The record-union., 1893-01-20
BLEDsoE,s MISTAKE.

bleusoe, tne bantam from Humboldt,
who attempts to swagger in the costume
fselt-announced superior honesty, made
mistake on Monday in the Assembly.
Tumbling by accidental relation to an
exposure made in the House at the last
Legislature from obscurity into tempo
rary notoriety, he is now struggling to
maintain position for which he cannot
pose without exciting mirth and inspiring
contempt.
1t is of the code of ethics and honor that
personal denunciation of absent people
IS, with rare exception, an evidence of
cowardice. Bledsoe on Monday, in the
Assembly, brought this maxim forcibly
to mind when he denounced his personal
enemies of last session, on ground they
could not occupy forreply or to resent the
assault, and when, by reason of absence,
they could not face him. That was the
output ofdhe mans folly and chronic un-
fairness. His mistake was in assailing
one present under the stimulus of his
quixotic trucElency. The disaster that
followed proved it. In attributing to the
gentleman from Shasta Interior motives.
the days news record shows that he was
rewarded with the charge of being a
"liar."
This is the point where, among men
peace ends and war begins. In this case
the assailant sought shelter under the
contemplate, schoolboy retort, consider
the source" 1t is pitiful that a Califor-
ma legislative floor should have been the
stage for such display of white feather.
Members of a Legislative body are
peers; law. presumption. courtesy, place
them level. The gentleman from Shasta
is constructively the peer of any member.
This conception of equality however. is
beyond the mental grasp of any man
VINO, after manner contemplate among
men, and in execrable taste, threatens ex-
posure of the conduct of fellow men,
Der Of a past Legislature and, having to
take the lie, with boyish timidity
contents himself with consider the
source"
The Bruner scandal acquired a peculiar
relation to Journalism. The thrifty
method of transmitting influence into
coin being exposed by newspaper agency,
the latter was grateful to whoever on the
floor of the House approved and con-
1irmed the efficiency of the newspaper
detective agency. Thus it came to pass
that Bledsoe performed a service which
earned him the gratitude of the news
paper in question, gratitude which has
been constantly manifest since. For he was
of the committee to whitewash Bruner.
He reported in accordance with the mos
obvious conclusions of the evidence, and
it secured for him good deal of general
commendation at the time, under mis-
taken notions concerning the caliber OF
the man.
1t may be said that the reward ot
venality is not always money. 1t is
sometimes looked forward to in the form
of self-promotion, as the direct result OF
the assumtion of an attitude that Others
occupy for hard coin. So it is that there
are newspapers clamoring for recognition
as superior journals, that, being of the
blackmailing type, adopt an anti
monopoly policy from exactly analogous
moral motives, that in former times
blackmailed corporations.
A man whose enfeebled political con-
viotions permit him to commit treason
against the principles of the party to
which he owes his public existence, by
supporting Congressional candidate OF
the opposing party because such action
will further his political fortunes, delib-
erately enlists under the black flag OF
political ltreachery-hee engages in political
piracy.
1t is an ethical rule that constantly as
suming airs OF superior honesty justifies
doubt Of it; insolent strut and parade
in moral armor is an unerring indication
of dishonesty as a deliberately adopted
policy, as contradistinguishedf from priu-
ciple. The knave publishes what he
fondly imagines is a secret when he
hangs out over himself labels of honesty.
1t is so universally true as the result Of
human experience that it has become the
proverbial philosophy of the street.