Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-05-31

DEMOCRACY DEAD or OUT OF THE
sTATE-ir Is THE GANG THAT Is NOW
MANIPULATTNa THINGS TO THE PAR
TVS SHAME.
Columbus Correspondence Cleveland Leader
The wrecked and disnantied condition
of the Ohio Democracy at this time is
sufficient to ean forth deep grief from
those who remember the palmy days of
the party when it had leaders of premi-
nence whose names were known through
out the country from more exalted ac-
tions than connection with taIly-sheet
forgeries. But the mighty men who in
the past, through some mental alteration,
connected themselves with Ohio Democ-
racy are no more. The party has descend
ed to the guidance and leadership of such
men as Ike Hill, Tommy Cogan, Lew
Bernard, and Buck Brady. Allen O. My
ers, who was the latest leader, is now too
busy keeping out jail to do very much in
guiding his brethren through the wilder
ness to the music of Growers organs
But Allen expects to eventually get rid
of the embarrassmentS he is now labor
| ing under, and to once more take his
place at the head of the column. Tom
Powell, who led the party to defeat last
year, is also barred from taking a very
active interest in its management this
season because he has Just hired out to
Myers, and will assist that young man in
his gymnastic feats heretofore referred
1 fn IaI nd
propriate that Powell, who was Chairman
of the Democratic State Committee in
1885, when the noted forgeries were COM
mitted, should now be engaged in de-
Tending those charged with these forger-
les.
The leaders of the past, oh, where are
they? Well, some of them are dead,
some have reformed, and some are so
disgusted with the record of their party
in the past few years that they are eth
er taking no hand in the management
Of its affairs or are busily employed pros
ecuting its members for forgery. There
is Hoadly for instance, with bugle-
blast of condemnation for the Demo-
cratic frauds committed when he was
last candidate, he shook the dust of
Ohio from his feet and left the State to
90 to New York, where he is endeavoT-
ing to live down the disgrace of having
been connected with the Ohio DemOera-
CIV in 1885. There is George PendletOn,
who has been a candidate for Vice Pres
ident and United States Senator. He
has been banished to Germany and is
never heard of in connection with Ohio
politics exceptiin. occasional reminiscent
ees of the manner in which he was sold
out in 1884. Durbin Ward, that old
tribune of the people, he has gone to his
everlasting rest, his departure hastened
by the treachery and ingratitude of his
political brethren. Thurman, he is busy
in the criminal court in Columbus pros
ecuting Allen o. Myers, Bob MontgOm-
cry, and others of the leading Democrats
of the State, on the charge of forging
election tally sheets. Payne when
or where was Payne leader? At pres
ent he is occupying seat in the Senate,
keeping as still as he can in the hope
that everybody will forget about him
and the election which sent him there.
General Jim Steedman-he is gone to
the great beyoud. John G. Thompson
-banished to the great Northwest to
hold some petty office entirely incom-
mensurate with his past services to the
party, he laid him down and died. Groes-
beck, Theodore Cooke, A. J. Warner,
and other former leaders cannot stOm-
ach the present methods of their party
in Ohio, and have retired in disgust.
Converse-well, Converse has been max
ing healthy fight to save Myers and
the rest of the gang, but that is the only
party service he can render, because he
cannot stand up in line on Growers tar
iff platform. If he received any sort of
encouragement, Mr.. Converse might
move over into the Republican camp,
but the Republicans do not seem to be
aching and weeping for his company.
Dave Paige-ah, there was a pure mani
Dave is in New Y ork building aqueducts
and standing in with Governor Hill.
He finds that there is more money COM
ing in and less going out since he de-
serted Ohio and moved to New York,
and probably cannot be lured back. Ben
LeFevre- another purist of the Paige
type! He has gone to New York, too,
and is out of politics. Like David, he
recognizes the futility of wasting any
more money on Ohio Democrats. L. A.
Brunner, alas, is dead! Elmer White
has retired from politics. He made
enough out of it to buy good news
paper property, and like a discreet man
got out of politics quick also out of
the town he formerly inhabited. Frank
Hurd is always with us. Things are
going Franks way now, and he is one
of the leaders. But why continue the
mournful tale? Why weep for those
who are gone when Mike Mullen and
Lew Bernard are left to run the ma
chine? With John Farley to cOncoct
| lies about Republican OfficehOlders in
Cleveland, with Lew Bernard to run
Cincinnati, and with Ike Hill and his
boots to manage Central Ohio, the Dem
ocrats of Ohio have no cause to feel
dispirited or cast down. They will be
able to charge all their misfOrtunes this
year to Grover and the Mills bill and
will probably make such a glorious,
though losing, campaign that as q re-
suit of it Young and Bernard and Bob
Montgomery and Allen o. Myers and
the rest of the Democratic leaders will
be able to get federal offices, though
where they will get them the Lord only
knows, for everything in that line that
was lying around loose has already been
gathered in by some ablebodied Demo-
crat.
THE Washington correspondent of
the Cincinnati Enquirer says: 81 venture
to remark that there never was a Demo-
cratic President of the United States
who did not like good article or whis