Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-11-17

men, III dlluSlOn 10 l1c slA ucsCILels Wloht
Andrew Jackson had had shot, and all
the pictorials of those times represented
Jackson as taking his office from the
hand Of the devil.
/ saw at Put.in-Bay, O., in a museum.
a prominent paper of 1914, which spoke
Of Henry Clay AS a gambler, a libertine,
and a murderer; and the manner in which
he was DETAINED and the outrages which
were heaped upon him may be well
guessed from Mr.. Clay's eulcgy OF his
native state, Kentucky. He said:
When | seemed TO be assailed Ly all the
rest Of the world, she interposed her
broad and impenetrable shield, repealed
the poisoned shafts that were aimed tor
my destruction, and vindicated my good
name from every malignant and un-
founded aspcrsion."
TuE CURSE Of THE BALLOT BOX.
Defamation! 1t is the curse Of the
American ballot box. just as soon as in
the great cities "a mar is put up for office
he is made a target. The fact that he is
up is prima facie evidence that he must
be brought down. His public life and
his private life are s~crutinizcd, and all
the electric lights are turned on. How
often it is that men have gone down under
such things. In every autumnal election
The air is filled with carrion crows scent
ing carcasses. Cav Cawt Cav. There
are newspapers in the United States hat
in the great Gutumnal elections take wild
license for liberty. They are filed with
calumny. The editorial columns of such
papers reek with it; their columns are
stuffed with it. There are newspapers in
the United States which in the great pop
ular elections breakfast and dine and sup
on indecency. They wallow in it.. Swine
like the mire. They give more for one
quill full of it than a whole hogshead OF
decent product. There are in these great
autumnal elections men sitting in editor
ial chairs who write with a quill, not
plucked from the stupid goose, or the
sublime eagle, but from q turkey buZzard'
Ghoulsl Ghouls! They tip the city
into their editorial inkstands. Defama-
ton of character is one of the curses of
the American ballot box today. In your
great presidential elections who can tell
from what he reads who is the man he
ought to vote forY Bad men sometimes
applauded, good men denounced.
II AUCUs
Another powerful foe of the sacred
chest, the ark Of the American covenant,
the ballet box. is the rowdy and drunken
caucus.
The ballot-box does not give any choice
10 a man when the nominations are made
in the back part of a GROCERY. When
the elector comes up he has to moose be-
tween two evils. In some Of the cities
men have come to the ballot box to vote,
and have found both names such a scaly,
greasy, and stenchful crew they had no
choice. You say vote for somebody out
side. Then they throw away their vote.
Christian men Of New lork and Brooklyn,
honorable men, patriotic men, go and
taken possession of the caucuses. First
having saturated your pocket handker-
chief with cologne or some other dIsin-
f%ectant, 20 down TO the caucus and take
possession of it in the name OF the Lord
God Almighty and the American people,
though after you come back you should
have to hang you hat and coat on the
line in the back yard for ventilation.
In some Of the states politics have got
so low that the nominees 10 more need
eood morals than they do q bath tub.
Snatch the ballot baX from such men.
Where is the David who will go forth
and bring the ark of the covenant back
from Kirjath- jearim? DO YOU no think
politics nave got to a pretty low ebb in
our day when a Tweed could he sent TO
the legislature of New York, and John
Morrissey, the prince of gamblers, could
be sent to the American congress?
HERE rs COLD TRUTH.
Now, how are these things to be
remedied? Some say by a property quail.
ication. They say that after a man gets
a certain amount CT property-a certain
amount of real estate-he is financially
interested in good government, and he be-
| comes cautious and conservative. | reply,
| a property qualification would shut of
from the ballot box a great many of the
| best in this land. Literary men are almost
always poor. A pen is a good implement
TO make the world better, but ii is a very
pool implement to get a livelihood
ordinarily. ! nave known scores OF liter
ary men who never owned q foot OF
| ground and never will w a foot of
ground until they get under it. Profes-
| sors Of colleges, teachers of schools,
! editors Of newspapers, ministers of relig-
ion, qualified in every possible way to
vote, yet no worldly success. There has
been many a man who has not had a
| house on earth who will have a mansion
in heaven.
There are many who through accidents
of fortune have come TO great success
while they are profund III their stupidity,
as profound in their stupidity as a man Of
| large fortune with whom | was crossing
the ocean, who told me he was going to
see the dykes Of Scotland! When n mem
! Der Of my family asked a lady on her re-
turn from Europe if she haa seen Mont
Blanc, she replied: Wei, really,
don't know; is that IN Europe?" lgnor-
ance by the square foot. Property quail.
tication will not do. The only way these
evils will be eradicated will be by more
thorough legal defence of the ballot box
and a more thorough moralization and
Characterization of the people. That ark
Of the covenant was carried into captivity
to Kirjath- jearim, but one day the people
hooked oxen to a cart, and they put this
ark on the cart. and the cart was taken
to Jerusalem-the ark of the covenant
| coming with the shouting and thanks
giving Of the people. And though the
| American ballot box, the ark Of the
| American covenant, our sacred chest,
has been carried again and again into
captivity by fraud and %iniquity, and
spurious voting, | believe it will be
brought back yet by prayer and by
Christian conservation and will be set