Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1885 — Mauling McEwen [ARTICLE]

Mauling McEwen

The alleged owners of the old Wabasli & Erie canal, at Lafayette, last week sued the L. N. A. & C. Ry., for 810,000 for the use of the water of the canal, in the shops, engines <tc. of the road for the past ten years. The Republican is not so full of .local matter as common this week, and pleads in extenuation of the deficiency, an 1 unusual dearth of interesting happenings, of the kihd wliich make the local news columns Of the paper usually so full and interesting. A number brtssiloon keepers in Lafayette had Their notices of intention to apply for licenses printed in a German paper. The law and Order League contested the legality of this method, and the Tippecanoe County Commissioners decided that the notices were not legal and refused the licenses. The saloonists appealed to tire circuit court and Judge Vinton decided in tlieir favor. The League will appeal to the Supreme court.

The Valparaiso Vhiette favors absolute free trade, and the abolishment of all custom houses and custom officers. A proposition which irresistibly suggests the conclusion that our venerated brother Talcott must have a loose screw in some part of liis thinking appai atus. It would not be a ihora wild or impracticable scheme to advocate the complete {.abolition of all taxation, and the reliance Upon voluntary subscriptions to support the jjiiy^rnment. McEwen.of the SenijneJ, the unregeneratect" Copperhead, the hater and defamer of every loyal man and every loyal measure, last week heaped insults upon the author of the article in the last Republican, signed “Soldier.” In doing this lie not only insulted one of the best and m >st universally esteemed men in the county, whose liouor and truthfulness as far exceed those qualities in the editor of the Sentinel as the angel Gabriel surpasses in the same way the devil himself, but at the same time he insults every soldier and every loyal man in the county. The crushing reply of “Soldier,” in this issue of the Republican, ought to shame him into decency, if such a thing were possible, but “the dog will return to his vomit and the washed sow to tlie mire,” and McEwen will continue to hate aud viliify loyal men so long as liis hands can wield a pen. . 7 — '

The editor of the Sentinel, whose paper is a marvel of typographical incorrectness, discovered last week, in one ofJihe political paragraphs of this papqr, a period where should have beeu a comma, and he, therefore, thought to score a point, by copying the paragraph exactly as it appeared. But Me-1 1 Ewen is the last man on this earth who ought to criticize the typographical character of a contemporary. Why, in liis very attempt to reproduce our paragraph he leaves out ; the t in this, which it was not in th£ driginal, and in the comments 1 which follow our paragraph he commit 3 the grossly ignorant der of writing “et literatum, et; punctuatum,” where he shoul d j i have written, “literatim, et puMcttia-; dim,” thus using a redundant ‘'et” j aud uin two places where i was required. In the same article appears “battes,” for battle,’‘'Solder” for Soldier; leaves out an apostrophe, a quotation mark, usea a turned where an ripostrophe / was required <fcc. Verily vhat n pertinent illustration our ancient neighbor here furnishes, of the truth of the old saying in regard; to people who iptiVhitglass houses.;

The failure of Etesidfcnt Cleveland to make any reference in his message to the death ol Geh. Grant, was probalily an intehtiondl slight to the memory of that gredfc mdh,although it possibly was aii oversight. The contemptible add trivial manner Jin which the Sentinel notices our allusion to this subject’ last week, is siqi|)ly another insult added to the long and ever increasing list that paper is ever flinging at the men who saved the Union; and if all the circumstances of the case can be thought of as reversed, -—if a Republican Tresident had slighted the memory of the greatest of Union generals, and an ExPresident, simply because he was of a different party, and if the Sentinel had made a reepectful allusion to tlie slight aud the Republican had turned the matter off with a fool-born reference to the domestic matters of the editor of the Sentinel, —then how loudljr would the Democrats have denounced thfs insult to tlieir dead leftdeiv.

The editor of tlie Goodlaiid Ilernlil, both as an editor and ah individual, is quite too small potatoes to justify u& in giving to him any considerable amount of attention. We will devote a little further space to liis benefit,' however, and premise by saying that we shall not follow lus example, of descending to falsehood and vulgar personal abuse —the common resort of the ignoi'arit and low mirkled always, but what we have to say, about him shall bs the strict truth, and couche'd in the language of decency. The first act of liis life which gave him any notoriety, (and lidne >f them have ever given him ,reputation) was,” hi its measureless baseness and obscenity, peculiarly characteristic of his mental and moral-mature: While a trusted employe in the office of a newspaper, he took advantage of liis position, after the forms of the paper were niajle up, and the proofs all read and corrected, to change a beautiful line of poetry, written by a young lady, into the most disgusting obscenity, and in that form the paper was priuteT and sent out to its hundreds of subscribers, to the measureless aud. incurable mortification of tlie inoffending author of the poetry aud the rank insult of every decent man or woman who read the paper. As an editor, himself, lie lias fulfilled the brilliant promises of his youth, as indicated by the above incident. As a professional humorist, which it is his constant struggle to be, his reliance is in original vulgarity of his own, and the stolen wit of others. Our very first remembrance of him as a humorist, was in noticing in his paper a long article which lie had stolen, bodily, from Feck’s Milwaukee Sun, and, with some slight changes to give it a local application, was passing it off ps liis own production. From that day we have known him for a constant thief of other men’s wit and humor, sometimes stolen bodily, but more often thinly disguised by a slight change of wording. As a political editor, and honorable advocate of men and measures which* he believed to be right, his character is sufficiently illustrated by the single incident of a certain candidate for a district office, whom he fried to blackmail for fifty dollars; as the price of his support, 4 jajpu3r failing in the attempt, opposed Kim with all his little malignity.

i Jlr. Jenkins, of the Winamac Republican intimates very plainly j that lie would like to hear from ! liis delinquent subscribers, and ! gives as a reason for such desire, ' that ne has “just had another ease jof capital vs. experience.” From | which we infer that his late partj ner and editor, W. T. -Moore got into Mr. Jenkins in a fiuauci ; d , way, to a greater or *ess J

“Soldier” Sets a heavy heel upon the (Jranl'Uin of an An* V'lciiit CopperheadEditor Republican:—As was of course to be expected, the outrageous statements contained in the recent Report of Commissioner of Pensions, Black, find a doughty champion in the person of the venerable friend of rebellion, McEv/tn of the Sentinel. The tone of his paper for the last twenty-five years would be a sufficient guaranty that no lie in aid of so-called Democracy could be invented so infamous but that he would stand ready to swear to it, and try, in his imbecile way to supplement it with another. Notwithstanding his great zeal, however, he utterly fails to adduce one single /'tt, or present one single my ament inßupport of those statements of the Commissioner, but falls back upon abuse of me, which he of course enjoyed the opportunity of bestowing upon a Union soldier, supplemented with a falsehood so silly that no one bht a Democratic editor would dare to so far presume upon the ignorance of Ins readers as to offer the insult to their common sense. He attempts to say that Democrats “did the fighting” add Republicans “the.voting” during our late rebellion. Now I am quite ready to admit that Democrats did a very large part of the fighting, in fact one half of it, but as every one, including even McEwen, knows the share of the Democrats was, with a few noble exceptions, on the Rebel side. All know too that those same men have been “doing the voting” in aid of the Democratic party, ever since, “rolling up a solid South” with the aid of shot guns, tissue ballots, false (founts, and all the other accessories of Democratic political victories. Union Soldiers have not forgotten the fact that not a Democratic paper, not a Democratic politician, or any Democrat of note, could be found in Indiana, or any other State, during those terrible times, willing to allow the soldiers standing in the front to cast a ballot. We cannot forget that for four years we were disfranchised by Democratic votes, placed on a footing with condemned criminals in our penitentiaries.

His attempted abuse of me, is an insinuation as false as the other, and withal very far fetched. Not a word in my communication (except the sigriature, Soldier, which of eourseHiad a very rasping effect upon his sensitive nerves) made any allusion whatever to, or claim for myself. But for his better information, I will now say to him that I not only stood in the way of rebel bullets but received one at the hands of one of his “fighting” Democrats, a better Democrat than ever he was, as this one had the manhood to fight for liis connections, Where McEwen could only act the. part of a cowardly sympathizer with Treason. While he was maintaining his feeble fire in the rear; while his friends were organizing into treasonable societies to resist drafts, to liberate rebel prisoners at rndiauapolis, (Qliicago, Columbus, and elsewhere while they were murdering draft officers in Democratic strongholds in our State; while his friends were mustering tlieir forces cm Hill” for the purpose of burning Rensselaer; for month after rnontii I lay at death’s door, from wounds received at the hands of Derno- : crats, “who did the fighting,” and am going through life a maimed, disabled, crippled, monument or tire work of tiiose “fighting” Democrats. General Black is deserving of honor foi* his services in aid of the right during the late war, the same as every other man who did his whole duty, no more and no less. His wounds are his badges of honor. His exhibition of vile partizansliip, in attempting to prostitute, in the manner he has, the position he holds as trustee of his fellow soldiers is his disgrace. Alid if further disgrace could be added, it would be that of having "such a champion, and defender as the •SciltiH cl. t 1

SoLDIER.

Prohibitionists nsk, “What lias high license done for Illinois?” Well, it has reduced the number of saloons from 111,000 to O()00. In Ghicngo it has shut up 000 of the lowest dens, and increased the revenues from $200,000 to $"i,500,000. Prohibitionists may say “it is blood money,” but one thing is sure, it makes the evil bear a larger portion of the expense it entaiis upon people, and is so f;;r good until better tiling-will be upheld by public sentiment. — ft'.er- Ike-ut.

Sixty-five persons out of one thousand marry. The months of June ai)d December are those in which marriages tire most frequent. Children bbin in thp spring are generally stronger tliffn thhse born in other seasons. \ - 1* r * ® We clip the abotve fifofii a recent nuniber of aii exchange. This ancient chestnut about 65 persons out of every thousand marrying has been knocking about, in almanacs and newspapers, from time out of mind, and yet an assertion more ridiculously absurd, upon its face, could not well be conceived. If only 65 persons in 1000 marry then in order to sustain the population of the world, those married couples must necessarily be tha parents of an average of abofit 30 children to the couple, and still leave a large margin for children born out of wedlock.

Major Bitters, of the Rochester Republican, says that he can print a paper for nothing and board himself, if anybody can, and announces his intention to start a daily in Rochester. It looks like a rather rash venture, to start a daily in a town of the business and population of Rochester, but Mr. Bitters may make it win."