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Show THE SWEET AND THE SOUR. When a much-advertised incompetent, hugging tho statute of limitations to his breast, skulks out from under the shadow of the penitentiary and hopes to retain the salary that he could I never earn as a man, hut only as a sycophant and' slave; when such a one without sufficient practice seizes the pen as a weapon, it is but natural that he should wound himself deeper thah he possibly can some one beyond his reach. Such creatures always, when under excitement, are imprudent and become too rattled to tell the truth. Such a one is that Perry Heath who poses as the owner of the Salt Lake Tribune, though rumor has it, and appearances seem to justify the rumor, that he draws out from that institution more every month than he ever altogether invested in-vested in the unfortunate journal. No one blames him for that, however, for the purchasers wanted some truths suppressed, others oth-ers shaded down, and expected o pay for the service, and to their credit be it said, they made no mistake in the selection of a willing agent, except that in his sycophancy he is so abject that the stomach of the public revolts at it. However, that reveals 'something like gratitude on the part of the slave, an attribute which would never have been suspected through ordinary reasoning, and should be put down to his credit. This Heath, or some willing sub-slave in his employ, charges Indirectly that the former editor of the Tribune mourns for recognition and a return re-turn to the old stand, grieves that he lost his Place there and under the grief has grown soured with the world. That provokes several questions. How does this Heath know that it was not a great and most welcome relief for him to get away, after twenty-seven years of incessant, inces-sant, harassing and profitless toil? Has he ever manifested any desire to get back? As to his being be-ing soured with the world, how does Perry Heath know that he has not always been soured, that he ; is antl-sweet by nature? Excessive egotism Is charged. By what spoken spok-en or written words ever emanating from the man so assailed did the mind-reader of The Tribune drop upon that fact? But there is one comfort left. He is not charged with any of that sullen envy or jealousy or the impotent hate which assails base minds when contemplating superior su-perior intellectual graces. Were not the tone of the arraignment so terribly ter-ribly and intentionally tragic, one sentence in it would be comical. We mean that part giving reasons for the purchase of The Tribune. The buyers "wanted vigor and a spirit of progress and some of the real sunshine of life." The "vigor" and "the spirit of progress" are the joke. How the public respond to that now vigor and progress, and as to the sunshine does not that beam like a morning glory from the brow of the new ostensible owner? And how the public, contemplating it, is reminded of the description by the sage of Roanoke, of the mental men-tal gifts of another; "He shines and stinks and stinks and shines like a rotten mackerel by moonlight." There is another charge of base ingratitude toward those from whom benefits had been received. re-ceived. ' w That is easily disposed of. In the first place It lacks entirely the one necessary essential ' of truth, in the second no transaction ever entered into by the man The Tribune assails involved any obligation on his part to prostitute a great newspaper, or to deceive and mislead its readers read-ers by pandering to, covering up or excusing tho unscrupulous political methods and performances of characterless public politicians and officeholders. office-holders. But the final indictment is that the old editor borrowed money and owes some debts which he never intended to pay when they were made. That would be serious, sure enough, if true, serious seri-ous enough to excite the admiration of Perry Heath, but for once an explanation Is In order. A big block of those debts has been paid with accumulated interest added since The Tribune was sold, the receipts are op exhibition for the curious a block bigger than the much advertised adver-tised Perry Heath has paid in all his life, and the "soured" man has a premonition amounting to conviction that all the rest will be met, every one, long before Perry Heath sunceeds In wiping the stains from his own much soiled name and reputation. The Statute of Limitations does not run against those debts. But why pursue the jackall to his lair? A senatorship was purchased for money from the President of the Mormon church It was infamy on the one side, it was infamy and the breaking break-ing of tho most solemn pledges on the other. To keep The Tribune from referring to that transaction, trans-action, and to the combines of some low politicians, politi-cians, to keep it from telling the truth and from insisting on decency in politics and that the heads of an organization that claims to be the only true religion, should keep the faith they plighted to their own people and to the people and Government Gov-ernment of the United States, the Tribune was bought. A willing slave was found to conduct the journal that before had been honorable and conducted in the interest of this whole people. That slave is one Perry Heath. Why should ho awaken the concernment of any gentleman? No one knows better than he that the whole spirit of the article In Sunday's Tribune is false. He knew that when he charged egotism, and mo-roseness mo-roseness and dishonesty he lied, that The Tribune Trib-une would never have been sold save by the full consent and approval of the man ho assails; that H whatever the faults of that man may be, he never H aspired to honors that he had never earned or to H stations he was incompetent to fill; that nothing H rerry Heath has ever done here or elsowhere H could awaken any emotion in the soul of the man he hates except contempt, and what hurts H Perry Heath and causes him to set his hired veno- mous pens to scratching is the knowledge that this whole community shares that justly earnod contempt. H And he will never regain its resp.ect until he changes his programme. It Is not ah exacting fl community, but it does demand a square deal. M No false nor garbled dispatches will do, no at- M ' tempts through transparent deception to better a M rotten cause or characterless men, no covering up the truth, no winking of broken pledges, no keep- M ing still when the whole spirit of our free instl- M 'tutlons is being derided and insidious treason is M laying deeper and deeper its plans for final tri- M ufiiph. "The people do not want much, but they ' M do want a square deal on American lines. . . M |
