The record-union., 1896-07-26
ARTHUR McEWEN TALKS
OF A
CAMPAIGN OF EDUCATION.
Everybody Wants to be informed
Alignment of Classes and Masses.

SIN gularly Straight-minded and devOt-
edly patriotic man, he smiles at the
complaints about abuse of candidates
which now arise. Whenever men get to
feeling strongly they hate their oppo-
nents. 1t Is inevitable, for human ma
ture is Interchangeable. When read that
Mckinley is the covering vassal of
Wall street with Lombard street and
British gold thrown in on the side) and
that Bryan is a mercenary crusader,
whose only motive for orator1cal actlv-
1ty is the wages he draws from COM
bined and profit-seeking silver mine
owners, there rises the recollection of
procession 1 saw when a child in 1S6O.
1t was in New York and miles long. L
have never seen such a procession since,
except once, twenty-five years later, on
st Patrick's Day, also in New YORK,
which is the most primitive and enthu-
siastic of towns, because 1t has more
Poor people than any other in the Re
public. In the 1860 procession the
''Hickories'' were in great force-stal-
wart fellows, who wore hickory shirts
out of Democratic respect to the men,
ory of Jackson, and as a further trib-
ute to the doctrinal worth of the de-
parted father, carried hickory cudgels
VII LI1elI SuOulu6IS. lie ClQDS, hlAlAO
ostensibly symbolical, were not per-
haps, without effect in calming the po-
litical passions of the BLACK Republi-
cans" who might have been disposed
to resent and remove-for the non-pa-
ciflc spirit of John Brown was not re-
stricted to his own bosom-the float
that recurs to my memory.
The Democratic answer in 1860 to the
of ba nfinnnfa1 AGAIN St
human slavery was the question, do
you want your daughter to marry a
nigger?" It wasn't a good answer, log
tcally viewed, but practically it was i'm
mensely effective, as anybody who lived
In those times (Mr Bryan is guilty of
having not done so) orwho has rea dwith
sufficient industry to inform himself of
them, knows. Hence the electioneering
float in the procession, guarded by the
Hickories most of whom, as they were
of the kind who are affected by the cries
and SympathieS of the hour, no doubt
shouldered muskets to shoot for the
preservation of the Union-a Union that
knew nothing about Is to /, and was
largely against freeing the nigger, ex-
cept in the far future, by means of full
payment for slaves. On the float I al
lude TO was a preposterouSly fat ne
gress "a corked mani and by her side
sat a fond lover, artfully made up in the
similitude of Abraham Lincoln, who,
amid red fire, roaring cheers, laughter
and rejoicing boots, at frequent inter
walls, embraced and seemed rapturously
to kiss the mock colored lady.
There you have the keynote of that
campaign and others that succeeded for
a few years when the life Of the nation
was at issue, and echoes from Southern
battlefields made politics. I have wit
messed nothing like it except when I
was in Paris in 1889. Then it surprised
me, accustomed as had become to our
fights in America over tariff schedules
and the personal character of candi-
dates, to observe the intense feeling
that the impending election reused in
the Parisians. 1t entered everywhere.
] was a mere sidewalk observer, of
course, but American residents told me
that society was torn up over the situ-
alton. / heard cabmen and boulevard
cafe walters and miscellaneous French
men, who, no matter what their station,
have a democratic way of discussing
things and a more than Democratic
way of expressing their emotions, talk
ing with an ardor that amazed the
Saxon. Their politics meant some
thing living, that was all. If Boulanger
should not win-so the situation was
pictured by the alarnists, and multi
tudes felt with them-the Bonapartists,
the Orleanists, the Empire, the King
dom would come in again. joined the
line of voters on election day to see in
what their customs differed from ours.
] think / really touched the pulse of
Paris as closely as an outsider could,
and I felt again what I had felt as a
child in 1860, that there were big things
in the air, that men were voting on is
sues that seemed to them vital, ques-
tions that concerned their form Of gov
ernment and appealed to them as pat
riots And the abuse which the French
men leveled at one another-I read it
on the posters, which covered the col
umns even Of the facade of the opera
was also a stimulating reminder of the
"Railsplitter" "Old Abe" 'Baboon
Lincoln" campaigns, with their tales OF
coarse anecdotes told in the White
House and others chuckled out to prop
erly Mortified auditors on the battle
field of Gettysburg.
Old-timers will understand what this
glance at the past means; younger
men need to be told that what is new
TO them Is not because of that clrcum-
stance new to human experience IL
Mckinley is a villain and Bryan
scoundrel, the records have but to be
read to inform youth that Villains and
ecoundrels have run for the American
Presidency before and been elected, too.
To tl1e man who has a memory 1t is
rood to recognize the old spirit of fight
ing. Politics are for him removed from
tho trivial domain of amusement into
that of strenuous actuality. He forgets
his gray beard and is aware of dispo-
sitton 10 shed his coat and sail in. To
illustrate. there is Joseph T. Goodman,
who came to the city yesterday 10 order
some finishings for a house that he has
built in the Mariposa mountains. he
mined in that region when ne was
boy among the pioneers, and left the
diggings to try his luck with his pen
He learned to set type in San Fran
cisco. went UP to Virginia City, pub
fshed the Enterprise" there, found
himself later a millionaire In stocks,
then a successful raisin vineyardist at
Fresno. and now when he has finished
a book on Central American hiero-
glyphics. and counts himself out OF the
strife, he goes back to the dfggings OF mas
youth and houses himself in rational
and philosophic comfort remote from
the conflicts Of the day. That Is a por-
trait of a capable, contented, prosper
Gus American If he Is revolutionary
1t tells a story of growing discomfort
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