Year: 1874

the complete regeneration of this fallen


American race. The manner of their re-
eeption at the National Capital, especially


when contrasted with that of the reception
of their humber Indiana brethren, is truly


sad. Considering their labors, their sacri-


fees and their difficulties for the last few


years, during which, as the controllers of.s


mighty and independent press, they have


struggled so hard to regenerate the country,


we should have supposed that their advent


in Washington would be the signal for


popular ovation such as the capital has


never seen. But, Notwithstanding the fact
that their coming was heralded from one


end of the land to the other by the indie


fatigable agents of the Associated Press,


Messrs. Watterson and White and Bowles


were permitted to enter the city the same


as ordinary people Instead of civic delega-


tions and brass bands and committees from


the two houses of Congress, the Legislature


and the Board of Public Works being


present to receive them, they were greeted


with the shouts of a set of pestiferous hack


men and the cries Of a score OF small boys,


white and black, shouting, "THE Ma


TIoNAL REPUBLICAN Price, three cents%


No wonder that Watterson, grand. gloomy
and peculiar, went to his hotel and wrote


home that the liberties of his country had


been overthrown, that General Grant was


planning and plotting third term. and that


we were all ready for the proclamation of
the monarchy. No wonder that he sought
the quiet shades of fashionable restaurant,
solaced himself with sherry, and so far for
got what was and what was not the deli


cacy of the season as to eat terrapin in
May, and send the fact down into
history in the columns of his great
rural journal How the announcement
must have shocked his city friend and
the exquisite. Mr.. Reid. Terrapin in May
Terrapin for the gr eat and intellectual
Watterston, who has been to Paris and made
the tour of the continentl The whole thing
is frightfully suggestive. What must he
have said and done in the gay capital of
France The experience of Bowles and
White was equally unhappy. They prowled
around the Capitol. unrecognized by even
the pages or the doorkeepers, sat gloomily
in the galleries, cheek by jowl with the in
tellectual colored brethren, who meet there
day after day, drinking in political wisdom,
because they have nothing else to do. The
whole thing was really sad. and is only an
other illustration of the ingratitude of re-
publics. Tho world, we are told. knows
nothing Of its greatest men, and White and
Bowles and Halstead are the latest melan-
choly examples of the truth of the old pro:
verb.


How different with the comparatively
obscure Indiana editors. No sooner was it
known that they were coming than the
capital got into white heat of excitement.
Every Indianian in town felt that the honor
of the country and Of his native State was
involved in their appropriate reception.
The omnibus men contended for the precious
privilege of carrying them to the hotels
they condescended to honor. A terrible
rivalry sprung up among the hotel men
themselves for the honor of their entertain
ment. Congress was on the point of ad


journing to receive them in a body, only
that there was some uncertainty as to the
exact hour they would arrive and the exact
railroad line over which they would deign
to ride, free gratis for nothing, In palatial
army Of the North marched upon us was
there such furore of anxiety In Washing
ton. The discriminating and appreciative
Representative Garfield, of Ohio, was, 1t is
true, the prime cause of all this wild up
roar. Weeks in advance he told US in his
own glowing and scholarly style, from his
seat in the House of Representatives, that
it was not White or Reid, or Bowles, or
Halstead, who welded our destines con-
trolled men and parties, made and unmade
presidents, and cabinets and congresses as
they and we had been fondly supposing 1t
was, but that great and terrible body, the
country editors, whose throne was O coun-
try store box and whose aggregated wisdom
was gathered in the stra ymoments between
drinks and the intellectual game of "seven
up" They were the gigantic molders of
public opinion, to whose fat We all should
bow, whose behest we all should obey No
wonder that we all shivered in our boots as
the hour of their arrival drew nigh. And
how right royalty we received them is told
in their own grateful and expressive words
in another column. The House threw wide
open its doors and received them on the
floor upon the motion of Mr.. Coburn, all
but the ladies, their better halves, who, if
Indiana is not an exception to the rest of
the Union, do more to govern and direct
the press and the public than all other agen-
cies combined. This was the great and the
only mistake that was made, especially
when it is recollected that lady editor,
and poetess to boot, was the most distin-
guished of tho whole party. The turn out
of the fire department, to the detriment of
numerous Treasury wagons, broken and
smashed in the wild rivalry of fire '1addies''
to be first on the ground; the erection of a
monster ladder and the squirting of half
dozen streams of water one hundred feet
high i; the watchful guardianship of Major
Richards and of the detective corps lest they
should be robbed of their free passes, are all
matters of minor consideration, but which
nevertheless contributed to the expression
Of our grateful appreciation Of their i'm
mense service to the world generally and
this freest country upon earth in particular.
We are an extremely grateful crowd, from
Congress down to the humblest citizen, and
if these Indiana rural editors, who hold US
in the hollow of their hands, do not deal
gently and tenderly with US in the future,
why they are not the men we take them |
for. But what lesson, as we said. there
is in the whole thing for Reid, and Bowles.
and Watterson, who eats terrapin out of
season and sees the ghost of Cesarism stalk
ing through the land The first has been
made last and the last first. We do not
know that they ever were first; but they |
thought they were, and 1t is all the same
thing. The best thing White and Waiter.
son can do Is to come down fiom their dizzy
height TO their proper level with their In.
diana brethren, and like them they will be
honored and spplauded in the land. They
have evidently made great and grave miE.