New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-07-25

usual. But these are not changes over which
the substantial producers of the country have
occasion to shed tears.
SINCE THE DAY OF THE DULL THUD.
OF all the queer topsy -turvyings IN the
kaleidoscope of politics there was never any
thing half so queer or so funny as what has
happened here in NewYork State and city to
the Democratic party during the last two or
three years. For a moments diversion, let us
take n little retrospective glance. Let us take
for the datc-lne the morning after the Novem-
Der election of 1888, when President Cleveland
awoLe very much disappointed and quite
considerably defeated candidate for reelection.
Il was for him the day of the dull thud for he
had been cock sure OF reelection, and had made
no preparations for moving. As indeed, why
should he? lie had had next to him Tor four
wears some of the best thinkers in the land,
who had fed him fat with natery and made him
believe that as between himself and the party
which elected him he was the creditor, they
the debtors that they owed everything to him,
he nothing TO them and that there could be no
possible doubt that the Democrats OF his own
State would give him an overwhelming major
INV ana IndkF HIS fl'tlpH Nh'' ~ '"H +" i'NN
awakening from that pleasing dream when he
read in the returns that his own State had given
It's vote to his opponenS and that the country had
served on him notice OF eviction. lie was
heavy man. and had been living for four years
at high elevation above common persons in
the superior atmosphere and the great altitude
Of the best thinkers II was with a very dull
thud that he sat down on hard pan that morning.
And then he began TO think He observed
that a gentleman who had been his Lieutenant
when he was Governor. for whom he had no
admiration nor even respect, whom he had
treated coldy as n person OF no consequence,
accidentally drawn into prominence by fortu-
nate connection with himself-a really nobody in
particular-had not only been running for GOV
crnor of the State Of Ncw-York. hut had carried
it and been elected, when he himself had lost it
and was defeated And he said TO himscf-and all
the superior persons who had access 10 him con
frmod his view-that this could not have hap
pened except by the baScSt trcachcry. This
WAS clearly and unmistakably the undcrhandcd,
reasonable work Of David b. HILL II was not
possible that the honest voters OF the great state
OF New York who had known MIR. Cleveland
personally and enjoyed the great boon of having
had him for their Governor, could have dis
eliminated between himself and David i. lldl
10 the advantage of the latter, unless there had
been trading and trcIiery and trcachcry OF the
most dcmoraizing and dcbasing and low-down
sort. No other theory was consistent with Mr..
Clcvcand's belief in himself with the faith
of his dolatcrs in him. This was the only cx-
PLANTATION offered by the superior persons for
a.. Ill IL, e \,vornicr
A little later Mr.. Cleveland retired in most
becoming manner 10 private life II Is not too
much to say that he has adorned il. He Ger
tainly will not think il unkind in us when We
express the hope that he may continue 10 do so.
Meantime however his former Lieutenant not
only remained in public life, but began to hustle
somewhat therein. lie very shortly walked up
10 the steering end OF the party and took the
helm. For four years he held it ; held 1t in such
fashion that every man in the ships crew who
knew the ships real mission said Heres your
man. your genuine pirate captain, who HOSTS
the flag without flinching, makes his enemies
walk the plank without mercy, knows his ships
company, that they don't care for glory, but
are bent on booty, and goes for whatever is in
sight. Hail to the Chief" All the time tho
pcrfccting the discipline. keeping the crew
good natured with grog ratiOns and laying vio-
lent hardS on everything within reach, Mr..
Cleveland made no sign lie complaccntly re-
hected and Sullcnly remembered. His associates
not only made mouths ut the pirate captain and
tho Tammany crew while all this work Of put
ting the ship in order going on. They even
rose in mutiny. And now the result. Cast
your eyes. men and brethren to the steering
end OF the pirate ship. Who is the stout gentle
man at the helm? Does he look like the man
who for four years has been putting the ship
in fighting trim? Is that the man who has
ridden rough-shod over everything N order to
pat the Democracy IN a position to carry the
State the man whose management secured the
Legislature, made Il new census and new APP
portionmcnt possible, and, without shadow of
scruplc or twingc Of conscience, seized every
point of vantage for his party?
Not much. That man has gone below The
stout man at the helm, who has just been telling
the Harlem Democrats that he has forgotten
that there were ever any differences IN the
party, is Grover Cleveland. For four years he
and his ntimates have spent most of their time
disappearing of David +. Hill, and rolling up
the whites of their eyes at his wicked methods
Isn't it funny to SEQ him and them rcaping all
the advantages OF the machinery and methods
created and put in operation by Mr.. Hip And
isn't il funncr still to sec the mild surprise they
manifest that Mr.. Hill stays below and is not
on deck cheering for the new captain?
THE Cu1UTaTOT1 SE1SDy