The fov e r i s h
FLUNKYISM AND young" gentleman
FLUNKIES. from Kentucky ,
used the term
"flunky" or "flunkyism" in nearly
every spasm of that delirious tirade
on the floor of the house , in which he
insulted the state department , the
British legation , the German Empire ,
Prince Henry , Miea Roosevelt and the
President , each in quick succession ,
and with a bewildering disregard for
history , common truth" , common
courtesy and common decency.
Undoubtedly his purpose if a man
with hydrophobia can be said to have
purpose was to depict the self-respect
ing officials and private citizens of the
greatest government under the sun , as
groveling at the feet of royalty. This
remarkable spasm was broueht on
simply and wholly because common
courtesy and common decency have
prompted Americans , who are not
afraid of being seduced , to extend
hospitality to a relative of the ruler
of a great friendly nation , from whose
people have been drawn a goodly pro
portion of our best citizens. The
sturdy , frugal , honest German-Ameri
can is thus taught that even the
highest of his .countrymen are de med
unfit to set foot upon American soil
even for a brief period ; or , doing so ,
must be left to their own devices , or
quartered in some second-class board
ing house and totally excluded from
society.
While such a program might meet
with the approbation of Mr. Wheeler ,
and those who applauded .his late
effort , the great bulk of Americans
are neither so narrow-gauged nor so
iguorantly vicious , as to allow any
such disregard for the proprieties.
Proud of their country and its resources -
sources , and anxious to show visitors
that wo are not the barbarians which
some Europeans consider us , they
propose to put the best foot forward
and make a good impression upon
the mind of our noble guest , hoping
that their hard efforts may partially
offset the boastful vaporings of the
swelled-ohested gentleman from Ken
tucky , and his cohorts.
Besides , the term "flunky , " in one
_ sense , means simply a servant , which
to Prince Henry we indeed are , just
as any hospitable host , together with
his household , is always the servant of
those ho entertains.
But there is a flunky whom the best
class of citizens has learned to de
spise ; the crawling , cringing toady ,
who would barter his very soul for
t the favor of his thoughtless constitu
ency ; who plays upon the passions of
men for his own advancement ; who
arrays man against man , class against
class , and nation against nation ; who
[ * ' * delves deep in his store of carefully
! > ] ' hidden knowledge seeking an excuse
' v- \
to insult the highest officials and com
mon peoples of his own and other
governments ; who is so consistently
and unalterably opposed to servitude
anywhere , that he refuses to allow
iis tongue to act as the servant of his
conscience and speak his own true
thoughts , but rather studies the baser
instincts of mankind and uses them to
forward his own ambitions. A servile ,
crawling , cringing , fawning suppli
cant , groveling in the dust at the
feet of his master the excitable voter
and , hidden in a fog of his own
raising , barks his diminutive defiance
at men whose shoes he is not fit to
blacken. Such a flunky is Wheeler of
Kentucky ; whether or not his constit
uency is of that ilk , will be knovn
when it has either indorsed or repudi
ated Mr. Wheeler and his tremens.
Meanwhile , the country will con
tinue to recognize the fact that a man
may be a German , and still a man for
a' that ; also continue to extend fitting
greeting and proper entertainment to
the highest naval officer of a friendly
power , even as the foreigners greeted
and entertained Admiral Dewey
throughout his late triumphal tour
from the antipodes to our own shores.
Henry of Prussiathe "Sailor Prince"
occupies as high a position , officially ,
and in the hearts of his countrymen ,
as does Dewey , and an insult to him is
an insult to all Germans , both in the
Fatherland and in America.
By all means expunge this mess of
buncombe from the congressional rec
ord , and' if it must be preserved as an
article of virtu , let it be framed and
placed in the national museum , where
it belongs. William Pitt once said of
his coiintrymen : ' ' Wo wore once as
savage in our manners , as degraded in
our understandings as are these un
happy Africans. ' '
This severe arraignment of former
Britons was perhaps the result of tak
ing a one-sided view of those states
men who had lived before Pitt. It
will not do to allow .posterity , after
reading the maudlin speech of this
Kentucky barbarian , to pass a similar
judgment upon the character of pres
ent-day Americans. By all means ex
punge the speech , and if possible the
speaker.
In St. Peters-
THE HIDDEN burg , the Anglo-
HAND. Japanese treaty is
received with an
equanimity which , however , fails to
deceive. At Paris there is more ex
citement , and Berlin is not indiffer
ent. Public men of all the govern
ments interested find it impossible to
discuss the matter without reference
to the United States , and everywhere
there is the same suspicion that this
government is bound hard and fast in
the * compact. Neither England nor
Japan finds it convenient to waste
time in dispelling this suspicion ; the
suspicion serves their purpose as well
as would the reality.
Europe will save itself from insom
nia and possible nervous prostration ,
by simply pausing to reflect that
American traditions forbid the engag
ing in entangling alliances for any
purpose whatever. True , wo stand
for the open door and the integrity of
China ; so do Russia , Germany and
France , if their statesmen are to bo
believed. While the alliance is strict
ly in line with our interests , and con
ditions might arise which would in
duce us to give our moral , perhaps
actual , support to England and Japan ,
still no nation which does not con
sider China a vast grab-bag need fear
any interference from America , either
alouo or in collusion with other
powers.
It is the guilty conscience needing
no accuser which prompts Europe to
distrust the United States in1 the
Orient. This distrust , however un
justified it may be , serves a good pur
pose , giving added weight to the
declarations just published , and acting
as a safe-guard to American interests ,
witli no effort on our part.
Hon. T. J. Phil-
SUPPRESSED. lips , late demo
cratic candidate
for governor , in the state of Iowa.
recently faced a heartless judge who
fined him $25 and costs for kicking a
common editor. Thus one by one the
freedman's sacred liberties are
abridged. To bo denied the indul
gence of a passion for the time-honored
sport of kicking editors , a sacred right
jealously guarded by our fearless an
cestors , is the last and most diabolical
of a succession of dastardly blows
aimed at liberty as the Phillips wing
of the Iowa democracy sees it.
Congress seems
PACIFIC CABLE , inclined to reject
the propositions
submitted by rival companies for the
laying of the Pacific cable , and all
signs indicate that the Orient and the
Occident will be wired together at
government expense. As it has been
shown that the system can bo placed
in operation for about $10,000,000
much .more cheaply than had been
supposed it seems that it would bo
economy for the government to own ,
rather than rent , besides the obvious
advantages of having absolute control
of the cable at all times , thus insur
ing its efficiency and secrecy in peace
or war. The proposition of the Com
mercial Pacific Cable company , to lay
the cable , and , after its completion ,
to sell same to the government at its
actual cost , seemed fair , but did not
win the approval of congress. As a
choice between granting a subsidy
for a long term of years , virtually
paying for the cable , yet not owning
it , and of absolute ownership and con
trol , the latter seems preferable.
i > ,