Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-24
LINEAGE AND THE CARICATURIsTs.

Mr.. L. Z. Crawford, whose aDllltles as
Washington correspondent are only rivaled
by his wildness on political and social ques-
tions, has lately undertaken to read the
caricatursts a lecture. Lecturing the
caricaturists is about as arduous task as
holding a controversy with a newspaper;
and even if Mr.. Crawford had undertaken 10
correct the caricaturists on some of their
manifest faults, he might well be warned of
the consequences of his indiscretion. But
as the particular point which Mr.. Crawford
makes is that the pictorial gentry are es-
pecially scurrilous in making iun of those
who claim position as the representatives. of
an especial ancestry. his method Of argu-
ment is calculated to throw public opinion
to the side of the caricaturists.
The particular ofense of the picture
makers which has aroused Mr.. Crawford's
ire is their representation of President
Harrison as an exceedingly small specimen of
humanity under a very large "grandfather's
hat" This Mr.. Crawford regards as an ex-
ceedingly wanton disposition to revile those
who are the proud possessors of lineage, and
to deery the prominence of any man who
happens to enjoy the inherited light of an
illustrious grandfather. Such an awful at
tack upon the sacred subject of Family
Pride is not to be tolerated by Mr.. Craw-
ford, and he pursues the wicked caricature
makers with an avalanche of denunciation,
winding up by an expression of Mr.. Craw-
ford's opinion that the men who come of
eminent descent have exclusive claims to re-
spect, as follows:
If the garretbred artists temporarily trans
planted from foreign soil think that it is an
ignoble and despicable thing to have distin-
guished father, they may be able to carry the
point at which they are evidently aiming, and
that is to push to the front rank or high esteem
and attention the men whose fathers are abb
solutely unknown to any one.
With regard to the inspiring cause of Mr..
Crawford's deatribe, whether the overween-
ing size of the grandtather's hat. or the
especially small dimensions of the actual
man, are the most pertinent points, will re-
main matter of individual opinion. But
that there is any general disposition to give
unjust treatment to men because they are the
descendants of illustrious parentage, is not
correct. Indeed, there have been distinct in
dications to the contrary in some cases, and
we suppose that Mr.. Crawford's manifesto is
intended to forbid any departure from the
rule of awarding public preferment on the
score OF descent. Colonel Fred Grant, who
is a somewhat conspicuous example of dis
ability, has been awarded high position
simply on the score of his fathers memory.
Mr.. Robert Lincoln, whose amiabl. and
estimable reputation has not at all been
diminished by his misplaced trust in Mr..
Andrews, of this State. has nevertheless been
given preferment far beyond what was indi-
Gated by any achievement of his own solely
on the record of his paternity. Not to en-
large on such additional cases of inherited
prominence as Russell B. Harrison, the
younger Cameron or our own Dick Quay,
the further fact should be noted that there is
no disposition to make fun of the ancestry of
men who occupy prominent places by reason
of their own ability. No caricature has
ever placed a grand ather's hat on any of
the Adams family, or Secretary Hamilton
Fish, or Messrs. Bayard, Hoar, Freling-
huysen or Wade Hampton. In this respect
the opinion has clearly prevailed that the
man who has ancestry is just as good as the
man who has not, and no better.
But this is what Mr.. Crawford will not
allow. He evinces very plainly his con-
viction that 'garret- bred artists" are an
Inferior race who have no privilege of criti-
cislng men of lineage, and he reaches the
most astonishing development of his idea in
representing as subsersive result of their
labors that they may "push to the front
rank of high esteem and attention the men
whose fathers are absolutely unknown to
anyone" This would be decided revolu-
tion if it were not necessary to speak of it in
the past tense. There is distinct impress
sion that the Government founded by such
men as Franklin, Hancock, the first Adams,
and the ''embattled farmers" generally, ex-
lists for that very purpose. 1t would be a
somewhat interesting query where, not only
this country, but some of the men who now
get preferment by virtue of their parentage,
would have been if the principle of equality
had not allowed men whose lineage was so
obscure as that of Lincoln and Grant-to say
nothing of Andrew jackson, Daniel Web
'ster, Henry Wilson, and James A. Gar
feld-to come to "the front rank of high es-
TEEN and attention"
REAR COLUMN REDIvIvUS.