The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-11-07
ARP ON THE PRESS.
9artow's Sage Discusses the jour
nails Of the Day.
Bome Things He Don't Like PoIirIcai
Abuse IL Criticised = Newspa-
per Necessary for the
Mind.

ADuH9 AB GIAblolaGA NGHtUHH
per Necessary for the
Mind.
There is a lamentable usage of the
press and Of partisans during election
times, and that is the wanton, cut
rageous abuse Of the other fellow and
the other side. I have not seen any
such abuse Of Mckinley by the demo-
cratic press, but the northern repub-
lican journals just TEEN with the vile
est and most malicious ISLANDERS of Bry-
an and his platform. He is denounced
and cartooned as the arch anarchist and
repudiator; a tool Of the silver mines:
a babbling boy; q sky scraper; a bag OF.
wind, and the punka of the Platte. /
don't know what punka means, but sup
pose it is some very bad thing like d
polecat. His Madison square speech
which ingalls, said was a very great
speech, is ridiculed as an abortion. q
chestnut, a miserable failure; and they
cartoon him as a little sophomore
~schoolboy orator. This is very bad pol
icy. The people of all parties know
that Bryan is a very eloquent, smart and
sincere man and the reaction comes
when such ISLANDERS are used against
him. The jubilant guying tone of the
republican press reminds one of Goliath
and David: "And when the Philistine
saw David he disdained him, for he was
but q youth, and the Philistine cursed
David by his gods and he said, Come to
me and [ will give thy flesh to the fowls
OF the air and the beasts of the feld.''.
Fortunately for the country both OF
our candidates for president have char.
acters above reproaeh and clean rec
ords in their public life and are en-
dowed with very high qualifications in
craftsmanship. The one elected can.
not make a law. Then why abuse himT
Each has a host of friends and it
wounds a mans feelings to hear his
favorite, his leader, his idol, as it were,
lampooned and vilified by penny-a-liner
scribblers, who have no conception OF
what constitutes true greatness. There
is no manliness or good breeding in
the modern modes of conducting a DO.
litical canvass. / heard an old vet.
eran say to-day that he had not in.
tended to vote for Gov. Atkinson, but
since Watson and Wright were denounc.
ing him for pardoning that man Hinton
he had changed his mind and should sup.
port him. Candidates are in a des,
perate strait" said he, when they re
sort to such demagogism as that. Hin
ton ought to have been pardoned. The
governor has shown more consideration
for negro ~convicts and ~pardoned more
of them than any governor we have
had
Hating the railroads and loving the
negro are still campaign capital. It is all
q lie, of course, for no sensible man does
either to any extent in his heart. He
says he does, so as to catch votes, buthe
knows that he is a hypocrite when he
says it. Such declarations are about as
sincere as newspaper editorials and gov.
ernors' proclamations against lynching
negroes for their horrible outrages. 1t
is all for buncombe. I've forgotten that
fellows name, but 1 have always adj
mired him for his frankness. When he
was reminded by the speaker that every.
body had left the house he replied:
That's all right, sir; I'm not speaking
for them at all, sir. I'm speaking
for ~Buncombe, my county, sir, and my
constituents, for it win be printed, sir"
And he kept on with his argument.
But the way I read it in the goldbug
papers the republicans are not as iuhi.
liant as they were. They are somewhat
alarmed even about the state of New
York. 1 see in yesterdays papers that
the rich women of New York city have
organized female Mckinley clubs in
every ward, and they have parceled out
the work and are to visit the tenement
houses and canvass among the toilers.
I read McKinley's letter to these
women bidding them godspeed and say
ing he was glad to see the noble women
of the country taking an interest in
politics. This is no fake. It is pub
lished in the republican papers, and to
my mind it is the first bad break Mr..
Mckinley has made. The idea of en-
couraging women to go ~canvassing in
the slums of great cities for votes looks
like alarm to say the least of it. Mr.,
Bryan has made no break. Every ut
terance along his travels has been in
good taste and entirely proper. He has
not boosted of himself, nor abused his
anniversaries, and we are glad to see that
the people, the common people, heard
him GLADLY and treated him with the
greatest respect. The other day a fake
appeared that for awhile astounded me.
The idea that Ben Tillman had visited
Tom Watson to get him to come down
and take a cabinet position was mon.
strous, for Mr.. Bryan chooses his own
cabinet. He will not buy them, and il
he did Ben Tillman would not be his
broker. The average politician seems
incapable of measuring Mr.. Bryan. He
can't conceive of a standard that is far
above mercenary or ambitious motives.
Neither will Mr. bryan for a moment en-
courage any attempt to get SewaIl
down. 1t would be dishonorable, and
he knows it. What is the matter with
Sewall, anyhow? Nobody, not even the
republican press, has said a word
against him, except that his son is a re-
publican. Well, that is hard on the
boy, but nothing against the old man
save a suspicion that he didn't whip him
enough and make him stay in at night
and keep out of bad company. These
populists pretend they don't like Sewall