The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-08-31
FORGET-ME-NOTS.

One of the most savage attacks have ever
known a newspaper to make on public
man was made by the New York sun last Fri
day on Representative Cannon, OF Illinois
Here is the opening sentence of an editorial by
the Sun on the remark which Mr.. Cannon
made in debate on Wednesday, and which was
called in question as supplementary: "The
unspeakable loafer who represents the Fif-
teenth District of Illinois in the House of Rep
resentatives of the Fifty-first Congress ought
to be sent home to his constituents saturated
with carbolic acid or some other powerful dis
infectant His continued presence in
Congress is an insult to common
decency and to the nations self-respect."
Here's how the article closes: "Censure at
the bar OF the House will not answer. What
the House needs is disnfection. Send back to
private life the author of the speech that will
never be reported in any type just as it was de-
livered. Send back to the Fifteenth District of
Illinois the man with the dirty mouth" Now,
If this speech twill never be reported in any
type just as it was delivered" how, would like
to know, does this writer in the New York sun
know what the speech wasS
All this affectation of verbal purity and of
disgust at Mr.. Cannon's remark is extremely
ridiculous. Mr. Cannon spoke in the hurry
OF debate, which must always be an excuse for
more or less unpublished utterances, vet this re-
mark, about which so much fuss has been made,
asreported in the Congressional Record of Thurs
day, need not offend anybody. admit it is capa-
BILE of a construction but it is also capable
of a construction which renders it not only un-
Objectionable but very appropriate; and if this
coarse construction is put upon it it is not the
fault of Mr.. Cannon. AS he very properly said,
in reply to his critics, I" Honi soft qti NAL q
penSe." The remark belongs to Mr.. Cannon, but
the. construction belongs to the man who
makes it.
X X X
There are people who find good in every
thing, and there are people so constituted that
they see evil in everything. There are said to
be some scientists so skilled in physiology
and natural history that if they are furnished
with single bone of any animal that ever
existed they can, out of their knowledge and
ingenuity, construct the entire animal. So in
the moral world there are some people SO de-
prayed that if you give them single word to
start on, no matter if it be the initial word of
the Lords Prayer or the Sermon on the Mount
they can, out of their perverted ingenuity
construct an indecent remark or blackguard
story upon it. The readiness that some people
show to interpret Mr. Canaon's remark
in coarse way seems to argue simply that the
gentlemen are personally familiar with the Cos
sip and the literature of coarseness. If any
remark is capable of decent Interpretation
think decent people will give it that interpreta-
ton. The capacity for attaching low meanings
to equivocal expressions argues, think, GER
tain degree OF guilty knowledge and of low
habit. The mock Indignation which the af-
fected purists show at Mr.. Cannon's harmless
remark seem to me to resemble the indigna
ton shown by the young woman who repelled
an improper advance by her fancse with the
remark that she had been cheated that way
before.
The expression which dropped from Mr.. Can
non in the hurry of debate on Wednesday, and
for which he has been so numerically, and 1
a66 foir
and abused, could not by any possible construc-
ton be made one-tenth as coarse as the remarks
that are said to have been habitual with Presi-
dent Lincoln every hour of the day and in all
sorts OF company. Yet hear the great martyr
President praised and admired for unmitigated
and undoubted coarseness, while the precious
hypocrites profess to want to have Judge Can
non tarred and feathered for one little remark,
Which is hardly open to suspicion, and which
certainly cannot be construed in an offensive
sense except by depraved Imagination.
Il X
One thing is certain the Democrats are the
party of peace and order and decorum. 1t was
an envious sight to see the undisturbed serenity
of the entire Democratic side of the House on
Wednesday when the entire Republican side
was in disorder, one Republican leader calling
another Republican leader liar and tramp,
and, worse than that, while other Republican
members were humping each other, not like
prize fighters, which would have had some
merit in it, but like irate and drunken fish
women.
Representative Wilson, of Washington, who
got into the fight On Wednesday with Repre-
sentative Beckwith, is the same gentleman
whom Gen. Spinola called ''Sonnyn one day.
Gen. Spinola had made some remark about a
gentleman who was not named, which caused
several members to rise in their several places,
and to ask one after another if the remark was
meant for them. Finally little Wilson rose and
inquired if he was the gentleman intended.
mo, didn't mean you, my son." said the old
General, as if he were saying ''Shoo fy,' and
he proceeded with his remarks.
X X h
The Senate has agreed to halt before erecting
the statue of Lafayette on the site prepared at
the edge Of Lafayette Square and Pennsylvania
avenue, on the ground that second thought
may find a better place for it. Wherever the
monument may finally be placed, it will be an
ornament and fine piece of art. We are soon
to have an eX-Secretary of War Edwin NJ
ment Building, and an ex-Secretary of the
Treasury in front of the Treasury Building, and
in a short time We shall certainly have in Wash
ington more outdoor statuary than there is in
any other city in the Union. On histori-
cal associations and commemorative art
we shall soon be ahead even of Chicago
The historical associations and the art collec-
tions that are bound to cluster around this city
within the next century will make Washington
TO the student of history and art a more inter
esting city than either London or Rome. In
the next hundred years the United States of
America will make more history than any other
nation has made since the Deluge, and it will be
all epitomized and symbolized in Washington
DAVID LEwsLEY.