The Irish standard., 1898-10-22

uCulI W duSWeI, Uul really IL is uedu
easy. The American people are peculiar
ly given to hero worship, and the man.
ayers Of the war department did not
propose that any Republican soldier
should achieve any fame who might ap-
pear in the next Republican national
convention as rival to William McKin-
ley in securing the nomination for the
presidency. See? Had Miles been given
the command of the army operating in
Cuba he might have loomed up as a
dangerous man for Mark and Mack in the
dog days of 1900.
It's the story of the old king, the heir
apparent and the tall poppies over again,
with variations.
But why, being Democrat, was Gen.
neither Napoleon, Hannibal, Caesar nor
Alexander could have won any renown
could they have returned to earth in the
meridian of their power? For two rea-
sons: ]. Because of Alger's old grudge
of 81 years standing. 2. Because if Mer-
ritt achieved any glory, the Democrats
might nominate him for president and
sweep the land with him as their leader
So these two tried and trusted soldiers
Republican and Democrat-were relegat-
ed to the rear, while Smarter the Fat was
sent to order green troops without artil-
lery against strong breastworks. Sup
9ose German, English, Russian or French
Soldiers had been behind those breast
works-men who knew how to fight or
who wanted to fight. There would not
have been enough of Shafter's men left
alive to bury the dead.
The Springfield (Mass.) Republican, a
staunch Republican paper, declares that
Skaters soldiers were murdered by the
jobbers and incompetents in the war de-
partment. Nevertheless Mark declares
that Alger shall not be made a scapegoat,
and that the president shall assume the
responsibility, and Mark knows.
John Sherman is said to be cold as
Greenland's icy mountains He has gen.
orally looked out for No. with eminent
success. 1t is difficult to regard him in
the entirely new light as an object of
pity. And yet the heartless and cruel
manner in which John has been cheated,
chiseled, hornswoggled, bullied and
browbeaten in his old age by the Nc
Hanna gang of freebooters would move u
heart of stone. Hinc lilac lacrimae-
hence these tears.
Now, John deserves nothing good
not even commiseration-;lt the hands of
Democrats, but he deserved better things
from the McIIannaites His latter days
have been full of hard trials and great
tribulations. First he. wanted to be
nominated for president, and just as lie
was reaching out to grasp the nomination
Russell A. Alger knocked the props out
from under him by buying his Southern
delegates away from him.
Then Mark and Mac squeezed him out
of the senate to make room for Mark, and
compelled him to enter the cabinet and
sit at the council table with the aforesaid
Alger, who bought his delegates as afore-
said The old man was willing to endure
that humiliation, but just as soon as Mark
had purchased the senatorial succession
from the Ohio legislature, they squeezed
John out of the cabinet and turned him
adrift in the cold, cold world. John
knows by this time Of day that the way
of the transgrcssor is hard 1t took 25
years for his Nemesis to catch up with
him, but caught up with he is at last.
At the end Of so odd years of Office
holding, perhaps John is the most utterly
miserable old man in America Con-
gressman, senator, secretary OF the treas
ury and SECRETARY of state, these posi-
lions would have satisfied the ambition
of most men, but to Johns felicity one
thing was wanting-the presidency of
the republic, and that was withheld.
John Greenlcaf Whittier, the Quaker
poet, once filled long-felt want by writ
ing the famous couplet:
Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: 1T might have
BEEN"
If anybody has any doubts as to the
great truth therein contained, he can
have them removed with dispatch by
calling upon the Hon. John Addison
Porter, secretary to the president He
is perhaps the most chopfallen statesman
and patriot Of them all. He can sympa-
thize with poor old King Lear in his re-
marks on ingratitude, serpent's teeth,
etc, for John Addison is fresh from a
most narrowing experience of how easily
and completely an aspiring statesman
can be dumped in this land of the free
and home of the brave. John Addison
realizes how the late and amented Mr..
McGinty felt when he fell into the coal
hole and went to the bottom of the sea.
He can take to heart the words of Cardi-
nal WOlsey when, with breaking heart,
he remarked to Cromwell:
Mark but my fall and that that ruined
Cromwell, charge thee, fling away am
bition!
BY that sin fell the angels. How can
man, then,
The image of his Maker, hope to win by