The Washington critic., 1886-01-01
TnEpREsiDENr,s "pucK" LETTER.

THE PRESIDENTS "PUCK" LETTER.
4 short time ago an Indiana paper printed
a story to the effect that the cartoons Of the
festive Puck were not as friendly to the
President as they used to be, and gave as a
reason the fact that Mr.. Keppler, one of the
publishers Of that publication, had asked
the President for Il nice little place for his
brotherin-law, but had not got it, Mr..
Kcppler naturally wanted to come out In
card denying the calumny, and wrote to the
President in order to make the denial
more binding, asking if it were true
that he had ever asked for any
favor The President replied that he had
rot, end took occasion at the same time to
pronounce an opinion on newspaper publ
cations in general. The President evidently
either wrote that letter in great and irrita-
bic haste or merely as guarantee of good
faith and not for publication, as we say 1t
is strange that such an intelligent, fair
minded man she should have written these
words:
/ don't think there ever was time when
newspaper lying WAS Ao general and mean
MS at present, and there never was Il country
under the sun where 1t liourished as it does in
this. The falschoods daily spread before the
proofs of The mental ingenuity of those en-
gagged In newspaper work, are insults to the
Ar eriCan love tor decency and fair play of
which VIC bOaSt.
There is no installing that language The
President of the United States says that the
newspapers Of this country are habitual and
professional liars, and practically says that
the people of this country prefer lies to the
truth, for do not they support the news
papers? The newspaper must cater to the
public taste in order to live. The news
papers do live and the indisputable conclu-
sion of this logic is that while they may not
be in the Presidents opinion liars, yet the
people of this country are lovers of lies
and liars. Again the President writes:
| cennot refrain from saying that If you
| ever become n subject of newspaper lying,
| ana attempt 70 run down and expose all such
lies, you wll be busy man, If you attempt
nothing else
| The President has certainly sustained his
reputation Of saying things buntly and In
strong, old Andrew jackson English. The
newspapers of the country as a rule, know
that they are not liars. They spend great
| deal of time and money in hunting up facts,
| but are always willing to correct inevitable
mistakes or inadvcrtencies. If the President
had not been IN an indignant mood when he
wrote that Puck letter he would have
obeyed a certain telegraphic injunction sent
by him to one Of his friends during the last
campaign. That message was short and
manly and strong. 1t said "Tell the
truth.n
1t must be admitted that in the heat Of
partisan contests aud amid the ntrigues Of
ofllce-hunting, editors like other men some
times dgress from the truth TO suit their
personal purposes. Mr.. Cleveland, who
was pursued in this way during the last
campaign with a cold-blooded malevolence
that has no parallel, must have some
ranking recolections of this fact; but as a
rule the papers have treated him since his
Inauguration with great fairness, honesty
and frendliness; and, for one, The CRITIC
must decline to accept his New Years
! greeting. We are not an organ, and, like
the Father OF his Country, we never told
| lie.