St. Paul daily globe., 1888-06-09
FOR WILLIE HASKELL.
Not an Ass Nor Dyspeptic ASS,
But Mere Cultivated Nothing,
Says Correspondent.

Says a Correspondent.
To the Editor of the Globe.
Young Mr.: Haskell, of the Minneap-
Oils Tribune, is shocked beyond the
power of rational expression to think
that one of ''the mere people" (Mr. Has
kell's own eXpression) like Grover
Cleveland should ever venture to think
OF a second term in the presidential
ehair-much less accepta denomination.
How dare he, asks the young man from
Boston, attempt to stand with George
Washington, James Madison, Lincoln,
Grant and others who have been hon
ored by a second term? What has he
done to deserve it? And then, with
hne Boston Shudder, he says that Mr..
Cleveland is ''devoid of higher culture"
and at last accuses him of ''obese hy-
p0criSy."
Perhaps, my dear sir, it is not that
which he has done, but that which he
has not done, that most entities him to
the confidence of lOng-suffering peO-
PIE. Under Republican rule corruption
was at premium-the treasury, the
navy-ln fact, every department of the
government was infected with horde
OF pillagers and leeches; swindlers and
adventurers of all kinds. They fastened
themselves onto the public body, and
sucked the life blood of the country.
Every one who could get finger in the
public pie grew rich; and even Gen.
Grant knew so we'll what enormous for
tunes were to be made out of anything
In the shape OF a government contract
that he risked everything he had with
Ward on the mere statement of that un-
scrupulous person that he had the in
side track with the war department,
and could get fat contracts. Has
the present administration fur
nlshed any parallel to the
star route" cases; to the war
department scandal to the reckless
expenditure of millions on rotting hulks
and unseaworthy vessels? Has il given
birth to the thousand and one whispers,
or open charges of bribery, trickery and
corruption of all kinds, with which we
became so familiar during the ten years
or so previous to Cleveland's election?
Any honest, fair-minded man will an
swer no, it has done none of these
things; and this is not negative virtue,
but positive one, and if the people
choose to put Grover Cleveland on a
leyel-in the matter of a second term
with his illustrious predecessors, all
honor to the people who can recognize
sterling worth when they see it, and no
shame to the man who accepts the
honor, though he is not George Wash
lngton, but merely an honest, hard
working man, who dares to do what he
thinks is right under all circumstances.
AS TO the ''higher culture" the alb
sence Of which is so shocking to Mr..
Haskell, let Mr.. Cleveland thank heaven
that he does not possess it, at least not
of the quality current in the Tribune
office, for if Mr. Haskell's higher cul-
ture" allows man to make cowardly,
scurrilouS and caddish attack on
woman, and that woman the wife of the
president of the United States, and
guest of the very city where the insult
was offered, then God forbid that any
citizen OF this country should share the
''higher culture" now monopolized by
young Mr.. Haskell, of the Minneapolis
Tribune. The assertion that Mr.. Cleve-
land is an ''obese hypocrite'' is serious
matter. To be a hypocrite is bad
enough: to be an obese one is simple
depravity! 1t is as if, not content with
calling the young man of the Tribune
an ass-which pOliteness forbids-we 20
farther. and call him a dyspeptic ass, or
any other kind of an ass, if coupled
with some insulting reference to his
personal appearance. The argument is
hot any stronger thereby, but it is per-
maps more offensive to "mere people.'
The editor, or manager of the Tribune
does not belong to this class; he is out
side of everything, having cultivated
himself to such a height that there is
but little left of him save an empty
sound and. beyond his own narrow
circle he cannot See-Or be seem xt*