Year: 1878

little screams and put up her fan, and say


ooh! oh! There comes that hOrrid man, MI


"Butler, and I know by the looks OF him


"that he's going to make insulting pro-


"posals tome. Fire Murder Thieves Police =


And then having attracted the attention OF


the rest of the Union and engaged every


body in discourse over the sweet severity OF


her virtue, and the pity it is that she should


be so prosecuted by the attentions OF the man


with an evil eye, she will tell MIR. Butler TO
| go away, and he with some acidulous remark
about not having ever dreamed OF woolng
her, will go. In every school there's boy
who is always being imposed upon or about
to be imposed upon; somebody has put a
| bent DIN under him, or made faces at him or
| something of that sort he manages always
TO be in the focus; always calling for sympathy.
So in almost every railroad train there's an
angular virgin occupying whole seat with her
bandboxes and bundles, who suspects every
man that looks at her OF design to abduct
her, and manages to occupy the attention Oh
all the other passengers with the twtterings
of her unfounded suspicious and needless
alarms. Massachusetts, if we may judge from
her newspapers and some of her politicians
beg pardon-statesmen, is that sort of boy, and
that kind of an old maid. Ever since Mr. Webster
said to the country, in his grand way, "There
L" she stands. Look at her" the notion has
prevailed very largely among Massachusetts
people-at least among her newspaper people
and statesmen-that it was the mission OF Mas
sachusetts to stand there and he looked at,
and the mission and duty of all the rest OF
the world 10 look at her. And the country
has, for the most part, attended TO 1t pretty
well. There have been periods, to be sure, of
a few days at time that the country has
had ITS attention withdrawn, bat whenever
that has happened some bold, bad man has
been seen to either make raid or look as
though he contemplated a raid upon the Ex-
ecutve chair. or the Boston custom House,
or the Methuen Post Office, or some such high
place. whereupon all the newspapers and the
statesmen have bumped themselves ana
shrieked. and the old Commonwealth has inn
medately resumed its front seat under the
public eye. and its chief place among the
topics of current discussion.


1t was only short time ago that we had
one of these brief pauses in which, from being
taken up with the Eastern War, or the Cur
rencv Question or the Civil Service Reform,





keen its eve on Massachusetts. Senator Blaine
broke into it with remark or two about the
early history of the State which, If not positively
unfrendly, at least showed Il lack OF proper
reverence for one of the early Governors
Thereupon, both the Massachusetts, Senators
rose excitedly and said, " There she stands.
Look at her" And the country fell at once
into the old observant and admlring
attitude. Mr.. Simmons took advantage OF
the next relaxation of the public gaze
To make n dash for reappOintment as
Collector of Customs nc Boston. Thereat
all business stopped. The newspapers
all over the State said: This now Is the
crucial test of the present Administration.
L" All other questions are insignificant and
"small all other issues trivial and unim-
"portant in comparison with this" Com
mittees went on To Washington and told
the President that Massachusetts was stand
ing there. and asked him to look at
her. They pointed her out To the mem
bers of the Cabinet and asked them to
look at her They filed the Associated
Press dispatches with notices 10 the public
that she was standing there. and requests to
everybody to look Mt her And so everybody
did look at her for several weeks. Nobody
outside of Massachusetts, knew precisely what
IT was all about or what allied Simmons, but
they all complied with the request to look NJ
her. After a long time the President refused
To appoint Simmons, and appointed another
man. and then the newspapers and the
statesmen said. Really there has been no such
Administration as this since Washingtons,'
and momentarily subsided. But the commit
tees had hardly reached home before an ex-
element broke out about the Post Otiice at
Methuen, and that once more centred public
attention on the Bay State, il being understood
that it was demonstration 10y Mr. Butler
preparatory to some great and bad design be
had in mind. Butler VAS defeated. but not
till the State had been kept up nights in a
cold shiver exciting the sympathy OF the
country for several weeks.


Then they had trouble about their shad.
They planted shad at great expense under
the HolyOke Dam, and rs soon as they
got fnt Connecticut fishermen gobbled them
up. And they then threatened 10 stop raising
shad This has not yet been made a National
question. but Is liable to become such at any
moment There is also man by the
name of Tinker, who holds Govern
ment office, and lives somewhere IN the
neighborhood of Springfield. He is said
to be an uncommonly dangerous person, and
at times. when no more famous rutlan seems
about to swoop down upon the State, fears
are expressed that Tinker. who Is called
" Boss in order to make the interest in him
more general, will make descent upon the
Western part of the State and debauch It's
politics beyond recognition. Much anxiety is
manifested on this head whenever there's a
dull time and danger that people will
forget that Massachusetts stands there-lOOk at
her. The great peril, however. with which