The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1892-05-20
COMMUNICATED.
MANKATo, MINI, May IL, 1892.

nit me to express through the columns
of your paper my sincere sympathy for
our mutual friend Hon. John Dia-
mond, in his present great political
disappointment and bereavement by
the discreditable treatment at the
hands of the late Maple Bush Alliance
circle at their last Good Thunder
meeting?
For many years he has been not
merely an influential man but the
magnetic kohiner center of that
grange. 1t was his brilliancy that
charmed, his magnetic power that
brought these Maple Bush fellows to-
gether and crystalized them into a
political party. In the light of his
brilliancy they reveled like moths
around the tallow dip. 1t was his
magnetism that held them in their
orbit as they performed their periodi-
cal circuits around their brilliant
centre-like the nebulOuS clusters of
the milky way they reflected only
borrowed light. Their little success
in their political struggle were due to
his herculean labOrS in their behalf.
But like other little minds they grew
vain and became drunken with the
slight success they had gained only
under our lonely friends leadership.
At their last meeting, with the AFRO
gance of Satan as he exclaimed bet
ter rule in hell than servein heaven"
In their blind fury, under the lead ola
better imitation of the Jack of spades
than Donnelly himself, refused to even
notice his motions, permit discussion,
or time for consideration, they threw
themselves body and soul, boots and
breeches into the DOnnelly-FiSh third
party, with all it's cheap money, pawn
shop treasury and secret oath bound
organization, leaving our old friend
standing alone in his glory, not even
recognition of his past service, hon
OrS or power marked their summary
farewell. Consigned him to oblivion
or as expressed by Cleveland
relegated him ''innocuous des-
uetude" by their ingratitude to their
old chief proving their ''indelible in
eligibility" to any place of honor CT
trust in the future. Grand, glorious
and majestic in his lonliness, the i'm
age of establishment. the embodiment
of outraged manhood, and indig-
nant virtue, as he gaZed in wonder
and establishment on his recreant
satilites that had SO long basked in
the light of his cOuntenance prOtited
by his labors, and reyered him as the
personification of all that was great,
good and glorious in the Alliance
party. You are not to blame, dear
Jack, for your justly indignant refer
ence to Webb, Currier and O'Connor,
they deserved it, but where was that
Democratic saint Champlin, and the
nOndescript Baker, both of whom
were largely indebted to your skillful
manipulation OF two buckets Of water
on separate shoulders, that their clar-
ion voices failed to be heard in your
behalf? The first for his election,
the second for his coveted nOmina-
tiOn.
1t was indeed Scurvy trick, and
like old dog Tray: you were caught in
bad company and badly treated. |
fear, my old friend, you possibly ever
estimated your magnetic influence
over the class OF men you had gath
cred around you, or it is waning with
age. You failed to bear in mind the
old truth, that the Wanderer from
party to party in pursuit Of office and
appreciation would quite as readily
disappoint or betray one man as many,
If they thought for their interest to
do so. But, friend Diamond don't
let this setback dishearten you, ''be-
hind the clouds the sun is shining"
and there are lots of fish in the sea
that never were caught. The lesson,
though severe, may, if carefully stud
led, prove useful. You got in bad
company; thank Providence for your
mir Of ho oh no
caught again, don't forget that the
man that would betray me would be-
tray you. Very few of that kind Of
men ever benefit the Cordage trust
by playing the Judas act to finish.
But never mind, old boy, grey heads
like you and / can get lots more fun
from the pleasant memories of days
long passed than from our political
aspirations of the future. Your fu-
ture in the course of nature must be
much longer than mine, but it will
do you no harm to turn your mind
from the gloomy present to the happy
days of bOyhood when you played
marbles for keeps in uncle Cameron's
door yard without a single political
aspiration in head or heart to mar
your pleasure; later on when you en-
jOyed the happy consciousness of a
good, honest Republican. supporting
honest "Old Abe," and still later
when as a devout, hard working
Democrat, shrinking from no work,
clean or dirty, for the good of the
cause your labors were appreciated
and rewarded by the party with the
best Office in the county for several
years. Those were halcyon days,
Jack, compared with the present
gloom.
Draw every consolation possible
from the liberality of the Democratic
party to your Alliance crowd in the
last legislature, and thank the good
Lord the hungry crowd took nothing
beyond their reach. Don't forget the
days when you were the koh-i-noor,
Diamond, of the Democracy, and a
real figure-head in the party before
your brilliancy and magnetism drew
these disappointed, unappreciated
malcontents and soreheads into your
charmed circle. You accepted their
homage, gave them the benefit of
your influence, doomed some of them
into office. and others into the motor