OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2045, 4 May 1893, Page 21

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

CFhom Oob Own Correspondent. ) San Francisco, March 31. Cleveland's inauguration. Amid a howling blizzard, a bitterly old wind, and an unceasing swirl of frozen rain, Grover Cleveland, with bare head and solemn mieu, took the customary oath of office as President of the United .States of Amsrica on the 4-th (nst. Immediately prior to this he had addressed, for nearly half an hour, one of the plainest^of plain talks to the thousands who crushed Ground the steps of the Capitol. With a slight (exception his Bpeech was utterly free from the tawdry rhetoric and spreadeagleism too common on such occasions.' He insisted upon the necessity for a sound currency, and declared the Executive would exercise all the powrs vested in it to maintain the same ; denounced the growing tendency for paternal legislation— believing that whilst all citizens should patriotically support their Government, it was not the duty ot the Government to support the people ; bounties, subsidies, and pensions were the prolific fruit of this paternalism ; efficiency, and not partisan friendship, was the only genuine test for official reward ; trusts and combinations were alien to true American principles of freedom and justice; the Indians should be generously and justly dealt with; the party must redeem ,its solemn pledges and determinedly deal with tariff reform ; unswerving loyalty to country ; a due recogoition of the i rights of others ; a persistent endeavour to do the ri,,ht and true thing against all that is unworthy ; and an appeal for divine aid concluded the President's outspoken utterances. The address has- given general satisfaction, except to the office-hunters ; but Cleveland is not the man to trouble about their likes aud dislikes. The whole secret of Cleveland's great popularity is, as I have before asset ted, his undoubted honesty. This, to us, may seem little; but honesty in a politician iv this country is so rare a bird that, when discovered, it meets its reward. Cleveland owes nothing to the politicians ; he holds office in spite of them. His success is dae to his policy, backed up by his personal character ; that is to say, his policy is in harmony with his character. Intellectually, he is neither greater nor less than thousands of his fellow citizens. Morally, Harrison, Garfield, Arthur, aud others were upon the same high platform. Politically, his experience is less than theirs. He his never participated in the onslaught of a debate. He has never sat in a State Legislature or a Congress. His celebrity has been gained from occupying positions to which his party had nominated him— sheriff, mayor, governor, President! All these before he was 48 years of age. But in each and all he left the impress of his genuine uprightness and downrightaess. He was ■ courageness, fearless, self-confident, honest. And, after all is said and done, these qualities are of a higher calibre, though less dazzling, than the brilliant flashes of rushing meteors of the Blame stamp.

JOAQUIN MILLER is not unknown even in the far south. He is, perhaps, the best known poet in this country at the present time. Holmes has a greater fame, but not as a poet only. And Joaquin Miller has written some good verses upon an incident in Cleveland's career. When the latter was elected Governor of New York he wrote to his brother a letter the burden of which was the affectionate wish " if only mother were here to know." Tho dfsire proclaims the man and Miller's verses reflect the sentiment admirably. I append two of them: — O nation^ of nations, you can trust that man, Mothers of men may you love him long ! Envy may challenge and malice may plan To compass about him, and hate do him wron But the man who has honoured his mother so, Turned first to her when the battle was o'er, Whatever may come and whoever may go Will honour his country right down to the

That man who turned with his proud head low, That man who turned in his first young fame, From roar of guns and glitter and show, To cry the heart's cry in a mother s name— ""If only mother were here to know J" Believe and lean upon him and love. The arch Well rounded it shall not fall. - The strength of the lion, the heart of the dove, And duty! the one great word of all. Islea, sweet, isles of the soft, south main, Maple leaf of the vast north land, Cactus spear of the Aztec plain, Behold the potent and the destined hand ! But hark to the prayer ! All heads bend low ; The oath of office ; then shout 3in the air, And the multitude swaying to and fro, And be still praying that sad, sweet prayer, "If only mother were here to know 1" EXIT OF MR HARBISON.

Mr Harrison's Administration was as successful as it is possible for an Administration to be in a country where politics and not fitness is made the ttst of office. Unlike Mr Cleveland, the late President had no views of his own upon great questions of internal policy. His party had made him President, and Mr Harrison was ever ready to do what' his party desired. He believed in rewarding partisans with the sweets of power aud office. One newspaper editor who had fought sturdily for him was given phe beßt diplomatic mission; anofc .or had one scarcely inferior ; a third supporter uas appointed to Chili ; a fourth, whose claim to thanks was that he had raised perhaps the largest campaign fund on record, was given a place in his Cabinet. Nor did Harri on exerci-e his veto upon measures his pitty ftvnured. He must have been appalled at th^ pension list— cxc eding as it doe* the war as 1 i mates of any European power — yet he never vetoed a pension bill. In tact Mr Harrison was a typical Pr- sult-nt. Preuidenta do not pain tht-ir position through sheer force of geuiufi, but are merely nominees of a party— the implied cnd.tioa being that the party is greater than its own creation, and entitled to the. substantial fruits of victory. Mr Harrison recognised this, and frankly bowed to it. Therefore he leaves his high office with the consciousness that he has faithfully fulfilled his part of the unwr'.tten compact. Now Blaiue would not have been so amenable, hence his failure. Neither will Cleveland be ; but then this latter occupies the unique honour of being where he is in spite of his party's be3t known politicians. THE SPOILS OF VICTORY. There is a good deal to be said, from a Democratic standpoint, in defence of the harsh strictures poured forth upon Cleveland. The President has taken the high ground that fitnes3 shall be the first consideration ; that no exoffleial under his former Admioisi/ratjon shall he

reappoiuted; that, save in very exceptional cases, he will not disturb the present officeholders until their terms have expired, and he intends largely to follow his own feelings upon this question. Now all this may sound, and to an outsider does sound, very right and proper ; but to a Democratic citizen, who has worked morning, noon, and night for his party, it is very cruel. If the spoilß do belong to the victors, if the Republicans have religiously acted up to this doctrine, if the Democrats have time and again been kicked out without a moment's warning to make way for their foes, why should not the Democrats follow these precedents now th^y are on top ? And so long as the Republican party has done these things— as I know it has— there would seem to the writer to be no sufficient grounds for Mr Cleveland's indifference to the rights of those who worked so hard to place him where he is. From one end of the country to the other there is an angry feeling at this supreme neglect of his party's workers. Many of the Republicans whom the President is retaining in office were the bitterest foes of his party and its representatives, and the disgust and indignation felt by the victors is not weakened when they find their own chief magistrate by his present action condoning the indignities they have been made to suffer. Cleveland's attitude may seem highly commendable from an outside point of view, but it is extremely irritating' to those directly interested, and living under a system that applauds the very opposite of such a policy. Meanwhile the delighted Republicans chaff the Democrats unmercifully. Just think of all the offices the Gov'ment's got to

fill! You can hear the fellers marchm'l f rom Brown-

vilie clean to Bill ; They're all in double column, an' they're goin

double-quick. For they want their bread and butter, with the butter laid on thick ! Just think of all the offices, and how they'll fill

'em up ! \ For every man who takes a sip just passe 3 long

the cup. They're all a-marchiu' steady an' jes hollenu

down the line, Au' each feller says " I'm ready ; make the Bweetnin' strong' in mine 1 " Well, that's the way to work it— just pass the plate along While the chorus comes a swellin in the Demo-

cratic song ; Just let her roll from every soul and let the mußic

rise Till it shakes the mighty winders of the everlastin 1 skies !

SPREADEAGLEISII.

Although Mr Cleveland's address was free, except in a pardonable utterance, from the above, the vice-president, the newpapers, and others amply atoned foe any weak-kneedness rn'iuifested in the President's words. In his address to the Senate, over which he will preside for the next four years, Vice-President Stevensou referred to the body over which he W'<uld exercise his rulings as ••the most august deliberative assembly known to man." It is not possible to avoid a comparison with the United States Senate and the British House of Commons after such a statement. The latter has a history, the chief events of which are known to every schoolboy ; its orators and statesmen aro world-renowned ; it has discussed and decided the fate of kings and empires, and even now its chief members are as well known in this land as in their own. On the other hand, the members of the United States Senate are, save in half-a-dozen instances, utterly unknown, except locally, in this their own country, whilst upon the very morning in which Mr Stevenson uttered his assertion, one of the best known senators of "the most august deliberative assembly known to man" walked deliberately, I admit, up to the equally well-known Senator David B. Hill, and said in tones heard all over the House, " You are a liar I " Then we had the newspapers referring to Mr Cleveland as ascending "to occupy the proudest place that can be filled by any human being." Your readers will note the sweeping nature of these assertions. There is no reservation whatever. They take in and swallow up the boundless realms of time and space. A Eiropean monarch, a governor-general of India, a British Prime Minister are but as farthing rushlights compared to the electric glare that radiates from the Presidential chair of this land of liberty. But the most instructive insight into the occult meaning of spreadeagleism was afforded in a speech delivered by a certain Lieutenant Young at a reception given to talkative, bumptious Captain Wilke in Honolulu. I may premise my extracts from this oratorical eruption by stating that at the time of its delivery every American in Honolulu was "dead sure" their flag would in a few days be permanently hoisted, over the Hawaiian Islands. This, of course, makes the joke the more pointed. Lieutenant Young,' after asserting that the hoisting Of the American flag "proclaimed to aft Hawaiians that the popular will should occupy the throne of sovereignty "—a gross lihel, by the way, as the people of Hawaii had not, up to the appointment of a commission by Glove? land, "been consulted in the least degree— he went on to declare : " That flag is the beacon light Co which the eyes of the oppressed of all the world are turned. From the abyss of despotism and political slavery the hands of down-trodden men are stretched out towards it for help and assistance. It tells the story and sings the song to the breezes of heaven that the country over which it floats and which it represents is the asylum, the home, and the promised land for the victims of political injustice, persecution, and inequality upon the earth. We, therefore, extend to you an open welcome and ample protection, and trust that it will not be long before another star shall have been added to the brilliant constellation of the American flag. Opportunity has been the inheritance of each generation, and when you took advantage of this occasion you erected a mile stone in Hawaiian history from which we will marpb. united, charmed hy the prophetic music of a hopeful future, and upon which the names of John L. Stevens and Captain Wiltse are shown in bold relief. . Annexation in the decades to come, deriving its impetus from the Hawaiian Islands, may be the watchword of a continent ; and there may be those here who will live to see the time, predicted by Benjamin F. Butler, when the American flag will be placed so far north that the Esquimau, coming out of his hut in the grey of the early morning, shall mistake it for the Northern Lights. Yts. aud more, the time may come when from the blue ramparts of the northern ice to the blistered ripples of the tropic seas all nvn will share our pride in the flag of the constellated stars, and ha : l it as the token of a common citizenship "

How is tuat; for high? And do you not think it was too bad of the Government here, after such an outburst, to snub Stevens and ignore Wiltse ?

CRIMINALS AND FOOLS.

It is difficult to say whether there are more criiniuols than fools or fools than criminals in this country. The only person who appears to have any interest taken in his welfaie U the criminal. Dickens's satire upon the treatmeut of prisoners in his David Copperfield i«, in this land, no longer an overdrawn picture, but a grim reality." The chances against a murderer being hanged for hia deed

are 67 to one. The chances against any rascal ever being adequately punished are a million to one. The laws have progressively been made to favour criminals. To obtain a conviction is a work of the utmost difficulty, even with the clearest evidence in the world. The privilege of pardon, vested in the State governors, has been shamefully used for political purposes. Most of these officials let free a batch of villains and ruffians upon the community prior to their quitting office. It was through some such act of disgraceful clemency that the poisoner Neill was able to leave this country and murder at will in London. No wonder, them, the proportion of criminals is rapidly increasing, and has long since outrun the increase iv population. It will soon outrun the number of fools, when it is to be hoped the lafcfcer will receive the reward of their endeavours. In 40 years the criminal element increased four times as fast as the population. In 1850 there was one criminal to every 8500 persons. In 1890 there was one to every 786 persons. Murder has trebled, and other crimes go up by leaps and bounds. But still the fools were not satisfied. So some of them — i.e., the majority of the Assembly and Senate, aided by the Governor of the State of Cilifornia, have passed and signed a Parole of Prisoners Bill, which has for its object the release of all prisoners, after serving one year of their sentence, and who are not guilty of murder in the first or second degree, on parole ! This means, put in plain language, the release from San Quentin and Folsom of close upon 1000 ruffians now undergoing all kinds of sentences for all kinds of crimes, ranging from burglary, manslaughter, and rape, do.vn Protests from officials and press and police were alike useless, and the bill is now law.

Here you have a brilliant specimen of how politics, when it is manipulated by fools and criminals, works in this republic. "Vote for my bill for the Lord's sake," pleaded its author, "it means political salvation to me. Onequarter of my constituents has been in San Quentin, and another quarter expects to go there "

Personally I place the responsibility for the nrisgovemment and maladministration of cities and courts, and the consequent criminal record, upon the shoulders— l will not say the consciences—of the lawyers. The United States of America is run by lawyers. It is almost a sine qua non that the President and Vice-President should be lawyers. The majority of the Cabinets are composed invariably of lawyers. So are the Senate and the House of Representatives. So are the State Assemblies and Senates. Official positions, places of trust and influence, diplomatic and consular posts are, in the majority of cases, filled by lawyers. Everywhere and anywhere they abound. The business man, the merchant, the retired trader are conspicuous by their absence. The legal fraternity, like a plague of locusts, have gobbled up everything worth gobbling. The swarm of flies and lice could not have been thicker in the Egyptian households. They appropriate the whole legislative, executive, administrative, municipal, and (of course) judicial work of the laud. And the result is ?

THE VOICE OF THE UNEMPLOYED has been heard in this city, but very little heed was paid to it. True it was shown there were some 12,000 men idle and looking for work, true it was admitted times were a little dull, true it was that we had about 13 suicides and violent deaths in one week, and true it was, and is, that destitution stares many in the face. But what of all this P Nothing can be done and nothing was done, The churches went on the even tenor of their way, with tbat calm indifference to all things mundane characteristic of the professors of Christianity in this city; the board of supervisors pooh-poohed the whole affair, and, when informed by a woman that many had sought refuge beneath the waters of the bay, sat oalmly by, whilst one of its members replied, " Oh, that's nothing " ; hundreds of men ream the streets of a night unable to find a rest for their weary feet ; ssores of our brothers and sisters know not where the next, if there be any next, meal will come from, but, again, what of this ? Positively we cannot be bothered with such questions. " I'd have every poor man knocked on the head," remarked one owner of a few score thousand dollars. "G d the poor man" is an oath as common as it is terrible. There is no sympathy here for the unfortunate* The almighty dollar is the sole object of worship, its possessor the only admired of the crowd. Better for a man to be alcne upon a lofty mountain - peak, or lost on the sands of Colorado's desert, than wandering, with a cent in his or her pocket, by the palatial abodes of the millionaires of the Pacific Coa6t.

But the recent gatherings revealed the further fact that there was a vast number of unemployed women. And if the lot of the men is bad, that of the women is infinitely worse. Men can do certain things and go in certain places that a woman cannot. A respectable woman out of work cannot do, odd jobs about a saloon, or stable, or seep in the park of a night. What, then, is to be done ? An.d, again, there is no answer.

The point, however, seems to be that if women, in breaking down the barriers fo long existing between the sexes and entering avenues of employment hitherto held by men, have "advanced " and "reformed," they must also, when work is scarce and the wolf howls at the door, bear a share of suffering and anxiety for which nature and custom have not adapted them. We are apt to forget that for every women who secures a clerkship or the like a man is left out, and though this is, doubtless, satisfactory to the emancipators of women so long as it lasts, it is not S3 satisfactory when armies of women have to demand bread or work. Maternity and home life, now in such disrepute with a certain class, would then, perhaps, be preferable. One other point in connection with this subject is the attitude of the press. Some weeks ago the Examiner, in a more than nsually brutal attack upon England, stated, in reference to the poverty in the United Kingdom ; <' The United States may yet raise a fund and send it far distribution. amon,g the poor of England. Such a lesson would be well merited, and check the insolence of Britain," My above account of the poverty in this city forms a curious commentary upon this utterance, whilst I have before me a report of a sermon by one of New York's most noted preachers, in which the following assertion is made :— " There is more awful suffering among the poor of New York than in any city of its siza in the world." By all means let us .have the subscription list, only as a conditioa precedent to the donation of my retiring "quarter" I should ask that its ultimate destination be changed.

"ALL QUIET ON THE POTOMAC."

There has been a complete cessation of hostilities during the past month. The Btrenuous efforts of pen and ink warriors were too violent to last. 'They had exhausted both tsheir strength and their adjectives. England would not skate on the tail of our coat ; the people were exasperatingly indifferent to the wails of the patriots ; the fact was too palpable that the native Hawaiians did not want to_ be annexed, and the shot poured into the positions of the Stevens-Wiltse-Claus-Spreckels sugar bounty party was so hot and persistent tha,t the editors fairly quit the field jn despair,

Queen Luiuokalauis s account of the revolution, published' here on the 9th inst., created a favourable impression and gave the finishing stroke to the Hawaiian Provisional Government's Commissioners' hopes. Cleveland surprised nobody when it was announced hq had withdrawn the Harrisonian treaty from the Senate, and everybody was prepared for his next move in sending a special commissioner to Honolulu with supreme powers. And thus end 3 a very pretty attempt to dethrone a queen, annex a country, and secure a few million dollars into the bargain. Should the United States assume a protectorate in the near future ifc will be upon entirely different lines to those originally proposed. The natives will have some voice in the matter. Hitherto they have been treated with utter contempt, due largely to the fact that they are a harmless, innocent, race. Easily led, but intensely loyal to their Queen. It was solely due to the Queen's' good sense that blood was not shed during the recent troubles. A word from her and slaughter would have ensued. That word was never spoken, and it is to Liluiokalani's forbearance, and not to Minister Stevens' action this outcome is due. Meanwhile the patient native, scarce knowing the why or the wherefore of all the turmoil, yet recognising his Queen has gone, in the hush of the evening he gathers sorrowfully with his fellows, and whilst one strums upon his taro patch fiddle, another chants some such words as these : — Birds in your tamarind bowers, Sing soft, sing low. Moe-moe, like the ripe fruit, is fallen : Sing low, sing low. A rose apple drops in the garden : Sing soft, sing low. Moe-moe has fallen, has fallen ; Sing low, sing low. Dark are the leaves »f the mango : Sing soft, sing low. Bright are its green-gold fruit drops : Sing low, sing low. On the ground they are lying, lying : Sing soft, sing low. All the world is dying, dying : Sing low, sing low.

BRIEF COMMENTS.

Fitzßiramons, the New Zealander, defeated Hall, the Australian, in four rounds at New Orleans on the 7th inst. Fitzsimmons discarded his country, and declared his intention of becoming an American citizen upon the morning of the fight, and entered the ring ostentatiously wearing the stars and stripes, whereat he was greeted with a tornado of yelling and shouts. We can't blame Fitzsimmons. In Timaru he would be probably earning 50s a week at the humble yet; honest calling of horseshoing. In this country he reoeives 40,000d0l for knocking his man out of time in 12 minutes. lowa is a prohibition State ; the fact, therefore, that only 135,853 gal of whisky were sold in lowa during the month of January may be viewed as fairly suggestive of the quantity consumed in non-prohibitory States.

An effort is being made to save from capital punishment young Carlyle Harris. This latter is one of the nastiest criminal on record. His aim in life was the seduction of simple girls. After a successful reoord he was at last, in order to accomplish his object, compelled to go through a form of marriage. Then he, as expeditiously as possible, murdered his childwife with morphine capsules. His mother is a well-known social reformer, and her most popular lecture, widely circulated under the seal of Miss Frances Willard's name, is entitled " How to train children."

I came across the statement, and which may be new to your readers, that Poe and Longfellow each received the modest sum of five pounds for their world-wide poems, " The Raven" and " Excelsior."

Poor unfortunate Poe. Lying drank in the gutter, after a wild debauch, he was seen by that one who was so dear to him. She, in order that no others might recognise him, drew her handkerchief and layed it over his face. And it was when the gifted and reckless man came to himself and recognised all such au episode meant for him and her that he wrote those undying lines having for their melancholy burden :— And my soul, from out the shadow That lies floating on the floor, shall be lifted Never more 1

It is stated M'Kinley's indebtedness has been paid by popular subscriptions, ranging Jn amount from one dollar to five thousand. It was suggested at first that no sum in excess of one dollar be subscribed. Evidently such a rule, excluding as it would the chief beneficiaries from M'Kinley's successful looting of the public, did not promise well, and it was abandoned.

The various Tongs in Chinatown have been engaged in an interchange of compliments. Three men were killed in as many days, several have been wounded, and the chances of surviving to a green old age are largely discounted. The police make desperate raids> smash doors and images, kick John unceremoniously down the steps of his own dwelling, club a few heads and shoulders, perspire profusely, and— draw their pay. Much noisy egotism has been indulged in, alike by press and public, over the hoisting of ths Stars and Stripes and the hauling down of the Union Jack on the Intnan line of steamers. " We had to put it there although it did come rather high," cried the New York Puck. So I should imagine. During the next 10 years ll,ooo,QQQdol will have to he furnished in the way of subsidy for " putting it there." The Cleveland Administration in 1889 turned over to its successors a surplus cash balance of 48,096,158d01 ; Harrison's party returns the compliment with a cash deficit of 18,266,285d01. Leaving actual cash however, and sailing into the realms of hankey-pankeydom— i.e., following strictly Harrisonian methods of bookkeeping, and the deficit is really 146,288, 391d01, although the Republican revenue exceeded the Cleveland by 153,858,005. True, Harrison's treasurer, by laying his hands on every cracked dimes and split nickel— absolutely and literally, for ho included silver never so counted — abowed a surplu3 of 24,128,087d01; but this thimble ?nd pea financing, like some colonial treasurers, won't stand investigation.

A party of American evangelists, including Mrs Ellen G. White aad her son and Mr G. B. Sturr, are conducting a. sories of religious and temperance addresses at Wellington.

At a large meeting of Anglican parishioners, held'at Wanganui, a resolution was passed with o.Uyone dissentient requesting the synodsmen to support a colonial clergyman for the vacaub Bu-hoprio of Wellington, if a suitable one can be found.

Crabtree and Co. the Wellington " long firm " are said to have made £1400 out of their viotims. Crabtree and Goode were brought up on another charge of defrauding Staples and Co., bootmakers, of £150, and were remanded. Application was made before Justice Richmond on tLe 2 th to declare Ctabtrde, Go)de, and Thompson, bankrupts. His Honor ordered a case for argument on Thursday, and appointed the official assignee to bereceiter in the estate. The man Qoode, alleges that he was never in partnership with Thompson and Crabtree, but carried on business on his ow» account. The petition to make him a bankrupt* will be opposed on this ground,