The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1888-11-15

10 you In hard work an equivalent for the
wages you pay him, yom have no right to ask
anything else of him. He sold you his work;
he did not sell you his political or religious
principles But you know MS well rs do
there Is sometimes on that sacred chest, the
ark OF the American covenant n shadow cor
porate or monopolistic
Another powerful foe Of that sacred chest
the ark OF the American covenant, the ballot
box is bribery.
Very often II is not money that bribes but
it Is Office. "You make me President and mi
make you Cabinet officer: YOU make mo
Governor and Ill make you Surveyor Cen
eral you make me Mayor and I'll put you on
the Water Board; you give me position and
IN give You position.~ That Is tho form o,
bribc often api often in these great cities.
do not say 10 IS in our city, hut you know
again and ngain throughout the land these
have been the forms of bribe offered SO II
Is often the case that bv the time n man comes
to an Office to which he has been elected be
is from the crown Of head To- the sole of foot
mortgaged with pledges, and the man who
goes to Albany or to Wnshin gton TO get nm
Office is applying for some position which
was given away threa months befor tho cleo.
ton. Two long lines OF worm fcnce, ono
worm fence reaching To- Albany and the other
to Washington, and there n great many
citizens astride the fence. and they are
equally poised and they are waiting TO SEQ
on which side there is most emolumcnt, and
on this side they get down. but bribery
kicks both ways. 1t kicks the man that o..
fers 1t and the man that takes It, Bribery
to-day You will almit to lie one of the might.
lest foes of the American ballot box
Another great enemy Of that sacred chest
Is defamation of character Can YOU find
out from the newspapers when two men are
running for office which is the bust, How
often in the autumnal elections the good man
is denounced aud tho bad man opplaudcl, so
that you can como sometime, to no lust
II IL hfgt tpn ,I
are hundreds aud thousands of electors who
go up To vote SO utterly bctogged they know
not what they do Is not that n fearful in
tluence to bc brought upon the ballot box of
this country. 10 has been so ever since tho
foundation Of this Government
Defamntionl II is the curse of the Ameri-
can ballot box. just as soon rs in the great
cities "A man Is put up for office he Is made
the target. The fact that he is up is prima
fa"ie evidence that he must be brought down
His public life and his private life arc scrut-
ni1ed, and all tue electric lights are turned
on. How often IL is that men have gone
down under such things. In every autumnal
election the air is filed with carrion crows
scenting carcasSes. Cav! Caw Cav There
are newspapers in tho United states that in
tho great autumnal elections take wild
license for liberty. They are filled with
calumy. The editorial columns Of such
papers reek with IL; their columns are
stuffed with II. There are newspapers in
tue iulltl NliteS WHICH III llle HTtHl llOpu-
lar elections breakfast aud dine and sup ON
indecency. They wallow IN It. Swine like
the mlre. They give more for one quill full
of IL than whole hogshead of decent pro.
duct. There are in these great autunnal
elections men sitting in editorial chairs who
write with quill, not pluckod from the stu
pid goose or the sublime eagle, hut from
turkey bulZlrd! Ghouls! GhOulsl They
tip the city sewer into their editorial ink.
stands. defamation Of character is one of
she curses of the American ballot box to-day
In your great presidential elections who can
tell from what he reads who is the man he
ought TO vote for, Bad men sometimes ap-
plaudcd, good men denounced.
Another powerful foe of the sacred chest,
the ark of the American covenant the bal
lot box, is the rowdy and drunken caucus.
The ballot box does not give any choice to
a man when the nominations are mnde III the
back part of n GROCERY. When the clectOr
cones up he has to choose ietwccn two evils.
/ Ia some OF tho cities men have come to the
/ ballot box to vote. and have found both
names such scaly, greasy and stenchlul
| crew they had no choice, You say vote for
/ somebody outside. Then they throw away
their vote Christian men of New York and
| Brooklyn, honorable men, patriotic men, go
and take possession of the Caucuses First
| having saturated your pocket handScrChieis
| with cologne or some other disnfectant, go
down to the caucus and take posses
/ sion OF it in the name of the Lord Got
Almighty and the American people, though
J after YOU come back you should have to
hang your hat aud coat on n line in the back
yard for ventilation.
/ Now, how are these things to loo rcmcdicd 7
Some say by property qualification. They
soy that after ~ man gets "A certain amouis
| or pruperty--a certain amount of real estate
! he is financially Interested III good govern
mcnt and he becomes cautious aud conserva-
tive reply, n property qualification would
shut or from the ballot box II great many of
the best men in the land. Literary men are
ALMOST always poor. A pen is IA good mple-
mcnt To make the world bett r., but IL is u
| very poor implement to get livelihood orii-
narly. have known scores of literary men
| who never owned "a foot If groun AMI never
/ VIII own IA foot OF ground until they get
| und IL. lrotcssors of colleges, teachers OF
/ schools, editors of news, upCrs, minister's of
religion, qualified IN every possible way to
/ vote, yet no worldly success There has been
| many "A man who has not had n house on
earth who will have IA mansion in heaven.
There Dre many who through accidents oi
fortune have come to great success while
they are profound in their stupidity, as pro.
found in their stupidity rs n man of large
fortune with whom was crossing the ocean,
who told ne he was going 10 see the dykes of
Scotland! When member of my family
asked n lady on her return from Europa ii
she had seen Mont Blanc, She replied: "Well,
really, | don't know: is that IN Europer
Ignorance by the square foot. Property
qualification will not do. he only way
these evils will ho eradicatad will bo hy
more thorough legal defense of the ballot
box and n moro thorough moraliZation
md Christianzation of the people. That
ark of the covenant was carried
into captivity to Kiriath- jearim but on,
day tine people hooked oxen to II cart, aud
they put this ark on the cart, and tn,
cart was taken To Jerusalem the ark OF
the covenant coming with the shouting and
thanksgiving of the people. And though
tho American ballot box, the ark of tht
American covenant our sacred chest, has
been carried again and again into captivity
by fraud and iniquty and spurious voting,
believe it will be brought back yet by prayer
and by Christian conservation, aud will l.,
set down in the midst Of the temple oil
Christian patriotism Whose responsibility
Yours and mine.
You have not only a vote, you have q
prayer. The prayer may be mightier than
the vote. Oh, as citizens of this beautiful
city, and of this State and of this nation, LEI
us do our whole duty. We cannot live under
any other form of government than that
which God has given us in this country. Tie
stars on our flag are not the stars of IA thick
enlng night, but the stars sprinlled amid the
bars of morning cloud. We are goiug "a
have one government on this entire cont