The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-02-26
THE WILLIN' BARKISES.

The lofty sense of duty which seems
to animate the coming Democratic adj
ministration, its attaches and depend
ents, and those who have put themselves
in position to become attaches if light
ming should strike them, is of q char
acter to excite the profoundest awe and
admiration. Mr.. Cleveland himself, it
is we'll known, has long been filled with
a sense of responsibility to his country
which is simply colossal. 1t is of that
weight and intensity that every one of
his three hundred and fifty pounds
avoirdupois must fairly culver under
the burden. For several years he has
been standing around waiting for his
country to coll him to hold
it up, and since the call came he has
been bracing his feet, drawing deep
breaths and getting in shape to spit on
his hands and take tight grip when
the 4th of March dawns. AS a prelim-
mary to this event he must necessarily
get his subordinates in line. "Gresh-
am," he writes to that eminent patriot;
Gresham, the country needs you;
need you. Will you comeW And the
Judge, with the spirit of unselfshness
and self-sacrifce for which he is noted.
promptly puts personal considerations
in his pocket and agrees to immediate
himself on the altar of the State De-
partment "for duty's sake" Carlisle
did not want to give up his senatorship.
in which he had freedom of thought
and action, to become Treasury figure
head, but he did it because the chief
wished it." Lamont, and Bissell, and
Morton, and Olney, and Herbert
were, each and all, making sac
rlfces to give up their private
business, but "felt it their duty"
to accept the Presjdent-elect's invita-
ton to help save the country. Smith,
Hoke Smith, he of Georgia. seemed,
when he burst upon startled c0mmu-
nifty, to be in the act of turning summer
saults of joy in the direction of Wash
ingtoD, but these demonstrations were,
it turned out, not caused by personal
citation, but by pure gladness at the OPP
portunity to fulfill duty. jerks. too,
jerks of Pennsylvania, was willin'.
jerks thought he had an invitation to
share the awful responsibility imposed
by confding people upon the ex-
sheriff of Buffalo, and fastened to ask
his pastor if he should accept. The
pastor said: "Jenks, go; it is your duty"
and jerks said, 81 WILL" But, alas! the
invitation had string to it, and jerks
did not go. In Hollands novel, arthur
Bcnnicastle," is a coachman named
jerks, who, when he feels that his
services are unappreciated, is in the
habit of declaring to his employers:
"Ye'l wake up some fine morn
ing and call for jerks. but he'll
not be here; he'll be on the
rolling pillows" 1t can hardly
be supposed that the willing services of
the Pennsylvania jerks can be spared
without loss, and the administration
may expect to wake some day to its
need of him, only to find him ION the
rolling pillows" far beyond recall.
Here, too comes Thnrber as willing,
nay, an eager and impassioned, martyr.
To become Cleveland's private secretary
be must give up an income of ten or fif-
teen thousand dollars for a half OF
third of that amount, but what is that
when the door opens for great and
glorious work? afford to go? There
is nothing to be considered except Mr..
Cleveland's call. / hope he is not mis-
taken in his confidence in his Judgment
of me, but he thinks | can serve him, and
/ shall go. l would rather leave my chill
dren the record that he summoned ME,
that accepted, and, above all, that
in some measure fulfilled in his service
his expectations of me, than to leave
them great fortune What could man
say more If the "call" had come from
the Lord Almighty
There may be those of scoffing and
vulgar mind who will protest that this
talk about duty, responsibility and sac
rifce is 'rot" and hypocritical twad-
| die. Even here In Indiana, where mug
wumps and NOISY bourbons supported
| Cleveland, the great Democratic | Am,
as one man, and the pure and per-
| feet Gresham took the credit and re-
ward-even here are patriots who are
| even more than willing to serve their
country "fOr what there is in it," and to
declare that the service would be quite
as valuable az that rendered by the
needlessly self-denying and canting per-
sons chosen. But what can the Indi.
! ana Democrat who has been in the