Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-03-06
sneaker Reeds Joke.

De great as the desire anu eoAuoHos w
say funny things. It grows on him, and
always hsndicsps him in the long run.
In the first place, fun must grow fast
and furious to attract people to the per-
former any length of time, and no man
was ever vet able to keep the pace re-
ouired of him. The teller OF off-color
stories must make them more and more
"broad" if he would keep up his fame,
and the end of it is too often an habitual
coarseness of speech that mars the char
acter. And wit is scarcely less danger
Gus, although of higher intellectual
quality. The former is the stuffed club
that confuses the victim but never kills,
while the latter is the scimitar whose
stroke makes the wound that never
heals. He who wields this weapon
grows to delight in witnessing the twinge
of pain he inficts, even when the object
of it is an undeserving and unsuspecting
victim.
Speaker Reed is witty man. No one
who knows him can question this. But
it is wit that is out of season. In DR.. john
sons time it would have made him we'll
nigh famous, for then every man who
could boast such talent had the highest
equipment for service-although the
weapon was more bludgeon than
sword. With the Speaker it is the sharp
tongue that once let loose can never be
trusted. We observe that the Republi-
can press charge partizanship upon all
who have questioned his rulings in the
,~lace of rules, and we wonder if all who
th, ,xk his response to the invitation to
attend q great banquet in Southern
city un,ignifed and indecent are to be
accused o. putting it upon purely par
tizan grounds ?
After the good feeling between the
North and the South, the absolute blot
ting out of all sectienalism that is possi-
he j. .ha ;";;s- since the war, and with
oil nort;os ,rvino 70 asserve to be be-
lieved as friendly to all the interests "
the whole national least as far as plat
forms go-wae it not inexplicable that
Speaker Reed should write that he could
not 60 to Kentucky because he preferred
''to die later and elsewhere ?" This will
be caught up as witty and paraded as
specimen of that smartness that just now
seems to have supplanted all other forms
of Republican speech or policy but
surely it cam OF long escape the estimate
that the unwritten law among gentlemen
places upon such fippancy; for not even
the Republicans themselves can forget
that this is sectionalism that is indecent
as we'll as impolitic and offends the ordi-
nary sense of honor and hospitality
without which society, in any broad
sense, could not be maintained.
Why, even at the very time this un-
exampled coarseness s of speech was being
laughed over by the party editors, the
Republican National League clubs OF the
whole country were meeting in another
Southern city, and royal and memora-
BILE welcome was accorded them by all
the citizens. The simple fact is that
Speaker Reed never epoils a joke to
spare friend, much less an enemy. He
has carried his swagger of speech SO far
that not even his colleagues are on good
terms with him. Neither of the Maine
Senators speaks to him because, as they
say, of his sharp tongue and Of
fensive ways. We can scarcely
credit the belief that this fault comes
from anything but the fatal tendency of
the witty man who is ambitious to i'm
press himself upon the public. Speaker
Reed knows how completely he has put
himself at the head of his party in Con-
gress, and that this supremacy can be
maintained only by keeping up this pic
turesque and unique posturing. With bis
sharp tongue and his uure strained use Of
it-aye, his incorrigible tendency to seek
every opportunity to let it loose-it is
easy for him to keep this lead. He is
content to let others do the framing o.
legislation, thus escaping real conflicts
He is content not even to compare him
!. self with others, thus escaping al
} ordinary jealousies. So he has full
opportunity to study and practice
, phrase and epithe. and combine what ii
, needed to keep up the party policy ant
, standard, and contribute to his own com
. plete happiness. His last joke was very
: risky, and one wonders how long thi
t can last. 1t is not believed that AM
q other man in public life ever sent such
, message to company of gentlem en-
It least of all, a public man holding the
second place in the Government.
o But it must not be forgotten, in ex
d planation, that conditions have changed
t and it may be that the great body of tn,
, American people so far sanction this BY
s their silence that they may be countet
o to make up the needed quorum to ap
Q prove. Time, however will tell.
u That purchase by the New York peo
pie of 10000 acres of land under the
Bear valley water system together with
i this means of irrigation seems to be
q really un fat dccompk. The price was