BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-06-19
SAN JUAN, JUNE -
With the JaWbone
of An Ass.

Somewhere up in the dismal north
west where every forest clearing sprouts
it's annual crop of chronic populists,
there lived a papa who was the proud
possessor of what he liked to have his
friends call "a pretty likely boy that"
This boy grew up in an atmosphere
thoroughly saturated with populism:
He "spuk his piece in populistic school
houses, and later delivered his ora
tions in populistic conventions. If the
populistic business had Jared well this
boy would certainly have had a glori-
Gus future, but just at the time when
his affairs were at their ebb, the price
popu1i sts began to fall, and before many
days had passed they were at a dis,
count. A good first class populist could
be bought very cheaply. The fact of
the matter is, that as the price of other
crops go up it has usually been the
case that the price of the crop Of po-
pulists go down.
Something had to be done for this
populistic youta. So after carefully look
ing over the map OF the earth, searching
into histories of the various countries,
and the politics of each of them, papa
bought several printing presses, some
white paper, which strangely turned
yellow on the voyage down. and other
necessary accessories and shipped them
and the aspiring youth to place called
Porto Rico. And stripped clean of all
local coloring, of local agitations and
matters * Which effect closely the Interests
Of the people Of Porto Rico we find
transplanted to this island. in all its
bloom and beauty a real genuine
populist of the most chronic variety.
Neither Republican nor Democrat, a
fedgeling on fence, against everything
save that which, like the price of crops
with the populist, means profit for
himself and the scandalizing sheet
which he operates.
The News is waging war against
crime fraud and corruption. with the
idea of correcting some of the grave
abuses which exist in Porto Rico" Ard
the weapon which the news is using is
the jawbone of beardless populist who
sees nothing good but in what may be
confined by the limits Of his bank ac-
count, or his personal betterment, Fortu
nate1y for the youth the jawbone swings
outward and strikes only those things
in front of it. If it were suddenly to
spring backward and take an upward
motion there would be a sudden col
lapse and somewhere transplanted to
the far and dismal north vest bowling
dervish would be slowly recovering
his lost breath.
In its burning desire to purify Porto
Rico the Yellowist finds that the cri-
mina1 annals of the day must be pub
ished. That every woman in San
Juan must know of the filth and the
immortality which exists here just as it
exists in New York, in Chicago and
even in far away Wisconsin. He be-
1ieves than when three headed mon
s.rosity is born to some unfortunate
woman that every other woman in
Porto Rico should know the full details
of the story. He believes that when
some irresponsible vagrant and his
mistress have a battle royal that we
should all know how it happened, and
what happened afterward and who got
the better of the fight. He insists that
the daily doings of Jose Mauleon are
matters of interest to the people of this
community.
To the populist everything is wrong.
Nothing that government official can
do is right. To the populist trusts
have been little devils following in
their wake, until several prominent
populistic farmers formed a trust of
their own. and then the trust became
an excellent thing Then the trust re-.
ceived the sanction of populism.
The News is the same sort of popu-
list A political fedgling, who was
first Republican, then Federal, and is
now neither, by reason of the fact that
the other peacocks refused to be deceiv-
ed by his change of plumage.
In all this terrible thirst to wiring the
neck of evil, and to vanquish the evil.
doer there are few evils which the
Yellowist has failed to tackle, and since
he claims to be the champion of coed
ness. the reforner of the reforlners, tie
BOLETIN desires to ask few pertinent
and personal questions.
WHY DID HE REFUSE TO
GIVE ANY ACCOUNT OF THE
PROPOSED RAILWAY FROM BA-
YAdON TO PONCE VIA COMERIO
WHY DID He PERMIT A GER
TAIN NEWSPAPER IN TOWN
TO RECEIVE GRAPEVINE. CA.
BILE DISPATCHES DISHONESTY
WHEN HE KNEW THE FULL DE-
TAILS.
It has never at any time ben fair |
open criticism Of public acts with the
San Juan News It has al ways been a