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Political Life.
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citizen " iiroimil their own shoulders, una
themselves with slander and falsehood,
uiul strike tlioir victims fierce and last,
and innocence often falls before their ro
lcntless charges.
Wli.y.is it that a politician is any more
open Id Mich charges than any other citi
zen V The answer that is usually given is,
"lie is a public servant, and his acts
should bu discussed in a public manner."
But if we should hear a vague report
of some misdemeanor of a business man
in our city, we would be slow to repeat it
above a whisper, unless it were biokod by
strong nrorf. The merchant is aio a
public servant, not quite in tho same sense
as the politician, but nono the less a ser
vanl, for he serves us "villi what we want
and receives his pay from us as a public,
et how many of us know, when we make
a purchase of sugar, whether we receive
sugar, or sand and sugar: or if purehas
ing extract of corn, whether it is corn
March or something else wo receive. Then
why not start an immediate war on all the
merchants becauo we have heard that
some of them are dishonest.
One reason that politics are as wo
find thuiu, is because of 0111 indis
criminate war on them. Bui, at the
same time 1 do not believe they are one
tenth as bad as some try to make us be
lieve them. There is a certain class, who
are always bemoaning the corruption of
the age. No matter at what time of the
world's history wo tako it up, we find
whiiiors, wjio, like Hamlet, are sighing
and moaning about the "times being out
of joint;" and, like Hamlet, instead of
setting to work to rid their country of
a few men who could bo spared to advan
tage, tney conclude that everybody is cor.
rupt but themselves; and that the only
thing they can do is to complain because
they were cast upon the world at such a
degenerate time.
Lot us discard tho ioolish and perni
cious practice of abusing a man as soon
as lie gets an oillco, and see if wo cannot
respect ourselves; then others will re
spect us, also.
What ii.duciment do we oiler an intel
ligent lorelgner to adopt our form of gov
crnmenl, if we make him believe thai we
are a nation of defaulters and mounte
banks, ho will say, " If that is the fruit of
republicanism, we had belter bear the ills
we have, than to adopl such as the Ameri
cans say they have, for at present we can
have sonic self respect. " Hut the whiners
sa', "we can not cover up the truth, and
if such irregularities do exist, it is our
duly to expose them."
Well, we agree with you, 5T they do ex
ist, but be sure they are practised, boforo
you parade them so conspicuously before
the public, and see that it is not tho old
habit that so many fall into, of making
what happens today the gieatest that ever
did happen. Toillustra:o: some men will
say of at least fifty daysduring a single win
tor, " This is the coldest day 1 over saw; "
or, in speaking of a lady," She is thebost
looking woman 1 was ever acquainted
with;" while the facts are, they have felt
much colder weather, and seen ladies
much handsomer, if tney would only tako
the t'nie to consider.
History shows that we never had a
more prosperous time in our government
than at present, and if we would take tho
trouble to examine tho local papors, wo
would find that there always has been the
same cry of fraud in local affairs, as at
present. But some will point to our daily
papers and say, "See what a record of
crime they furnish." Wo should remem
ber that they give the aggregated crimes
of forty millions of people, and with our
railroad and telog"aph facilities, the com
bined crimes of tho nation can be report
ed at one poilit in a few hours.
And more, tho people are becoming
more civilized and christianized in the
broad sense cf the words. What a couple
of decades ago would have been consid
ered as chivalric, now is considered as
barbarous. Take, for instance, the as
sault oftMr. Brooks on Charles Sumner