The herald., 1896-03-07
A LEAP TO FAME

With great presence Of mind and a
cheerful perversion of facts, one Mr.
Hartman, representative from Mon
tans, has saved himself from dense and
we'll deserved obscurity. He did this
remarkable thing by abusing the presi-
dent Of the United States for some
thing that the president has not done.
In doing so the exhumed Mr.. Hartman
demonstrated that he is in full posses
sion of the arts of the demagogue and
in no way inconvenienced with the at.
tributes OF a statesman.
A day or two since President Cleve-
land addressed an immense mseting of
Presbyterians in favor of home mis-
sions-and incidentally it might be
we'll to remark that the gathering in
behalf of home missions instead of
foreign missions for which so much is
said and done. is encouraging-andi in
the course of his characteristically
able address on the Importance of
maintaining home missions because of
the beneficial influences they exert in
the newly settled regions of this coun-
try, the president said:
mo one charged with the duties and re-
sponsibilities which necessarily weigh upon
the chief executive can fail to appreciate
the importance of religious teachings and
Christian endeavor in the newly settled
portions of our vast domain. 1t is there
where hot and stubborn warfare between
the forces of good and evil is constantly in
vted. In these days the vanguard of oc-
in ic mi h
out it's vicious element. Gambling houses
and dram shops are frequently among the
first establishments in a new community
1t must also be confessed that removal
from old homes and associations to new
and more primitive homes has tendency
among honest and responsible settlers to
smother scruples and breed evil indiffer-
ence to Chrisiianizing and elevating agen-
cies. These conditions, ii unchecked and
uncorrected, fix upon the new community
by their growth and expansion character
and disposition which, while dangerous to
peace and order in the early stages of set
tlement, develop into badly regulated mu-
inequalities. corrupt and unsafe territories
and undesirable states"
At these utterances the hitherto
fameless Mr.. Hartman processes to
take mortal otfense. In them he sees
the poisoned shaft of executive malice
directed against the west in general
and his own beloved Montana with its
peaceful mines, its gameless camps and
its sinless towns in particular. 1t is
true that the president no where in his
speech adverted disparagingly to any
state, territory or community, or de-
clared that corruption or wickedness
reigns in any state, territory or COM
munity. 1t is immaterial what the
president said. Mr.. Hartman exalted
by an inexplicable Providence to a
place in congress, knows what he meant,
and in those innocent words in which
the president tells of what might
happen if Christianiziug and ele-
waiting influences are not pres
ent in "newly settled por-
tions of our vast domain he reads
slander and vilificaton for the mighty
west, the glorious west, where the
warm and clinging sun fingers last in
it's tour of triumph around the world.
Msddened by this startling and origi-
nal discovery he, bravely, single
tongued and alone, hurls the gauntlet
of wild woolly Montana defiance at the
president who has thus dared to sug-
gest that minister of Christ might be
as useful on the sunset side of the
Mississippi IS on the other, and in
mastery outpouring of language re-
plete with pertinent references to Hon.
olulu, the flag, Wall street and other
data borrowed for the occasion from
Republican and Populistic orstions, the
redoubtable congressman floors with a
resounding thud the assertions Mr..
Cleveland did not make.
Noble Hartman! Vindicated west!