thought that the only thing he needed to
make little local Tweed of himself was a
newspaper. He had not been long in con-
troll Of the Argus before he began to die
tate its policy to the Democratic party, and
to say just whom the Conventions should
nominate, and whom not. If they followed
his advice, he was with them; if they did
not. he was against them; and as they gen.
orally found out what he wanted first, and
then didn't do it, he spent most of his time
and energy in opposing the party's pol
icy and its candidates. The result was
that one by one the men whose friends and
interests he assailed when he should have
supported them, refused to read the Argus,
and it lost its business and circulation
along with its influence, till at the end its
position in local campaign became mat
ter of no possible moment. During the
first few months, when there was neither
opportunity nor occasion for his display of
autocracy, the paper was run with the idea
of making newspaper for the people to
success. 1t made such heavy inroads upon
the Journal that in less than year that
sheet was forced to lower its price from
three cents to two cents per copy; and at
one time it reached daily circulation of
1000 copies. It was as big business sue
cess as it was journalistic success, and if
it had been conducted, as all newspapers
should be, as business venture, it would
have made its proprietor neat little for
tune by this time. But it had been pur
chased for use as political machine, and
the moment it started out on its dictatorial
mission of abusing and malignlng and Will
flying every man, high and low, who refused
to bend to its proprietor's will it began to
wane. Mullone must have seen its decline
with uneasy solicitude but he was blinded
by his infatuation to the cause of it, and he
kept on in his hsadlong course till his
money was spent, and creditors pressed
him on every side, and the splendid prop
erty of ten years ago had been vast
ed beyoad possibility of recovery.
Many young man, confronted by the
endorsements the Argus has brought to
him, would have surrendered the fight
against fate and ruin two or three years
ago; and the only commendable feature of
his management of it is the good nature
with which he struggled under the load,
till at the end he found some one willing
to give him back the little part of the for
tune he has wasted upon it represented in
the original purchase price for which he
acquired it.
DR.. Mravlag, of Elizabeth, had the au-
dacity to say, with perfect truth, that the
only apparent method of getting State
Quartermaster Perrine out of the National
Guard is to kill him, because he will never
resign; and, in his indignation, the unre-
signing Quartermaster Improved bis first
opportunity to call the doctor an ass. DR..
Mravlag insists that he described just what
kind of an ass he meant by indignantly
calling him damned ass. Threatened with
court martial, the Quartsrmaster declares
that DIR. Mravlag misunderstood him, and
that it was as q dumb ass that he charac-
terized him. This looks very much like an
after-thought on the part of the unresign-
ing QuarteTmaster. If It is not, DR.. Mrav-
lag should feel battered by the description.
A dumb ass must be 9 pretty sensible kind
Of fellow, after all. It'isn't every ass that
knows enough to be dumb. As rule they
are more likely to give themselves away by
their bray, as the unresigning Quartermas-
seems to have done.
The Paterson Press, which we regard y
the most influential of the Republican
papers in the State, with possible exoep-
tion. urges high license plank in the Be
publican platform. But it win never do.
4 win not serve in the remotest degree to