i
C3
AH ABLE ADDRESS.
JL Be view of the Republican
Party's Record.
Hassachnsetta Independent Ite
count in if the. Republican l'ar
ty'ti History of JELerra
ttaneet and "hamelesa
Acta of Jobbery,
The recent address to the public by the
committee of one hundred, representing
the Massachusetts anti-Blaine Republi--cans,
contains the following:
"We are told that the past of that
party 13 glorious, and that -we are there
fore bound to support its candidate to
-lay. We yield to none in our pride at
its great achievements or in our devotion
" to its principles, but when the lesson of
- its past is forgotten and its principles are
abandoned, its name alone cannot com
.tnand our allegiance. The question is
not what the Republican party has done,
but what it will do; not what it was,
" but what it is ; not whether Lincoln and
Seward and Sumner and Andrew and
Stanton and Fessenden were great men
jmd leaders, but whether Blaine and Robe
son and Keifer and Elkins and Clayton
and Kellogg are men to whom we can
safely confide the future of our coun
try. For many years corruption in high of
fice has been conspicuous. It has shown
.itself in every department of the public
service. We have seen a Vice-President
driven into private life by proof of per
sonal dishonesty; a secretary of war im
peached for participation in felony ; ' a
secretary of the navy charged with cor
rupt practices and leaving office under a
-cloud of suspicion, only to appear as a
Republican leader in the Ilouse of Repre
entatives; a secretary of the interior
forced from his office by charges affect
ing his personal and official character;
an attorney-general compromised by evi
dence of petty fraud. Wc have not for
getten Colfax and Belknap and Robeson
and Delano and Williams.
"In tbe treasury department we have
ecn prominent officers implicated in San
born . contracts and suspected of com
plicity in the gigantic conspiracy to de
fraud the revenue known as the "whisky
ring,' and the private secretary of the
President indicted as a conspirator, while
the minister who sought to punish the
criminals was dismissed from office. In
the postoffice department we have seen
an assistant secretary conspiring with
Senators of the United States in 'Star
. route' frauds, and the conspirators boldly
defying the government, which was pow
erless to secure justice in its own capital
city. We have seen the last Republican
Speaker disgraced by proof that he had
shamefully abused his appointing power,
and in face of this evidence, which has
destroyed the confidence of his constitu
ents, again the chosen candidate of the
Republican party for the same high
office. In the signal service we have
een a superintendent, in the treas
ury department a chief clerk,
and in other departments trusted
officers guilty of stealing the public
money. We have s:en the guilty pro
tected, but we have yet to se them
punished. We have seen the whole
patronage of the Federal government used
openly to support a leader in Virginia,
whose principal is repudiation and whose
methods violate every rule of political
morality. We have seen the public
business neglected, the reform of the
civil service sneered at, and political
assessments levied in defiance of party
promises and public opinion, until the
wave of popular indignation forced a re
luctant Congress to inaugurate reform.
The evils of a debased currency have
been disregarded ; our navy is a monu
ment of maladministration ; the surplus,
with all its temptations to extravagance,
remains substantially undiminished.
"Finally, we have seen the Republi
can party relying for its continuance in
power, not on its own achievements, but
on the mistakes of its opponents, and
we have seen its leaders not seeking to
prevent, but to encourage these mistakes
.in order that thereby, at their country's
expense, they might be furnished with
arguments for their continuance
in power. We have seen all these things,
and have been told that the party must
be reformed from within; that our
remedy lay in its caucuses and conven
tions. For years we have yielded to
this advice, and have struggled against
the men who have sought to use the
party for base, personal ends. At times
we have thought them beaten, and have
hoped that the party, which was once
so great, might emancipate itself
from the control of the men who had
degraded it and reassert it3 original
cliaracter. Instead, we now see these
men promoted and their influence in
creased, while under their inspiration
the party turns it3 back upon its princi
ples, and, in piace of declaring in clear
words its policy on the questions of the
day, by equivocal declaration and un
manly appeals to a prejudice, seeks to
secure votes only to perpetuate the power
-of its managers, and not to advance the
prosperity of the country.
"Its candidate for President is a man
charged with the basest of public crimes
the abuse 01 political power for his
own pecuniary advantage who for
eight years has nevt;r dared to demand
that full investigation of the charges
which his political associates would
gladly have accorded, and by which
.alone those charges can be met. Upon
the evidence already produced we believe
him guilty, and we know that many of
hia prominent supporters share our" be
lief. Their declarations before his nomi
nation, their silence or their guarded
language in public addresses since, are
conclusive evidence of this. lie is con
victed by hi3 own statements of delib
erate falsehood on the most solemn occa
sion. The men who in the past have
disgraced the Republican party are united
in his support, and admitted to a con
trolling influence in the conduct of. his
campaign, while of the honest men who
are joined with these, the leaders are
largely either holders of or candidates
for public office, who urge their fellow
citizens to follow them more to preserve
the party than because they approve its
chief. In fine, the Republican party has
to-day no policy which it dares to avow
and a leader whom it cannot defend.
"It is idle to hope that, with such
leadership, the abuses of the past can be
corrected or the party reformed. Un
der the influences which now dominate
its councils, its tendency must be down
ward ; and there is no clearer proof that
this tendency exists, than the fact that
honest men are found ready to tolerate
and excuse offences which a few years
ago would have made the offender in
famous. We see in increasing fidelity to
party great dangers to our government,
and it is an omen of disaster when this
fidelity leads men of character and posi
tion to throw their influence in favor of
dishonesty and to mislead their fellow
citizens by misrepresenting the facts and
obscuring the. issue. The fascination of
the name "Republican" ha3 made men
blind of offenses which otherwise they
would condemn. .It is our imperative
duty, therefore, to disregard the appeals
to party spirit, which, in the language of
Washington, it is "the interest and du
ty of a wise people to discourage and re
strain," and to consider how best we can
stay the progress of corruption in the
government of our country.
"Leaving to Congress the great ques
tions of policy, which must be questions
of legislation, and reserving the right to
vote in congressional elections for such
men as represent our opinion on these
questions; intending in the State to vote
in the f.iturc as we have in the past, we
see in the presidential contest a simple
issue. Our platform is the single prin
ciple that none but men of proved integ
rity should be supported for public office,
and that the use of official oower for
personal ends is a breach" of trust
which should disqualify for the public
service those who are guilty of it. A
party nomination which violates this
principle must not only forfeit our sup
port but incur our unsweeping opposi
tion. By the nomination 0 James G.
Blaine the Republican party has thrown
down the gauntlet for partisan govern
ment. The Democratic party answers the
challenge. Its candidate is the acknowl
edged champion of reform and political
honesty. The issue is thus joined. The
leaders are representative men, the fore
most of their kind, and we cannot for an
instant hesitate in our choice or doubt
what the true interests of our country
demand.
"For these reasons we urge all our
fellow citizens to unite with us in our ef
forts to secure the election of Governor
Cleveland, and to organize in their re
spective neighborhoods that the vote of
Massachusetts may be given in Novem
ber for honest government."
Thurman on Republican Misrule.
At the Democratic ratification meet
ing in Columbus, Ohio, Judge Allen G.
Thurman, the principal speaker of the
occasion, spoke substantially as follows:
When I accepted the invitation to ad
dress you to-night, it was my purpose to
speak somewhat fully on some great
questions now under consideration by
the American people. But for the last
few days I have been suffering severely;
not anything the matter with my heart
or feelings caused by disappointment or
regret, but from that to which old men
like myself are sometimes subjected an
attack of rheumatism and the conse
quence is I am in no condition to make
anything like an elaborate speech. How
ever, if I were in the best possible con
dition I should occupy but a small por
tion of your time, for the reason that
there are numerous speakers here, and
some of them from abroad, and it would
be but common courtesy, to say nothing
of justice to me, to occupy but little
time. 1 do not desire to deprive them of
the privilege of being heard, and there
fore I 6hall be very brief in my remarks.
I shall speak civilly, as has always been
my habit in my life to do, ana shall not
depart from so good a habit to-night. I
shall speak civilly of our political oppo
nents as well as ourselves. We are at the
outset of a most important political cam
paign, which will decide whether the
reigns of government shall longer
continue in the hands of the Re
publican party. I have never in my life
been so "thoroughly convinced of the
truthfulness of what I shall say to-night
as I now am. The spirit of our institu
tions, the welfare of country and the
rights of our citizens of a great common
wealth all demand that the Republican
party shall go. (Applause.) That there
Khali be a change in the administration
of our national affairs. (Applause.) In
monarchial countries, the spirit, nay, the
very letter of their institutions prescribe
where and when a man shall rule in un
broken perpetuity. The central idea of
Democratic institutions are that power
shall not long rest in the hands of any
one man or set of men; hence we find in
our constitutions, both State and Federal,
limitations upon the power of the officials
whom we choose. Your President is
chosen for four years, although eligible
to re-election; yet the example set by the
father of our country, who was re-elected
but once, has never been broken down
to this day. There has never been but
one attempt to break it and it was a sig
nal failure. Also your Senators in Con
gress are elected for limited terms, and
likewise your members of the Ilouse of
Representatives. The officers composing
the State government are also elected for
limited terms. The same is true oS-youi
members of the legislature, city and town
.hip officials. Hence we see the central
idea of a Democratic form of government
is to prevent long continuance in office.
What is true of individuals is true oi
parties.
No man believes more firmly than I do
In great blessings that have been be
itowed in times long gone by upon tha
country by the honored Democratic
narty. It was the Democratic party
that added such immense territory to
our country ; that added so much wealth
to our courftry; that disseminated the
principles far and near throughout the
length and the breadth of the land, but
this all finally came to an end. The
Republican party came into power at the
outbreaking of the civil war, with an
apparent fixed determination to hold it
is long as the sun may shine and streams
shall continue to flow; It is a bad thing
for parties to remain so long in power,
t is not necessary they shall have bad
motives ; not necessary they shall be un
patriotic and corrupt in order to be
turned out. " You may grant them hon
esty and patriotism, yet a long contin
aance in power brings with it evils. In
the first place, the inevitable tendency i3
to create rivals and leaders, who at last,
from long continued success, come to
think the government belongs to them,
ind belongs td them in perpetuity, some
thing like divine right; therefore any
detestable means is justifiable to keep
them in power. Look at our own his
tory. Only a few years back, in 1876,
when Samuel 1 Tilden was elected pres
ident of the United States, he had a
majority of the electoral votes and a
majority of tbe popular votes. Gover
nor Hendricks was at the same time
vice-president. (A voice: "And will be
elected again.") I agree with you.
(Laughter.) If any two men were ever
elected in this country, they were. (A
voice: "Why didn't they keep it?")
Because they were defrauded out of it
by one of the most atrocious and black
est deeds which blacken our free govern
ment. (Applause.)
The leaders of the Republican party
would never have dared to inaugurate,
much less dared to carry into effect,
such atrocious crime if it had not been
for their long continuance in power. In
1880, four years afterward, the election
for President turned upon Indiana.
They managed and carried through one
of the most stupendous and corrupt
echemes that ever disgraced the annals of
any country. The vote of that State was
given against Hancock, who would have
received it if the election had been fair
and honest and he would have been
elected President of the United States.
The chief agent was afterward given a
grand dinner in New York." Now,
my friends, such a thing would
never have taken place had it not been
for their long continuance in power.
They came to the conclusion they would
Win, no matter if they violated the Con
stitution and trampled under foot the
liberty and the rights of the people.
Shall we sustain them in power? It is
only a question of time until the people
of this country will teach them a different
lesson from "that (applause) ; that there
are other interests in our country beside
those of the Republican rings and lead
ers; that there are other interests beside
star-route plunderers, and whisky-rings,
and Credit Mobiliers. (Applause and
laughter.) Now I think you are going
to demonstrate that to them this year. I
think there are 10,000 right-minded and
Independent Republicans who will clasp
hands with us to teach these men that
this government does not belong to the
Republican party, but to the people of
the United States. (Applause.) The
continuance of one party in power, my
friends, becomes despotic. I was
very much struck the other day
at a railroad crossing, at Fosteria, with
the remarks of an old Irishman,
who was a switch tender. He said :
"Judge, how much better off are we if
one party is to continue in power forty
years than if we lived under a monarchy?"
(Applause.) I would as soon have lived
under Queen Vic. as to live in a country
where one party holds power fifty years.
(Applause.) No person can deny that at
least half the people of the United States
are Democrats; yet what Democrat in
the crowd, ever so well educated, ever
so upright and moral in conversation and
all the walks of life, has the least possi
ble chance of getting a Federal office?
There are millions who are thus far com
pletely disfranchised, who are as
completely ostracized as any person
who is subjected to ' a foreign
power, instead 01 being free
born citizens of the United States. The
people are protesting against this kind
of thing; they do not intend it shall go
on forever.
In Mr. Blaine's letter of acceptance
the only civil-service reform measure he
urges is to increase the length of time of
Republican officeholders. (Laughter.)
They have held the offices of the national
government twenty-three years, and yet
are not satisfied; and their candidate for
the presidency advocates one civil-service
reform measure, and that to lengthen
the terms of office. Is it not time to ask
the people whether they desire a form of
government in which the many are made
hewers of wood and drawers of water,
while a few ride upon their backs?
There are a good many things more I
would like to say, but I have already
spoken longer than I intended. (Cries;
"Go on," "Go on.") I cannot do so
this time. Some of these times when
there are no other speakers, you can come
and hear me, and I will just spread my
self. (Applause.)
A man leaning over a fence in Ken
tucky asked another man who was riding
past with a shotgun across his saddle:
"Where are you going?" "There is a
little social gathering at the grocery.
Suppose you come along." "Can't do
it." "Why not?" "My six-shooter is
out of order, and I haven't sharpened my
bowie-knife in a week. Good luck to
youl Take care of yourself." Texas
Siftinys.
An English physician says that un
ripe apples, pears and plums are much
more wholesome than 'overripe berries,
which often swarm with incipient life.
FRENCH. FARMS AND FARMERS.
What an American Traveler Saw in
France.
In going from Paris to Geneva, via
Dijon, says an American traveler, we
pass through the best portion of France.
For hundreds of miles every inch of land
is cultivated. The abrupt side hills are
in grape vines and the fiat land in grain.
Here we see the phenomenon of double
crops a crop of grain and vegetables
growing under a crop of trees. The
Normandy poplar trees are from an inch
to three feet in diameter. They are
planted thickly, but give no shade. They
are trimmed within six feet of the tops.
The boughs, which are cut off every
year, make faggots enough to warm
France. We often see men and women
cradling wheat or hoeing beets in the
midst of a wood giving no shade. When
you look across the country the tall,
boughless trunks look like black streaks
painted against the sky. They make the
view very picturesque. Our farmers on
the prairies could plant black walnut
trees where they want fences, and then
string barbed wire on the trunks for
fences. At the end of fifty years the
black walnut trees on a man's farm
would be worth, more than his .farm!
Wood in France is sold for a third of a
cent a pound. It is worth as much as
corn in Kansas by the pound. So when
the Kansas man burns corn, he is no more
profligate than the Frenchman who
burns faggots. The French farmer would
never think of burning wood to heat his
house. He sits in the cold all the win
ter long, only using wood to cook with.
The average farmer does not know
enough to buy coal or kerosene yet. He
does not live as well as the poorest negro
in the South. He has no home com
forts; poverty and ignorance are his
companions.
France is literally one large garden.
Every inch of soil is cultivated. In
riding from Paris to Dijon, 150 miles,
we counted only thirty cattle. We saw
no sheep or hogs. The farms have
uusually from one to ten acres. Some
farms have half an acre, and some have
as many as twenty acres. They are
usually from thirty to 300 feet wide and
and from 1,500 to 2,000 feet long.
There are no fences between them.
When I asked a French farmer how
his farm happened, like all the rest, to
be so long and narrow, he said :
"It has been divided up so often.
When a French farmer dies, he divides
his farm, and each one of his children
has an equal share. He always divides
it lengthwise, so as to give each one a
long 6trip. The Ions strips are easily
cultivated, because we plow lengthways.
These strips always run north and south,
so that the sun can shine into the rows."
"How large is your farm?" I asked.
"My father's farm was 300 feet wide
and 2,000 feet long. When he died my
brother had half. Now my farm is 150
feet wide and 2,000 feet long. It is
quite a large farm. There are many
farms much smaller than mine."
"What do you plant in it?" I asked.
"See over there," he said, pointing to
what seemed to be a gigantic piece of
striped carpet, "is a strip of wheat sixty
feet wide. 1 hen comes a strip of pota
toes twentv-five feet wide. Then comes
forty feet of oats, then ten feet of carrots,
twenty fee; of alfalfa (luzerne), ten feet
of mangel-wurzels, five feet of onions,
five feet of cabbage, and the rest is in
flowers, peas, currants, gooseberries and
little vegetables."
"Can you support your family on a
farm 150 wide and 2,000 feet long?" I
asked ; for the narrow strip seemed like
a man's dooryard in America.
"Support my family?" he exclaimed
"Why, the farm is too large for us. J
rent part of it out now."
"But vour house." I said, "where is
that?"
"Oh, that is in the town. Five fami
lies of us live in one house there. My
wife and I come out every morning to
work and go home at night."
"Does your wife always work in the
field?'
"Yes. My wife," he continued.point-
ing to a barefooted and bare-headed
, 1ne4. ,:,. f oof amiin tU Mining
"she can do more work than I can. Sho
pitches the hay to me on the stack. All
French women work in the field. Why
not? They have nothing to do at home."
This is true. The wife of a r rench,
English, Irish or German farmer has
nothing to do at home. They do not
keep house" like the wives of American
farmers. The handsome farm house off
by itself, surrounded by trees and gar
dens do not exist in France. French
f arme rs al ways congregate in little tumble
down villages situated about two miles
apart. These villages may have been
built three hundred vears ago. The
roofs are moss-covered, the houses are
dirty, and remind one of a coimtry poor
house in New Lngland.
There are millions of farms in France
containing from a quarter of an acre to
four acres.
I find that an acre and a half is about
all the most ambitious man wants. The
rent for land is always one-half the crop.
The land is worth about $400 an acre
or, if in grape vines. $000.
This is why France is like a garden
In France there are 227,000 landown
ers; in France there are 7,000,000 land
owners. The Frenchmen on his two
acres, with his barefooted wife cutting
grain with a sickle by his side, is happy
and contented, because he knows no bet
ter. Such a degrading life would drive
an American farmer mad. The French
man thrives because he spends nothing,
He has no wants beyond the coarsest
food and the washings of the grape skins
after the wine is made. 1 es, he is thrifty
He saves inonev, too. The aggregated
wealth of 30,000.000 poor, degraded
barefooted peasants makes France rich
The ignorance of the French farmer is
I appalling. I never saw a newspaper in
a French farm village. Their wants are
no more than the wants of a hone. The
Frenchman eats the coarsest food ; about
the same as he feeds his hone. He will
eat coarse bread and wine for breakfast -soup,
bread and wine for dinner, and
perhaps bread and milk for supper; he
does not know what coffee or tea is. The
negroes of the South live like kings com
pared, to a French farmer. Still, the
Frenchman is satisfied because he knows
no better.
When I asked a French farmer who
was cultivating his farm (150 by 1,500)
if he saved any money, he said:
"Oh, not much. I go to all the fetes.
I laid by 500 francs ($100) last year. I
put it in the Caisse d'Epargne."
"What is that?" I asked of the land
lord. That is the government savings bank.
The government takes the money of the
poor, up to 1,000 francs, and gives them,
three and one-half per cent, for its use.
The peasant farmers of France have near
ly $800,000,000 on deposit ii these sav
ings banks. These poor, degraded, half-
fed farmers keep the French treasury full
of money.
lhe French fanner loves the republic
but the people of Paris hate it. The em
pire made Paris. Without the empire,
trade is bad in Paris ; so Paris sighs for
some Louis XIV., or Napoleon III. to
come and establish an expensive court
again.
The Manufacture of Moccasins.
Evebrybody in Maine is familiar with
the baggy, yellow boots and shoes called
moccasins, which in winter form the fa
vorite footwear of our lumbermen and
farmers. These unique boots have a his
tory which dates back to the middle of
the century.
The material is common leather, but
tanned in a peculiar way. The principal
ingredients in the tanning are salt and
alum, with a kind of oil. The method
is something of a secret, known to but
few.
Leather thus tanned was first U6ed as
lacing for mill belts. It was some time
before its utility as boot and shoe mate
rial was discovered. In 1851 E. P. Bald
win, who kept a 6hoe 6hop in Bangor,
obtained some of the leather from Paw
tucket, and began the manufacture of
the moccasin. Iu 1852 the business had
increased considerably in Bangor, and a.
manufactory was established in Oldtown.
The work in those days was quite crude,
and far behind that of to-day in style and
finish. In 1855 another factory was
started in Bangor, and from . this estab
lishment was sent the first pair of mocca
sins that ever went to Dubuque. Trade
was very prosperous until the opening of
the rebellion. Then the business lan
guished, but in 1868 became established
upon a permanent basis.
In 1871 the mode of moccasin manu
facture was revolutionized by the advent
of improved machinery and new ideas.
The cut of the leg was altered so as to
bring the seam upon the side instead.
of at the back, and tne seam which for
merly made an uncomfortable ridge in.
the leg was superseded by the flat lap
seam. Much of the sewing is let out at
so much a dozen pairs to French -Canadian
families who live in the suburbs.
The larger part of the stock still comes
from Rhode Isiand, but Bangor is the
great centre of the moccasin manufacture,
as many pairs being made here, probably,
as in all other places combined. At Red
Wing and St. Paul, 3lmn., and Kacinc.
Wis., the manufacture is quite extensive
ly carrried on, and it is from these places
that Bangor encounters the strongest
competition. Over 300 people are em
ployed here, and the production, which
in 1881 was 80,000 pairs of boots and
20,000 pairs of shoes, has been increasing;
yearly. .
1 he tanning renders tne leatner a per
fect non-conductor of water, and, to a
considerable extent, a non-conductor of
heat and cold. For these reasons the
moccas:n is popular with lumbermen and
farmers, and thousands of Western far
mers are supplied from Bangor, while
our own lumbermen would as soon think
of going into the woods without their
axes as without their moceasins. When,
new the boots have an oily feeling, au
ordor not disagreeable, and of a bright
golden color. ""The axe artist trudge
away in winter in boots to the snowy
woods, while the small boy of the, city
frolics in shoes that are now known as
Bangor's golden slippers.
The Hallos.
One of the strangest, most remarkable
and least known regions of the world is
the little group i f islands in the German
ocean called the Ilalligs, or Halligan.
They are on the Sleswick coast, and not
many years ago passed from Danish to
German rule. The people sjeak a Fris
sian dialect, resembling the Plattdeutsch
of North Germany. The islands are all
small, sandy and low; and in winter the
sea breaks over them for weeks together.
Some of the islets have only one family
on, and a few are unpeopled. The houses
and haystacks stand on stilts or piles,
and in stormy weather the sheep are car
ried into the houses to keep them from
being washed away. Hay and wool are
the only crops, and fishing is the chief
employment.
Life on the storm-swept Ilalligs is
dreary and monotonous, but the people
are healthy and happy, and seem strangely
attached to their poor farmsteads and
niggardly sheepwalks. The islanders
cling fondly to their old language, and
feel no 6mall contempt for their neigh
bors Germans, Danish and Jutish, the
Jutes especially being looked down upon,
as in every way their inferiors.
The East Indies are overcrowded with
goats. There are millions in the islands,
and the land from one end to the other
smells like an immense stable. ,
In Aberdeen, D. T., artesian flowing;
wells are being used to run a grist mill.