Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-04-27
Hoods Cures

AV6
Hoods Pills s aEs fa ai slarsis S ess s
Nothing more important can engage
the attention of patriotic citizens.
He is certainly right in this point
Both patriotic and unpatriotic citizens
will heartily agree with him in this
truly safe and prudent financial
idea. The truth of all such utterances
will remain indisputable SO long as
money makes the mare go" Shall
any of us ever live to see the time
when the venting of platitudes will be
punishable by law?
Now comes surprise. A little far
Their down the letter we read that the
beginning has begun. We are in
formed in so many words that there
is already "a sound-money sentiment
abroad in the land. = Where is it !?
Perhaps it wanders abroad like stray
goose hunting nest. Or possibly it
is abroad only in the corridors of tie
Treasury or may be it wanders gan
der-like up stairs, down stairs, and in
the vacant chambers of the White
House at Washington. But this is
not all. We are furthermore told that
this stray sentiment must be caught;
that sit must be crystallized and COM
bined and made Immediately active
What lovely rhetorical figure this isl
But confess it is not very clear to
me, for have not been in Washing
ton during the present administration;
consequently | have never seen a.
crystallized sentiment sound and
wholesome" or otherwise. Have you,
Mr.. Editor9 Or can you tell me how
crystallized sentiments are combined
and made Immediately active ?,
These must be mysteries of the occult
chemistry practised in medieval times.
Such uncanny terms as these must
surely pertain to the black art. or to
the forbidden secrets whereby men
sought out the philosophers stone.
Anoint thee, Satanas?
How Mr.. Cleveland ever escaped
arguing the financial question in this
lengthy letter of apology for the non
acceptation of an invitation to address
his friends on the subject is one of
those things undiscoverable by the
ordinary understanding 1t is true,
he talks about it and about it, but
never once in all this studied circum-
locution does he grapple with the sub
ject fairly and squarely. 1t looks as
If he either does not know his oppor-
tunity, or that he evaded it. If 1.-The !
occasion l contemplate" had not been
expressly planned for him he could
have asked no better chance to |
set forth what he is pleased to call "a
sound-money doctrine. Then might
he have expatiated free on the bound
less theme; then might he have ex-
planned to the peoples satisfaction
how "a sound-money sentiment can
be secundnm a,7em. s'crystallized and
combined and made Immediately ac-
tive. Or, perchance, he could have
convinced our bankrupt farmers that
their only hope is in longer patient
waiting for better times under the
present regime; that their wish for a
change is but tissue of idle dreams
the strangest dreams according to
his pathetic description namely,
dreams of the plenty shaded by the
certainty of further ill-luck and dis
appointment.
Mr.. Editor, l know you are busy
man and do not like to trouble you,
but in the name of our common hu-
mainly we beseech you to tell us what
is "a dream shaded by certainty ?"
This way madness lies %
Shall l go on with my examination
of this remarkable letter. Shall |
show how Mr.. Cleveland got things
just little mixed when he assured
the honest wage learners that if they
listen to the insidious attempts of GER
tain dishonest men to create prejudice
against the advocates of safe and
sound currency, they must expect
nothing less henceforth and forever
or at least until another dispensation
of pure Clevelandism visits the earth
than to be ''vexed with vanishing
visions of increased wages and an
easier lot ?" Shall / explain to the
readers of the Herald that ''Dissolv-
ing Views was the taking name of
sort of penny side-show in our school
boy days, and that the beautiful alli-
terative phrase "vexatious vanishing
visions" must have been suggested
by some such memory saddened by
time 1t would be an easy task to
pick this Chicago letter to pieces, to
hold up its patchwork tatters and
show that not a single shred of argu-
ment is in it; but this is not at all nee
essary so long as it stands itself an /,
how little can be said in fave
OF the financial policy of the admins
tration even by the head of the ad-
We may admit that we
have here presented a mere verbal
criticism of Mr.. Cleveland S letter; but
what other review was possible Ar
gument may be met by argument, but
loose statements and inconsequent ad-
vice based on premises boldly begged
by writer, as if en- pa,7e statements
and assertions were equivalent 10
proof, are to be met only by the rid
lcule such an exhibition is calculated
to provoke. HERMFs