The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-20

The presidential battle is near enough to
the Northwest so that the occasional boom
of big gun is heard above the squeal of
the planning mill. the squeak of the logging
sled and the roar of the grist mill.
The presidential campaign costs too
much and comes too often. but it has
healthful effect. 1t has the same effect on
the republic that a well agitated cistern
pole has in a cistern. 1t gives it a good
oxygenation. The purest water becomes
offensive if permitted to stand perfectly
stagnant for too long. Let in the light
and air and you prevent decay. That Is
where we have the advantage over king
dom or an empire. 1t is said by those
who are familiar with foreign potentates
and their methods that there is not
throne in the Old World that Is not alive
with cockroaches and other bacteria.
That would be impossible in this coun-
try. Just as a man gets to think that he
and Tammany together can make the axis
of the earth incline little more than it
great height. and on lighting candle and
scorching few feathers it IS found to be
that man.
Word comes to me recently that in re-
arranging the list of the Four Hundred
my name has been overlooked, and there
has been considerable carping about it.
This makes twice that Mr.. McAllister
has counted me out. His only reason for
doing this is not that my standing and
wealth at present are not all they should
be, but because l inherit coarse integ-
rity together with q tendency toward
trade.
But why should the thoughtless and i'll
advised toll of my parents be thrown in
my face now? Why should l be debarred
from leading the march at the Patriarchs'
ball or be compelled to eat tea by myself,
while up on Fifty-seventh street and Fifth
avenue the dreamy measures of Strauss
waltz are floating out at window and the
gasSbill is running up on Mr.. Vanderbilt
at such frightful rate?
Why did ever tell Mac that my father
hauled -four to Galena? 1 do not know.
But il has hurt me with him. have never
been the same, can see. in his estimation.
AT the club also one time / asked him
what he would have and he ordered little
Shetland pony of caraway sirup, while
ordered a schooner of beer, for it was n
warm day and / was awful dry. l noticed
that he did not talk any more-for l am a
keen observer-and so / judge that this
had something to do with the way l have
been treated. At his house once also he
passed porcelain receptacle around while
we were smoking, and when he came to
me and held it toward me / tipped the
ashes of my cigar into it.
was told afterward that it was bon
bonniere. | wrote him letter about it
afterward. but it was never answered.
At the time | was married | wrote him
to attend to the printing and send the bill
to me, but he never did it.
My great ambition now is to be his mort
gage and poster him on interest days. If
l have got to associate with tradespeople
and not have any refined fun. let me tackle
my job with good grace and content my
self with being low workingman with no
soul. But it is hard, Mac-it is hard to be
driven from your purlieus this way. Re-
member that whatever | am after this, you
and Mrs. De Feyster Bergamot have
made me. Recollect, Mac, that | gave
you the chance to make something of
me. You knew six years ago that | was
living in New York, for wrote you from
the store and told you we were coming
there to live. But did you call ON us
Not much, you didn't.
You said afterward that it was because
you saw me and Marlborough together a
good deal, but that was not so, for you
and he were pretty thick, too. after that.
No, Mac; you take the responsibility
when you cast out men like Mr.. Depew
and me and tell us to go, with the brand
of your disapproval on our brows. You
will have to answer before a higher
court for this, Mac. When you see me
i'll the morgue, Mr.. McAllister, with my
tired hands crossed over my peaceful
breast and a large 200-pouud piece OF ice
on me, remember that once | was pure as
the beautiful snow. Remember that so
long as | was not absolutely shut out OF
your set | hung on to my rectitude like a
pup to a root; but alasi when society
| shuts the door on one he let's go all holds
| as one may say, and cries out with the
| poet, Let the tail go with the hide"