New-York tribune., 1888-08-29
GHOSIS.

r. is prettv nearly ninety days-almost quarter
NJ q roor-snce Cleveland was nominated and no
lettcr Of acceptancc yet. OF course, RepubucahS
are having good deal to say about 1t and grow
inc very facetious and sarcastic. and al that
sort OF thing; but perhaps they hardly m'Nc
enough allowance for the large washington
statesman. lie may be doing the best he can.
The suggestion that Dan Lamont may have writ-
er's cramp appears to be irrelevant, and we shali
not consider it at present
When Mr. Cleveland sits down 10 write his
letter of acceptance he Is apt to fall a-thlnKlng
and keep it up till bedtime; and so the letter
languishcs There are thoughts which will come
to him First and foremost of these is the re-
membrance of his own playful little remark about
the dangers and disagreeable features Of sec
ond term. II is one Of those ghosts which you
can't put down. No innOcuous dcsuetudc
about this ghost. It looms up like gns-bill
collector That was an easy thing TO say; but
a fellow has to scrape his finger up and down the
columns OF the dictionary long time to find
words that seem to be intended to take him ar Jund
il. The thoughtless pnblic little knows how
many sheets of good white paper the President
may have written and torn up in tryinS to say
just the right thing on this one point alone
Then the ghost of his last winters Free Trade
message comes and stands by his side. Art
tariff reform ~ asks Mr. Cleveland, as his knees
smite together No! Free Trade and thou
lSnowest it.' says the ghost in hollow accents.
II causes long delay in the letter. Mr.. Clcve-
land knows now that the majority of the American
people do not want Free Trade; also that the ma
orty of the American people know that he does:
now how can he convince the majority Of the
American people that they want him? More
.l.o and fnnr
dictionary
And there come to him also in his hour Of
distress the ghosts of the widows and orphans
whose poor little modest pension bills he vetoed
Widows and orphans cut an Indifferent figure at
the polls, but they cast big shade on a man
when he is writing letter of acceptance.
Another unlaid ghost is that of corrupted
and rrosttuted civil service. II sits down by
his side as he starts to write and puts its feet on
the table He remembers that Ia promised
reformed civil service; that he has given one over
which hovers the black genius OF Corruption,
casting one Of the darkest shadows in the history
of the country. And sometimes this ghost that
has its feet upon his writing-paper reads short
extracts from four-page article in certain morn
ing newspaper The paper has wide columns,
and six of them to a page. 1t isn't pleasant
reading for Chief Executives it is ghoulish
glee in earnest; it seriously delays the writing.
Then there troop in to him other ghosts: the
ghost of returned Confederate aags-Quitc ghost,
too, when you look at it close the ghost OF cyclo-
paedic speeches, not so big, but still fair-sized
ghost when looked at from the point OF view of
the President of enlightened, intelligent country
like this; the ghost of the loss Of residence in
Buffalo, and the inability TO vote; the ghost OF
the estrangemcnt of personal friends; and now
the ghost of the retaliation 1zzle, and active
ghost that springs up and sits on the back Of his
chair and bangles its feet over his shoulder.
None OF these are pleasant colaborators No
wonder he has been at the work nearly three
months But they are all with him yet: they
arc regular, permanent ghosts; can we expect
letter of acceptance at all?