The Portland daily press., 1895-05-20
PLAIN TALK.
What Congressman Boutelle Says of a
Story About Him in The Boston Herald.

| Story About Him in ihe Boston Herald.
| The Bangor Wing of Saturday pub
lishd the following, under the caption
"The Dou gh-face Still A broad"
In it's eagerness to grovel at the feet OF
this una American and Cnion-soldiel
hating Administration, the Boston Her
aid attempts TO discredit New England
Representative who was an officer in the
U MON Navy, by giving editorial promi-
nenee in its Thursdays issue to tue fol-
lowing contemplate and lying statement
concerning an entirely private ana social
visit OF Mr.. Boutelle to Fort Myer last
winter as the guest of Washington
| friends:
Apropos to Admiral Meade's reflection
on Secretary Herbert the Washington
performances by Cap'n Boutelie, whose
hatred of confederate brigadiers is said
to be as intense as Admiral Meade's.
Cap'n Boutelle was invited, with some
ladies and gentleman, to 40 to Fort
Myer. across the Potomac. to see th ,
cavalry drill. Secretary Herbert was
one OF the guests. In fact, the party was
arranged in his honor. Herbert and
Boutelle had served together on the
naval affairs committee and had been
good friends, therefore the army officer
who rode in the carriage with the con-
gresham was very much surprised at
what occurred when they reached the
bridge leading to the fort. Mr.. Herbert's
carriage was in the rear, and the officer
| suggested that they would have to wait
for the Secretary to come up and take
precedence in the entry. Boutelle re-
! fused to do SO. He wonld not stand
| about waiting for g confederate briga-
der to lead the way into federal fort.
| The Secretary came up, drove into the
| fort and was greeted with a salute of
seventeen guns. "If any one had told
me thirty years ago that it would come
to this" Captain Boutelle exclaimed
bitterly, and kept it up until the LADIES'
made SO much fun of him that he was
| laughed to a standstill.
1t seems about time for some one to
seize by the collar and drag into the
| light some of the creatures who am
buscade behind what they call "imper-
sonal journalism" while they violate
with inpunity every sancity of private
| life, and outrage every personal right of
any individual selected for their ASSAULT.
| 1t is difficult to fix personal RESPONSE bill
| ity for this sort of nastiness in Mug
wump newspaper, and as the Managing
Editor, MIR. John Fl. Holmes, is the only
pc rson whom / know to he connected
with the publication of the Herald,
take occasion to say directly to him
that his paper has editorially published
| a statement that no one but black
| guard could have written, and that no
decent editor would knowingly have
| published.
Either there is some person enjoying
access to the editorial columns Of the
Herald whom he should promptly dismiss
in disgrace, or he must assume response
bility for an offence against truth and
decency that should close the doors of
respectable society against the person
guilty of it. ] have no interest in tho
| location of the personality of the culprit,
/ but SO far as the public is concerned
propose that one man shall be held spoIi-
ser for the slander, until he repudiates
it and it's author as conspicuously as my
own name has been paraded in false
| statement in his columns.
The only truth in the whole story is in
the fact of a private party, of whom Mr.
| Boutelle was one. having driven across
the Potomac in the private carriages OF
cavalry drill. No suggestion was made
to anybody about waiting for the Sec
| retary,n who WAS in another carriage
some distance behind; Mr.. Boutelle had
nothing to do with the movements OF
the carriage, in which he was ~ guest;
| ne made no remark aDOut refusing u
"let Confederate brigadier lead the
way into a Federal FORT" and the only
| thing upon which this miserable slander
| could have been builded was quiet,
| personal remark of Ar. Boutelle to a
| brother officer of the Union Service, that
| the salute to Secretary Herbert sGg-
gested some remarkable changes since
| the time when Confederate soldiers were
manning the batteries on this side of the
Potomac" This very natural remark
was made in private PARTY OF four per-
sons in carriage on the road leading to
the grounds of Fort Myer and Arlington
Cemetery where the countless graves of
the Union dead furnish a conuant remin-
der of the most terrible rebellion OF
| modern times.
| If such remark as that, SO vividly
suggested by the surroundings, has been
caught up by some eaves-dropper, MIR.
| Holmes will find that the decent people
of New England and elsewhere will hold
| in merited contempt the sort of "jour-
palismr that makes it the pretext for q
sneaking slander upon a member of the
United States Congress who has never
yet hesitated to express in the most open
and uneuuivocai manner his sentiments
| and convictions as to what constitute Pa
triotism and Amerjcanism.
| The Boston Herald will also discover
that the Dough-face business has heen
very much overdone.
c. A. BOUTELLE.