Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1878 — "THE GRAND OPENING” [ARTICLE]

"THE GRAND OPENING”

Which was to take place at the Court House on last Monday evening resulted In a grand sizzle. The Hon. did not appear, and the “Hon ” Dan. Brown, of LaPorte. had a clear field. His first proposition, that he was "not prepared to make a speech” was heartily endorsed by all present long before the close of his harangue. Democrats and Independents were amused and republicans disappointed and disgusted to a degree expressible only in “swear words.”

He edified the audience by statin • that he waved the “bloody shirt” on all opportune occasions. He is only a bag of wind and wat-no, not water ; he never uses so thin a beverage. Having been sent to Jasper county by Hon W. H. Calkins to instruct our citizens how to vote on the Bth of October, he has employed his leisure hours in street controversies and bliveating about “fiat money* and other financial problems. And to show his acquaintance with the financial history of this country, he made and frequently repeated the declaration that United States “de mand notes'* were not worth 38 cents on the dollar during the years 1864 & 1865. We pity the intelligence of the schoorboy who knows no better than this. Some of his republican brethren endeavor to excuse“hisshortcom-

ing by asserting that he was not in a suitable condition to appear on the streets. Certainly his countenance is a iggestive of anything but a temperance lecturer. The Rensselaer Union announces its intention of becoming a partisan paper after tho 10th of August Heaven save the party whose cause it espouses.—Monticello Herald, July 1876. Amen! With the assistance of Heaven and The Union our party shall prevail against the allied hosts of hell, the world, the flesh and the Herald. —Rensselaer Union, Julv 27, 1876. We suppose when the consul penned the above he expected to be retained by the Democratic and Independent party. Failing in his anticipations be joined “the allied hosts of hell, the world, the flesh and tne Herald.”— Result: Heaven was on the side of Blue Jeans, and gave Tilden and Hendricks over a quarter million majority!

As predicted, Calkins is sick; but the biggest joke of the season is his dispatch to "our Simon” to fill his plaee in the joint discussions.