The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-04-13
THE OLD GANG.

1t has become painfully evident that
"the old gaDg'-that cOterie OF emf
nent sharpers which fattened from the
public crib as benefcisriesof the Credit
Mobilier, of the Boss Shepherd ring
have come into power again at Wash
ington. 1t was fondly hoped by the
patriotic masses of all shades of polit-
ical opinion that President Harrison
would call into the control of the gov
eminent such men as were OF clean
hands and pure motives in the repub.
lican party; men who at least had be-
hind them in their public Lille notL-
ing that would bring a blush of
shame to the cheek of American citizen
ship at mention OF their names. But
the hopes of the people are doomed to
partial disappointment already. Pres
ident Harrison, with all the strength
of a clean public and private life, had
not strength enough TO resist the party
bosses and the worst element of the
party machine.
IL began with the appointment OF
Blaine as secretary of state-that same
/ Blaine who went down on his knees to
witness Caldwell and "My Dear Fish
err and begged for immunity on &C.
count of his family; that same Blaine
who did not prove a deadhead in the
enterprise of securing favorable legis-
lstion from congress in the interest of
the Little Rock railroad that identical
Blaine who disgraced American states
manship by his connection with the
guano gang of plunderers. Then there
C m Redfield Proctor, whose recon-
mendation for p%referment consisted
mainly OF the fact that he was president
of the marble trust; the John Wanna
maker, the Philadelphia merchant who
got a cabinet place solely because he
handed to Chairman Quay as a con-
tributioD to the campaign fund the
snug sun of 4 $1,000; and then followed
in rapid succession, Clarkson. Tyner,
Corporal Tanner, Mason of the whisky
trust, and a long line OF old. timers
whose public careers are a stencil in
the nostrils of the people.
Steve Elkins hobs in and out of the
White House as though he owned it,
while his old partners in Arkansas
are dealing out federal patronage in
the southwest as though they had a
mortgage on it.
The American people arc pausipg TO
consider the long-distance drop from
Bayard to Blaine; from Gen. Black to
Corporal Tanner; and it will strike
them sharply and suddenly some day
that the rampant republican party now
III power is dealing out the public Off
ces as though they were SO many
loaves and fishes, sanctified and broken
Ia the uses and purposes of party
bosses aud party hoodlums. Why,
the new administration was not two
weeks old before the republican sena-
tors began seriously to discuss the ad-
visibility of increasing their own SAL
aries and that of members of the house
to 10000, and actually caused an efTu-
sive and pathetic account OF their dis
cussion to be distributed broadcast
over the country through the medium
OF the Associated Pressl
The republicans at Washington are
getting on, truly. The old gang OF
schemers and ~despoilers are in the sad
die, and il they are moi yet whooplng
things it is not only because they do
not yet feel themselves entirely out of
the woods, or surely safe from the
gaze of those departing patriots who
slurdily maintained that public Office
is a pubic trust, and not a private
snap
The celebrated trOtting stallion,