Year: 1874

/ We are coming INTO the last days Of tho
! canvass. bubble, bubble, toll and trouble, !"
for never did Macbeth witches make more
disturbance than the political witches who
| now dance around the seething oaldron. The
three sisters, Morrissey, Creamer and Murphy,
pronounce their incantations and brew their
hell-broth. Into the caldron fall the poison
GUS Ingredients. Slander, defamation, mis-
representation. perjury, falsehood. hbels,
envy, hatred, jealousy, dark ambition, are all


thrown in. A free people manifest themselves
in flags and banners and pictures The
gnarled and oaken face of Centennial Dix looks
out upon us from under the folds of the Amer
lean flag, and patriots are called upon to


rally" around the man who wanted to shoot
the enemy Of the sainted flag. Mr. I'll
dens face never looked so handsome and
statesmanlike as it does in highly finished
wood cuts and Autographs in the cigar store
windows, and wondering rural friends look
at him as though he we're new comic singer
or the latest tenor in tho ''star troupe" OF
Strakosch. Candidates who were never famous
for personal beauty swing from Tapping ban
ners in freshly painted comeliness. We never
knew that Jimmy Hayes was an Adonis or
Patrick 81. Jones an Apollo until we saw
them, gaudy, shining in yellow. red, pink and
blue, idly swinging to and fro in the gentle
breezes of these Indian summer days This
is the harvest time for the boys-the
FOUNDERS, the 'bummers, the men who
strike from the shoulder, the professional poll
,n;o |c11 <1a Jo- tIaxx
followed the old leaders. This is their jubilee
week. For them expectant candidates bleed
and moaning ofiice-holders pay assessments" ("
Ambitious men now unbend and 'love" the
people. Politicians smile from house to
house and pat the children, and discuss
statesmanlike themes to crowded barrooms
For the thousandth time 'sthe country will
be saved" For the thousand and twen-
tieth time the real s'reformers are coming into
power"


For just now, with Heavens gracious help,
we are all reformers and statesmen. The
partisan papers TEEN with our virtues One
journal tells us that if we do not indorse Boss
Murphy's machine there will be new rebel
lion in the South. Another tells us that the
defeat of Boss Morrissey's machine means
that We are to be overwhelmed with the cor
ruptions Of Grants administration, while
still others tell US that Boss Creamer is the
only salvation. Oh, friends, what is good
and what is evil and which Of thsee incanta-
tions can we accept2 Are these sjuggling
fends" to be still believed, or do they palter
with us in double sense? Is it reform at
last, real reform, coming to US resolute,
cold, stern and radiant, with retrenchment
like star upon her brow, and in her hands
the pruning knife of economy and thrift? Isit
true reform. for which we have hoped and
longed and prayed, or. after all, phantom, q
Banquo's ghost, with gashes on the throat and
sinister aspect in its dead eyes Let us
listen with ear nearer the ground, and there
are other cries. Harsh voices come upon US.
In every camp we hear contention and mu-
tiny. Tammany chafes under the leadership
OF the Siamese twins, Morrissey and Kelly
Its honest followers say aloud that between
the rue of Tweed and his successors there is
really no difference, except what we regard
as the difference between an old broom and
the new. The old broom is laid up in Black
wells Island, the new one sweeps along IN the
direction laid down by Tweed For ourselves
we cry welcome to the new brooms and may
they sweep as long as the tightened cords will
hold together! For we believe in new brooms
until they get old, our experience being that
in politics new broom speedily becomes I'm
old one when it once enters into AN Office.


We look into the republican fold and see
under all the apparent harmony the bittersst
strifes. Well, the republican party has its
own troubles which even Custom House can
not calm. The inscrutable Sphinx is so busy
in domestic journeyngs that it will not listen
to the wall of the party. Was there ever such
problem? The republican god sits in his
Juggernaut car and will not speak only the
car rolls on and on, crushing the thousands
of innocent and believing faithful ones who
| lie in PROSTATE submission. II he would only
give one word of hope, one small word But
there must be marriages and giving in mar
riage, and domestic festivals ON Lake
Michigan. And now it is too late
the car moves on, performing its crush
ing, cruel will. Centennial DIX would arrest
it, and last night at Cooper Institute he stood
in presence of the shouting followers Of Post
Office and Custom House and hurled defiance
to the third term. Well, it was bravely done,
and all honor to the old Dandolo for his frank
and manly words. But it is too Late The
mischief is done! If any one can save this
State to the republicans it will be Centennial
Dix, but can he save it? Surely never
was plucky leader in more cruel attitude.
Abandoned by the President and by the party,
what can he hope2 The only issue the party
now makes is the Endorsement of Grant and
the election of United States Senator. The
Governorship is nothing. The Governor has
] been bound on the back Of an unrnly marty