686. THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



the excitement preceding an election of any importance, 

 almost impossible for the average voter to obtain from the 

 newspapers an intelligent idea either of the candidate or 

 the issues at stake. The most outrageous lying and mis- 

 representation is resorted to. Truth and decency is 

 entirely lost sight of in the wild scramble for success. The 

 whole vocabulary of epithets is brought into play and 

 exhausted over and over again. Men who claim to be 

 honest and truthful at other times and in other matters, 

 will, during the excitement, publish the wildest and most 

 outlandish statements if they think it will be of any 

 advantage to their side. In these contests, the indepen- 

 dent press and the independent voter the men who have 

 severed their allegiance with their political party and 

 there are thousands of them are subjected to the most 

 trying ordeal. Ridicule, the strongest weapon of the 

 press, is heaped upon them with a persistency that burns 

 into their very souls. We have known men who have 

 marched into the face of the cannon's mouth, while it was 

 belching destruction from its iron jaws, without a tremor 

 or the least sign of fear, who would cower before the 

 weapon of ridicule. No expression is strong enough, no 

 epithet is mean enough, that the press will not apply to 

 those who honestly differ from them, and have the man- 

 hood to oppose what their better judgment tells them is 

 pernicious and contrary to their interests. 



Here is a specimen editorial in which free use is made 

 of epithets: 



u The idea of a few petty political sore-heads in this 

 or any other section of the State presuming to dictate to 

 the Democratic party, or to criticise its principles, and at 

 the same time claiming to represent the wishes of the 

 farmers the bone and sinew of our great nation is con- 

 temptible in the extreme, and a direct insult to the 

 laboring classes. Their selfish designs are apparent to the 



