The Indianapolis journal., 1896-08-30
ABOUT CAMPAIGN BADGES
MUCH ATTENTION EXCITED II LON
DON BY M'KIsLEY BUTTONS.
cal Badges, hut Set "A Precedent
for the American Custom.

reminded that this is presidential elec-
tion year in the United States. London Is
fun of American visitors in any pre-
cedirg summer. and hundreds OF them are
wearing campaign buttons. Mckinley but
tons have been I'm evidence for several
weeks past. and during the past few days
gold-bug badges have appeared the
streets These attract much more atten-
tion than the ordinary campaign buttons.
They are entirely new and are more strik-
ing. and TO English people who pay
no attention TO American politics the gold
bug tells its own story when an English
man sees one Of them on the coat collar
of the occupant OF a neighboring seat I'm
an omnibus or railway carriage. he
knows that his neighbor Is an American
who is an upholder of the gold stanaara.
and he thus gets an object lesson IN con-
temporary American politics which IS easi-
ly within the range of his comprehension
The wearing OF these political badges sell
dom fails to provoke remark among Eng
lshmen. English people OF this generations
tions OF this kind. An Englishman would
think of wearing a lettered hat
band setting forth that he was n church.
man dssenter as OF wearing for
months at n stretch a button indicative OF
his political sympathies- In 1875 and 1856
home rule divided England as acuteiy as
the silver question now divides the United
States but II was never possible when
riding I'm n street or n railway carriage
TO Know which Slte one IellOW-piSSPn~
gers stood. The wearing of political badges
would nowadays be regarded rs bad taste
In England. Yet America borrowed the cus-
tom from England. Like many other Feat
ures in American politics nowadays. re-
garded as OF American invention. ana
spoken of i'm England somewhat contempt
uouslv. the wearing of political badges and
uniforms had its origin on this side OF tho
Atlantic.
the closing half of the eighteenth century
for proof. About the time OF the American
and ID naon Tor Sos nat y'rs ss new
as the Revolution Society. IL YVES COM
posed of men hieh-placed among the
Wings of that period, who usually met
once year. at dinner. at the Thatched
House. some other famous West-end tav-
| ern. to celebrate the revolution of 1sSs. At
| these dinners the guests wore the uniform
| of the club At this moment l cannot re-
call what the uniform was. but any one
| Horne Tooke.'' or Morgan's Life of DR..
Price" can learn about the Revolution So
ciety and the aemonss,amar ros '.sr cninhra,od
| The Revolution Society was London or
Ranization. but the personally demonstra-
tive side of politics was not confined TO
| London Manchester all through the last
| century. was great PROVINCIAL strong
hold of the high Tories. of the uphoders
| of the Royal Prerogative and the cstab-
lished church and all its claims and pre-
tensions. Nowhere i'm England were tho
| in their political demonstrations. and I'm no
English city was the dividing line between
| church and dissent more keenly drawn
or more fiercely maintained
RELIGION AND POLITICS.
About 1850 there i'm Manchester
| group of Unitarians who were constantly
advocating the repeal of the test and cor
| poration acts In season and out OF season
these dssenters pressed their claims upon
Parliament. AT last they succeeded in get
ting the Wings TO move for the repeal or
the acts. The motion was defeated In tho
| House of Commons. and the Manchester
high Tories and Churchmen were so
elated at the failure of this movement for
religious equality that they had church and
state buttons cast. and constantly wore
| them to annoy their dissenting adverse
! ries.
These instances occurred some years be-
fIpf oInfon ,ne broke out and English people were
| divided for and against IL. the wearing of
political emblems became exceedingly COM
were political sympathies more continuous
ly and ostentatiously displayed Buttons
bearing the WORDS; khg m ana ,h Sons',u , nnd
| as the revolution proceeued. these buttons
were worn by all those who desired to dis
sociate themselves from the Reformers I'm
England and the Jacobins in France IL a
| man did not wear King and Constitu-
ton button i'm the period between l7sl and
| 1.aS he was apt to be Stunned by his loyal
! and more cautious neighbors as a sympa-
thizer with what was then called Sc
cesses of the revolu.ionists in France. In
| those days If man did not wish to be re-
garded with suspicion by ms neighoors and
| ment he signed and resigned the various
| declarations OF loyalty 10 the constitution
wore king and Constitution buttons. In
| the United States to-day men and women
as did dUrne ahS the period rom
| 1871 to 1873 IL is not easy to discover. But
| in those days women In England were not
and IL they wore any badges, the fact is
| unrecorded.
buttons. Some OF the well-to-do especially
the country squres. not only wore but
tons. but had their shoes fitted with anti
Paine heel plates. On these the letters Il.
p" were cast and the wearing OF the ct
| the wearer would like to get his heel on
| Paine and on everybody who sympathized
| with Paine's revolutionary opinions IL was
| at this time. also, that political crockery
in Eneiand drank their beer out OF mugs
adorned with pictures and doggerel sug-
gesting the destination OF Paine after he
had run his course in this world. The adj
| mirers of Paine are believed TO have been
the first 10 invent the pottery. They got
had been outiawed. and when the counter
movement began TO sway the country, tho
potter who made the ware put himself on
| the other side in the controversy and did
| lively trade in anti-Paine mugs.
THE WHITE HAT BADGE.
| A few years later than this the white hat
began TO have popular significance in Eng
| land Ii made it's first appearance in pro-
| vinciaI England. in the large towns OF tho
midlands and the north in the early years
of this century. AT that time politicians
| of the first rank. even those of Radical opin-
ions. had temporarily dissociated them
selves from the activity in the cause OF
parliamentary reform. England was then
waging war with Napoleon, and these lead
ers of Liberal opinion rightly conceived
that * was useless to press parliamentary
reform at this time. The movement. how
| ever. was kept alive among the people by
men like Burdette. Cartwright. Cobbett and
Hunt. and when these leaders went among
| the working classes. they wore white tall
/ hats. The white hat thus became the badge
OF the Radical and reformer. and IL so
| continued on through the period OF the
Chartist agitation of the forties and tho
fifties, and until the second extension OF
| the franchise was secured I'm 1867. The high
| Tories of the first thirty years OF this GEN.
tury were much disturbed fby the sight
| OF white hat the high churchman OF
| the middle years OF the last century were
when Untarians. like Priestlcy and Ros-
| coe suggested the abolition of the test act.
| white hat from the time OF Waterloo TO
$50 was like the proverbai red rag 10 n
bull On one occasion when the last great
| struggle for reform which eliminated in
the act OF 1872 was in progress. the Radi-
calls OF Manchester worked joke on the
church clergy of that city through tho
| ,adi of he xh IN The clergy had