The historian is still incredulous. All this "was well known to those who were informed," etc.,—undoubtedly, but who were these persons? Will the Record cite the name of one living man thus informed? Did General George A. Gordon know anything about it: and if not, why not?

The Record says:—"Butler, in the last days of the war, uttered an insult to the President who was shortly to be made a martyr."

Well, this is really a serious charge, and the public certainly will be interested in knowing what the "insult" was. Will the Record kindly explain? For the present, the subject may rest here. In the name of truth and justice, however, the Editor's Table humbly requests that the Evening Record will enlighten its contemporaries.

The Republican newspapers have all been pleased to remark that President Cleveland has done a very decent thing by refusing to appoint as post-master at Mr. Blaine's home, in Augusta, the Democratic editor, who "was virulently active in publishing particularly unclean falsehoods concerning the Republican candidate last fall." Mr. Blaine had a perfect right to object, and he exercised the right, to the appointment of Morton; and likewise, the President had a perfect right not to heed the objection,—a right, however, which he did not exercise. The action of the President therefore commends itself to the right-thinking men of all parties.

So far as the Editor's Table can remember, this is the first opportunity that the Republican newspapers have improved to say anything good of President Cleveland, who, it is not forgotten, was a target for as virulent and uncalled for abuse as was ever heaped upon any known American citizen. Magnanimity is always in order even in politics.

Civil Service Reform seems to-day to be the mare of the Mugwumps and the nightmare of everybody else. The eloquence or, if you please, the waste of words which the minority employ in advocating its deceptive principles, is only to be contrasted with the almost ludicrous indifference with which both Republican and Democratic majorities regard it. Thoughtful people are, at this time, more concerned with the prospective treatment of the tariff problem.

Now, it is neither our purpose nor desire to add to the literature of discussion, on this important theme; but one thought which occurs to us may here be submitted in the form of a question. People who talk much on tariff topics are supposed to be interested in the same, and to have some reason, good, bad, or indifferent, for advancing their diverse arguments.

To all such, the inquiry may be addressed:—Are you sure that you believe in a "protective" tariff because you think it is a public benefit, or because you think it is a private benefit?

And again:—Does "protective" tariff protect? If it does,—whom?

Last autumn, the cry arose throughout the land that free trade meant the destruction of home labor, and the "introduction of the pauper labor of Europe," or at least a competition at home with the pauper labor of Europe. Well, some very dismal pictures have been drawn of the condition of the pauper labor of Europe, and when thinking of them, it must be confessed that one does not like to run any risks.

But suppose that we widen the thought a little. At this very moment, the iron monopoly of this country is raising a fund to head off a tariff revision, or to bring about an increased duty. What can be said of the Iron Monopoly? This, as one fact; that in Pennsylvania, it employs miners at fourteen dollars a month, charges them five dollars a month each for a tenement in which to live, and charges them exorbitant prices for the food and provisions which, in spite of a law prohibiting the system, must be purchased at the Monopoly's stores. At the end of the month, many of these miners have not only consumed every dollar of their wages but are actually in debt. It is stated, further, as an incontestable fact that, "a miner who objects to the amount of work or wages given to him gets no more of either, for he is at once dropped from the rolls, and his name is sent to the neighboring mines as that of a man unlit for employment." These people subsist—miraculously—on scanty and unwholesome food, and frequently are subjected to the greatest hardships.

We assert that this is no fanciful picture. It is the absolute truth, with the worst untold. Monopoly is fond of calling these pitiable men "Molly Maguires,"—"a dangerous class that must be carefully watched!" These men are protected, and their industry and their entire living afford a charming picture of the results of the "protective" system, so far as the Iron Monopoly is concerned. With such facts as these to ponder over, and with the additional knowledge that there is not a single person today employed in a cotton or woolen mill in the United States who is not taxed in the name of protection, to enrich the corporation for whom he labors, it seems almost inexplicable that honest men should neglect one of the greatest and, as God knows, one of the most threatening problems of this age and country, and waste words and precious moments over that most arrant humbug—Civil Service Reform. The People are more important than the Government: for to-day the Government is the politicians.

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