PUCK, March 16th, 1887. That Mr. Cleveland during his first term was the object of more newspaper criticism than a President usually receives was due to a combination of circumstances. He was the first Democratic President elected in a quarter of a century; he was elected in part by Republican or Independent votes, and he had incurred the enmity of a faction of his own party. Nor were his ideas of the duties and responsibilities of government calculated to please a certain numerous and noisy class of Democratic politicians who were “out for the spoils.” On March 16th, 1887, Puck commented thus upon the situation:

“It is pretty hard for a practical politician and a strict party-man to toil away, day after day, editing a great paper and moulding public opinion at two or three cents per daily mould, and to see public opinion doing its own moulding all the time, in just the way it should not. It is disheartening—it is hard on a truly great editor. And yet to such misery are some of our most prominent moulders subjected. They toil unceasingly to show to President Cleveland the error of his ways—giving the public an incidental glimpse—and the more they show it to him, the less he sees it—and the less the public sees it. He goes on and does his work as he promised to do it, and the public seems to be thoroughly well pleased with him. But it is hard on the moulders.”