The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-07-17
DISGRACEFUL SCENES.
WHAT OLDPARTY RULE HAS
BROUGHT OUR PUBLIC
LIFE TO.
LET. the Office Seek the Man, Not
the Man the Office"

When our republic started upon its
grand career it was considered dis
grace to any man to set himself up for
office. or to work or make speeches or
solicit votes, or do anything else of
that kind, to promote his individual
success. We remember reading Row
President Washington voted in Vir-
GINA, near Mount Vernon. The three
gentlemen who had been named by
their friends as the candidates, sat in
a row in the voting room. They were
expected to keep their seats and could
only shake hands with those who ap-
preached them for that purpose. The
voting was rira roce; the high-spirite1
planters believing that no man should
be ashamed to let all the world know
just what he thought. When Presi-
dent Washington entered the hall he
advanced, we are told, and shook
hands gravely with each of the three
candidates, and then said:
"Gentlemen-I am sorry 1 cannot
vote for you all, but as I am con-
strained to make choice / give my
vote for Mr.. -"
After reading of this gracious, cour-
teous, gentlemanly, pure and honest
method of the fathers, in the early days
of the Republic, let US turn to the fol-
lowing description of CHASTITY and
beastly Republican state convention
now in session in Iowa:
Des Moines. July 8.-All the candi-
| dates for governor before the conven-
| tion which meets on Wednesday are
already on the ground. Delegates to
| the convention began to arrive yester-
| day, and today there are hundreds
| here. The early corners are unus ually
numerous, and it is believed that two
thirds of the delegates will lie in the
city by tomorrow morning. Gen.
Drake continues to lead, and his vote
on the first ballot is estimated at 400.
Senator Harlan's strength on the
same ballot will be in the neighbour
mood of 200. Parrott, of Waterloo, is
| clearly third.
Sensational charges were made
against Gen. Drake yesterday, involv-
! ing husband and wife named Hen
| derson. The general has denied the
whole thing as blackmail, and Hen
dersOn, who came here from St. Louis,
has practically confessed that he was
| brought here by the agents of Har-
Ian and Mcfarland, the factions most
| opposed to Drake. A second woman's
| story was told, but the man, named
Campbell, has written letter deny
| ing the charges. The matters are now
| re-acting.
Harlan's men are more hopeful to-
day, as their candidate, in spite of his
years, is conducting himself with
much vigOr.
What dreadful picture of shame
full rottenness! All the candidates for
governor,-the highest office in the
state, are on hand, two or three days
before the convention, pulling and
hauling and publicly battling with
each other for the nomination. And,
more than this, shameful charges OF
adultery are made by the agents of
two Of the candidates against another
candidates; and while he is denying
one attack another woman pokes her
head up through the filth and more
denials are needed And in all proba-
bility the delegates are on hand, days
| before the convention, because 1.-THE
| early bird catches the worm" and in
these cases it is golden worm. And
mingling with the crowd are the
agents of the banks, the corporations,
the rings, the monopolists, all adding
their contributions of corruption to
the witches cauldron of rotteness and
infamy:
Bubble, bubble. toll and trouble,
Fire burn and caldron bubble"
And all are contriving to make the
mess slab and palatable, so that the
fool people may swallow it without
gulping; and drop into stupid, stol-
i'd, swinish sleep Of Indifference and
sordidness, for another year.
And all this horrible outgrowth from
the noble conditions of Washington's
days, wherein criminality takes the
place of craftsmanship. and hustling
vice elbows modest virtue out of doors;
all of this, we say. has come about in
little more than fifty years. And
the centuries wait for the feet of the
present to advance over them!
And already these conditions have
produced new breed of creatures, by
the law of natural selection, men
adapted to the environment;-con-
scienceless, hairless, heartless, schem-
ing, adroit, vulgar, coarse jumping
jacks, to whose smooth-rubbed souls
neither virtue nor culture can cling.
They are breed, variety, a species
in themselves; their faces shine out
at us from the daily prints, with "ras-
cal" written all over them in God AL
mighty's long primer type; while be-
low them the word Honorable"
stands out in hideous mockery of dig
nifty and decency.
Morally close kindred to the convicts
in the penitentiary: violating the
statutes of the state every day of
their lives; skulking in the very shad-
ow of the state prison, from which
they will escape by reason of their
trained and superior acuteness, they
look the Republic in the face and say,
to it, grinning:-"You and we can not
live together! We want more room
for our populations. our lusts, our rob-
berries, our infamies; we want more
rom for the he-fonncnd and hn.iov.