The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-04-30
FRANK 3. HOWE, Editor and Publisher
vERMoNr'sHuMAN FlREcRAcKER

he hulldnu Ilih AhAhho ~ Aoh
kind and polite to call names and then
calls the Banner a liar, a coward, in
furious. pusillanimous, a yellow dog and
a mud-cat. We have found all these
words in the dictionary except mud
cat" but presume that is something
common in Rutland. and pretty bad
sort. Just how much we should feel
hurt, we cannot say until we can in
terpret this "mud-cat" epithet. Really
If this galaxy of choice titles hadcom
from anywhere else than the Herald,
we should have been very angry, but
not at the Herald. 1t is privileged in
this direction.
We don't like to be personal but
story The truth is the editor of the
Herald is a genius, or at least is a
very highly talented person. He is a
brilliant writer, an alert, fertile think
err a keen observer, something of
humorist and a pretty fair public
speaker But like all children of gen
Jus he has one weak point You will
always notice that the great ones are
eccentric in some one particular.
His one weakness is that he flies in
rage if a person doesn't agree with
him and when he is angry he 10 likely
to say or do most anything In this
instance he has exploded with his
mouth full of words. "pusillanimous,'
yellow dog" "mud-cat.' etc, etc 1t
really doesn't mean anything It is
just his way. Genius often has some
one slight out We esteem him very
highly just the same
The cause though of this recent out
break on the Heralds part is almost
joke. and would be quite if he did
MT take it so very seriously He says
the Banner called the Herald a hard
name because the Herald quoted what
somebody else said about the public
service commission. The Banner
didn't do anything of the kind and of
course had to say so when accused.
Now what the Banner did say was
that the Herald is the leading corpor-
alton organ in the state of Vermont,
but we didn't say so because Of any
thing the Herald quoted or didn't
quote We simply had in mind some
fragments of the Herald's record dur
ing the past twenty years. The pub
lie service commission law, attitude
of the Herald is only a drop in the
bucket.
Remember the good old days when
the Rutland Railroad and the Rutland
Herald ran hand in hand When on
the Herald devolved the pleasant duty
of telling the people of small villages
along the line how much better off
they were with their stations burned
and their train service reminding one
of an unlucky day on the Central Yer
mont. Think how many times the,
Herald in behalf of the railroad has
had to apologize for that old ruin that
used TO take the place of a station in
Rutland. Remember only just a few
years back when the Herald and it's
owner made a desperate attempt to
foist onto the self-respecting state of
Vermont the wicked New Jersey trust
incorporation law, or something like
it, that would bring to this state the
headquarters of the gangs organized
to loot the public of the entire coun-
when the Herald appeared before the
state as the champion of the paint
corporations and also argued ia favor
of taxing railroads only half an muche
as the rest of us are taxed.
And then the Herald frothed at the
mouth because the Banner called it a
corporation organ. Would it's atti-
tude and utterances lead you to be-
lieve that it is affiliated with union
labor or Christian Socialism?
Then too, the Herald talks about the
ordinary decencies of debate" Note
the rising of this recent ruction. The
Herald said the Banner called it a
hard name but failed to print what
the Banner actually did say so that
its readers could see for themselves.
Yet only three days ago the Herald
preached little sermon to the Mont
pelier Journal along this very line.
In the course of its remarks the Her
aid said, speaking, of DR.. CIRCUITS ap-
pearance in the Elroy Kent case.
There can be no fair discussion of
this matter when one side of the case
goes to the Herald's readers. the other
side to the Journals readers. If the
Herald circulated in Washington coun-
ty, its readers might Judge AS things
now stand tho IOurno1,c 49,, L.. 49,