The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1891-12-23
MIR. BLAINE's APPEARANCE.

MIR. BLAINE's APPEARANCE.
Mr.. Blaine's health is still a question
of solicitude for the Mugwump and
Democratic press and the funeral of the
late Senator Plumb which the Secretary
of State attended was made the occas-
ion by some of the Washington CORE
spondents for sending out reports of his
appearance more or less sensational.
Their Republican contemporaries to a
less degree also commented on the man
ner in which Mr.. Blaine bore himself
during the sad preliminary obsequies.
That most rabid of Nlgwump pa
pers, the Boston Herald, with ill-con-
cealed bitterness, reported that Mr..
Blaine looked colder. thinner and grayer
than at any time since his return to
Washington" and "abashed and shaken
by the suddenness with which Plumb
departed" The correspondent pictured
Mr.. Blaine as tottering at the edge of
the grave, but the picture was so over
drawn, so malignant and so plainly
showed the animus of the writer that it
stamped itself as unworthy of belief.
The Democratic Boston Globe did not
comment on the Secretary's appearance,
but reported that before and after the
funeral services he devoted time TO die
tating in vigorous manner State pa
per to n stenographer, feat rather i'm
probable if he was as sick as the Herald
writer would have the public think him
to be.
The New York Sun found that while
Mr.. Blaine ''looked careworn and i'm.
pressed with the sadness of the day he
otherwise appeared much as usual" The
New York Herald man thought Mr..
Blaine looked "haggard" as well as care
worn. The New York World had no
report concerning the Secretary's looks
but the correspondent gossiping of his
Presidential chances told that he would
accept the nomination at the time of the
convention "if his health is as good as it
is at present." which is another way of
saying that the Boston Herald story is
worthy of no belief.
The few Republican papers that
thought it necessary to take the Mug
wump and Democratic stories of Mr..
Blaine's condition seriously and to report
how he appeared while in the Senate
chamber simply confirm the general i'm
preston that his good health has re-
turned The Boston Journal says that
certainly Mr.. Blaine did not appear to
be the sick man many Of his opponents
have described" The New York Re
corder was impressed by the fact that
" his step was as firm and his figure as
erect as that of the younger man by his
side," while the Brooklyn Times CORE
spondent dismisses the subject by simply
recording that President Harrison.
leaning on the arm of Secretary Blaine,
walked into and down the centre aisle
Mr.. Blaine is certainly the central fig
ure in the contemporaneous history of
the United States. As Secretary of State
his duties are manifold and arduous and
would tax the nerves and appearance of
younger men. He was probably engaged
upon matters connected with the Chill
can question before he went to the Capt.
tol on Monday, and taking that in con-
nection with the sadness of the occasion
that called him there, there was excuse
for a careworn or even haggard APP
pearance.
Mr.. Blaine will probably be the next
Republican candidate for President.
That, and only that, explains the rea-
sons for the ghoulishness with which
the Boston Herald reprints its palpable
untruths about his physical condition.
IL is poor ammunition, but il is the best
the Mugwumps can find.