Page 299 Advertisements Column 1

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue X, 5 March 1898, Page 299

Mugwump is the name given to a small group of people who are eminently respectable, but who are very much impressed with their own superiority, and who imagine they have a monopoly of political virtue. They are so sure that they are better than their party, and than any party, that they use most of their talents in depreciating other people’s efforts. They came into existence in England with the Reform Bill movement (1866), as what John Bright called ‘Adullamites.’ They deserted from the really progressive political party and joined the Tories to defeat the extension of the suffrage. In America they came into existence in 1884 as deserters from the Republican party to Cleveland. They deserted nominally for personal reasons against Mr Blaine, but really to oppose protection. Since then they have been conspicuous as fault-finders of everything constructive and American and of everybody who showed any evidences of political or industrial success. They are usually intelligent, and active, but seldom ‘the most helpful men in the country.’ They are constitutionally distrusters of human nature, and are nearly always found on the negative side of all really wholesome, flesh-and-blood movements in public affairs. There are many active, helpful pioneers in social reform who sometimes ally themselves with Mugwump movements because of the indifference of the old parties, but such men seldom possess the characteristic Mugwump traits. Clarke's B 41 Pills are warranted to cure Gravel, Pains in the back, and all kindred complaints. Free from Mercury. Established upwards of 30 years. In boxes Is fid each, of all Chernista and Patent Medicine Vendors throughout the World. Proprietors, The Lincoln and Midland Counties Drug Company. Lincoln. England.