Page:The Gilded Age - Twain - 1874.pdf/425

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THE KIND OF EDITORIALS NEEDED.
393

as the papers begin to howl for that man's blood.—In a word, the great putty-hearted public loves to 'gush,' and there is

AN OBJECT OF SYMPATHY.
AN OBJECT OF SYMPATHY.

no such darling opportunity to gush as a case of persecution affords."

"Well, uncle, dear, if your theory is right, let us go into raptures, for nobody can ask a heartier persecution than these editorials are furnishing."

"I am not so sure of that, my daughter. I don't entirely like the tone of some of these remarks. They lack vim, they lack venom. Here is one calls it a 'questionable measure.' Bah, there is no strength in that. This one is better; it calls it 'highway robbery.' That sounds something like. But now this one seems satisfied to call it an 'iniquitous scheme!—'Iniquitous' does not exasperate anybody; it is weak—puerile. The ignorant will imagine it to be intended for a compliment. But this other one—the one I read last—has the true ring: 'This vile, dirty effort to rob the public treasury, by the kites and vultures that now infest the filthy den called