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I-ION WILLIAM
REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
Story of the Great Gathering Told
by a Master Pen.
incidents and Sidelights Picture of the Nomination
of Secretary Taft The Old Politician Talks of
Politics of Yesterday and To-Day.
By WILLIAM
Chicago. A national convention is
all over but the shouting, when
the presidential nomination is made.
It is for that that the delegates assem
ble. High-b-owed men wrangle over
jiarty platform "planks, and fight it out
among themselves as to who shall
bo forced to accept tho vice-presidential
place, but in all of these things
the general public has but little inter
Frank H. Hitchcock Brought in the
Delegates with Ease.
st. The visitors in the galleries are
there only to see the hero crowned,
and once the ceremony is over, and
the shouting has worn itself out. their
Interest in the convention rapidly dies
away the show is over.
Thursday was a hot day, and the
perspiration that the thousands shed
would have floated aU four of the pres
ident's battlothiis. and the real trou
ble of the convention in a day of
trouble began alter the invocation
had been spoken. aftr Senator Hop
kins bad gtven a visible demonstra
tion of the platform, which no one
heard and no one seemed to care to
hear, and after Congressman Cooper,
on behalf of the minority of the com
mittee on resolutions, began scolding
tho convention.
His speech, of course, did not con
incc. It was a protest, rather than
an argument, and anyway the conven
tion would not have changed that
platform, which it believed to be in
spired from Washington, if the minor
ity had offered the Ten Command
ments. But Cooper scolded, and when
the authorized representative from the
railroad eas'neers and firemen and
trainmen appeared and warned the
convention That the railroad employes
tf the country were dissatis2ed with
the aati-injuncticn planks, that made
no difference, either.
Gabriel's tram) et would have been
laid on the table for the regular order
bv the convention. Its face was seL
Mja c-s l 1 j I
r. u c y X-k
When Time's Flight is Marked.
"One of the difficult things to real
ize," said the middle-aged man, "is
that certain people have grown up.
They are the people you used to know
as children, whom you have not
seen for a number of years, and who
then come again into your life. I had
a case of just this sort the other day,
and I haven't yet overcome the un
real feeling it gave me.
"The person in question was one
of my boyhood companions in the lit
r
H. TAFT.
ALLEN WHITE
It was under orders, and nothing cou'd
move IL So it moved majestically
along. It adopted the platform, for
mally voting down, by overwhelming
majorities, planks advocating pub
licity in campaign contributions
recommended by the president in his
messages, valuation of railroads,
recommended by the president In his
messages, and the election of senators
by the people.
A Roosevelt Convention.
For that convention was for Roose
velt policies only when it had them
in the regular order and the authen
ticated form. The Roosvelt policies,
as such, did not interest the conven
tion, tor it was under orders and took
only the real milk of the word as it
cam through the committee, and it
believed, and probably with some jus
tification, in the fact that Roosevelt
did not care to have his policies come
Into the convention by way of Wis
consin. So it voted for the program and
went on to the next order. And the
next order was the nomination of a
president And that is a serious busi
ness. It is curious to know just how forms
and conventiors and precedents are
worshiped without sense or reason by
arparently .clear-headed men. But
there sat 1.000 delegates and 10.000
spectators and listened to five mortal
hours of utterly useless, entirely mean
ingless and absolutely vacuous
speeches. These speeches were made
putting men in nomination for the
presidency who had no more chance to
be ncmina'ed than they had of pick
ing out a harp check and joining the
Senator Burrows Told of the Glory
of the G. O. P.
heavenly choir. Boutell of Illinois
began it naming Cannon.
The crowd stood for him with some
patience, though no one listened to
him.
Gov. Hanly of Indiana, an unusually
able governor, and an otherwise sane
man, came a little afterward and got
in a row with the convention because
it laughed at him and jeered him dur
ing the last half of a perfectly un
necessary speech.
tle country town where I was brought
up. I hadn't seen him for a quarter
of a century, when he walked into my
office and introduced himself. Maybe
I wasn't glad to shake his hand
again! But it all seemed like a kind
of masquerade; it wasn't at all the
right thing for him to be so old, and
as for his being a trifle stout and
having a beard, why .that was simply
ridiculous. Of course, he should have
appeared in the samewhat thread
I lie usurea ice convention., uai
under Fairbanks tbere would be 'no
"government by Impulse," and the
crowd knew what he was driving at,
and his usefulness as an orator was
ended.
New York has a sense of humor,
and when the delegation was called
for New York the delegates rose
laughing and let Gen. Woodford make
the shortest and most appropriate
speech of the day, nominating Hughes.
And when he said that only two men
beyond a doubt could carry New York
one being in the White House and
the other in the governor's office at
Albany he made the crowd restive
and quit just before his credit gave
out
The Clarion Note.
The only real clarion note of the
convention was sounded by Knight
of California, seconding Taft's nom
ination. For Knight has a voice, and
Mr. Burton of Ohio, who put Taft's
name before the convention grace
fully, was not beard as well as such
a speaker should have been heard.
Knok also was tastefully nominated
with prorer eclat and without too
much wind-jamming.
And if the young football player,
Cochem of Wiscrnsln, who gave the
convention La Forette's name, had
cut his speech in two, it would have
made the hit of the afternoon. But
he slid rast the crowd's limit, and the
smile which captivated every one
wore of and he grew angry, and "the
subsequent proceedings interested
him no more."
It was Mr. McGee remember the
name who, seronding the nomination
of La Follette, started the whoop
hea'-d ro.md tbe wcrli. There seems
to be no question that of all the can
didates b3s:dcs Taft, La FoHette got
the hast demonstration.
But alter that complications oc
curred. Some one walked across the
gallery back cf the sreaker's rlalfcm
with a llag containing Roosevelt's "pic-
AX-CSKP'
r."E:,v
Senator Lodge Wielded the Gavel with
Satisfaction to All.
tare, and the applause for La Follette
ire-tred into the futile, stupid attempt
to stamj ede the crowd to Roosevelt
and for a quarter of an hour the
yelling continued.
It was quieted as the roll call on
president began and continued down
to Iowa. There a silence fell, and con
tinued until Taft was nominated.
Now written down here in a thou
sand words, this seems like the story
of a stirring episode. Yet it covers
events that lasted from 10 o'clock
until 5:30. There was some formal
cheering of something like two and
six elevenths seconds for each of the
allios. and this is the best part of it
all those who had sought the nom
ination the ha-dest, Cannon and
Knox and Fairbanks, got no more
than Foraker, who took what he
could pick up. There were no dif
ferences between the $75 picture fire
works and the ten-cent roman candle
they all fizzled and went out in
gloom.
Abner Handy Talks.
But to go back to some of the earlier
days of the convention, some of the
dcys before the fireworks were all ex
ploded, the days when only the fuses
were sizzling. It was on Sunday, I
think, that I met my friend Handy
Abner Handy from the Ninth Kansas
district. Mr. Fanc'y. who has been out
cf politics in Kansas since 1902. was
unable to get to the convention before
Sunday en account of floods in the
Kaw bottoms, and until his arrival the
pre-convention milling had been rath
er tame. But the arrival of Mr. Handy
in his Prince Albert ccat and black
slouch hat, with his massive head of
hair protruding fiercely, and his little
slits of eyes keenly measuring up the
situation Mr. Handy is an expert on
"the situation" added new life to the
crowd in the Annex, and one may say
that the convention began with his ar
rival. "It has been 12 years since I at
tended a Republican convention." said
Mr. Handy, as he lolled in a red plush
divan in alimony alley " and spat
through his teeth at the onyx mop
board, "and I meet a great many new
faces. I first saw Fairbanks in the
St, Louis convention, and I have just
been talking to one cf his managers
one of the new men in Indiana poli
tics born since I left the state a Mr.
Ade George they call him. Clever
young man, apparently. He tells me
there is a strong undercurrent for Fair
banks, and wanted me to helo him
bale it up so that there would ba some
surface indicatiens.
bare coat and knee breeches in which
he had always been enshrined in my
memory. I have had the hardest sort
of work to' get it into my head that
he is the fellow with whom I played
years ago. And I suppose he has had j
the same mental strugsle over me."
Alligators in Ecuador.
A new minor industry that is devel
oping in Ecuador is the killing and
spinning of alligators. This industry
was launched in 1903 by aa Amer.caa.
who went to Guayaquil for the pur
pose of bunting doiva the myriads of
ffWfrn inn ifrrf ' af
fi YWkia-v .m i
X-5S-X lUlitll fc r
wr tun
s' if Qg?N4lilt
"But the situation," said Mr. Handy.
as he pulled at his .mustache and put
his bat over his eyes, "does not seem
to be working out that way, though.
Fairbanks is a man than whom no
other in -all- this .great galaxy of sister
states is more fitted geographically
and logically to lead our great party.
"I speak," went on Mr. Handy, after
reflecting and chewing viciously at his
cigar, "I speak in no uncertain tones
in this matter; he is a leader without
fear and without reproach, and with
him as our standard bearer in this
great contest the eagles of victory
would perch upon our triumphant
guidons."
Is Now for Taft.
I can say for Mr. Handy to-day that
he is an ardent supporter of the sec
retary of war for president, and pro
poses to take the stump for him in his
district After the nomination Mr.
Handy said to me:
"You know that I was for Roosevelt,
cf course. I was for him when he
was just a kid in the police commis
sion in New York. What's more, if
we could have put him on the ticket
this year he would make Garrison
county solid for the whole ticket.
But then, you know, he's impulsive
and erratic, and we've got to get down
to business."
No Politics, All Reform.
It was on Monday that I met my
friend from the Ninth district again.
lie was in the Pompeian room of the
Annex when I found him.
"The only true thing," he said, as he
waved proudly for the boy and ordered
a si lit of water "the only true thing
about this convention is that nothing
is true."
As he sipped the fuzzy water and
recalled his promise to Mrs. Handy
before he left heme. Abner added re
flectively: "The trouble with thiB con
vention is there is no politics in it.
The-e are no politicians here. I've
looked at this man Hitchcock noth
ing, but a card index, that's all there
is to him. And I've looked over Vorys
he won't do; he's perfectly frank.
Haven't heard him called a liar since
I've been here. No man gets far In
politics until his enemies call him a
liar.
"Say." added the colonel, as he
leaned across the mosaic on the table
top, "say now honest why did your
paper cut the 'Hon.' ofT in front of my
name? I like it. Tell them to put it
on. I was around when the New York
delegation held a meeting to-day, and
say! They don't know any more poli
tics than a rabbit. They decided to do
nothing. Imagine a convention where
the New York delegation is such a
four spot that they have to debate
three days to decide whether they will
take the vice-president! And, what's
more, Imagine a convention where the
most serious item of interest is the
nominee for vice-president! And now
the New York delegation is going to
have its ralm read to find out whether
it will take Hughes for vice-president
or rally around Jim Sherman, the peo
ple's choice, or commit hara-kiri with
Tim Woodruff."
Mr. Handy reflected for a time and
sighed. "It's h 1! It's certainly
h 1! but what else could you ex
pect of a convention where people all
paid the:r railroad fare. You re
formers will get this country sewed up
in a sack so that there won't be
any politics any more. They'll nomi
nate the delegates by direct primaries.
Instruct them on the chief planks of
the platform and where will the pal
ladium of our liberties be then?"
There is something in Abner
Haudy's view of It. The alternate
from the Ninth Kansas district has
been drifting around to-day locking for
the old familiar faces, and he finds
they are not here. There aren't a
dozen bronze buttons in all the throng.
Congressman Burton Painted a Glow
ing Picture of the War Secretary.
Young men with stiff straw hats and
boyish faces are dominating the
crowd.
"What can you expect," asked the
colonel, earnestly, as he drifted out of
the Taft headquarters, "of a gang like
that? No whispering no one coming
out of the consultation room like a
man from a dentist's office with his
teeth in his hands a sadder and wiser
man; nothing but idle speculation
about the vice-presidency."
Sighs for the Old Days.
The colonel waved for the waiter
and sighed and shook his head and
said: "A promise is a premise when
your wife issues the door keys yes,
another bottle of those liquid hair
pins." Then he resumed his lamentations:
"I saw some forlorn fellows solemn
ly hayfooting it down Mich'gan ave
nue this morning. They had a band
and were in a procession. Was it a
funeral? It sas not. Was it the
doomed man walking to the gallows
with a firm p after eating a hearty
alligators which abound in the River
Guayas and its tributaries. He was
markedly successful. The business
was temporarily IntPrupted in the
early part of 190" y the" untimely
death of the Americn. who had start
ed the fun, but it nu recently been
resumed. The tot .1 -value of the alli
gator skins exported during the years
1903, 1904, 1905 and 1906 was $35,000.
The skins shipped from Ecuador to j
this country last yrar weighed 57.000
pounds, and were valued at $1,873.
X. O. Times-Deiucciat
JAMES S.
breakfast of bacon and cgers? Not at
all! Was it a delegation of flood suf
ferers or a chain gang? No, but it
looked like the melancholia ward of an
asylum out for a morning's airing
and it was the Knox Marching Club!
"They are here. The band is here.
They have to do something so they
ftfHln
r re r
The Smile of Secretary Taft's
Brothers.
flit through the hotels like lost spirits
and recall the dnar dead days when
there was politics in this man's town,
and a railroad attorney with a book of
transportation was a bigger man than
old Grant. And that's what your re
form has done. Put a lot of Willies
In serge suits 'nine ninety-eight,
marked down from fourteen fifty'
into control of the destinies of our
great republic.
"What has become of our common
heritage?" exclaimed Mr. Handy, wav
ing his glass wildly. "Where is our
manifest destiny? Who's gone and
stolen the pride pointer and the ala-m-viewer?
Is it in the platform? No,
you reformers are making terms with
Gompers; and. Taft's 'liberal views,'
as they call them, are going to pre
vail over the fine conservative views
of our peerless leader, our grand old
man, freedom's champion, the defend
er of the faith of the fathers, the man
who the man whe the man who"
reiterated Mr. Handy "the man who
I rerer to Hon. J. G. Cannon of Dan
ville. 111.
"Where's your keynote speech In
this convention? I'll tell yon; it's
fastened in Burrows' time lock. Who
Is going to sound a clarion note here
to-day? There will be no clarion note.
The name of the gallant Blaine will
not be heard in the hall. The party
that saved the country, that broke the
Ehackles on 4,000,000 slaves, the party
that preserved the Union, is represent
ed here by the allies, and they are
tossed around like a lot of last year's
alfalfa. They came here asking for
the presidency; they were willing to
compromise on the vice-pres'dency
and sprung the name of Jim Sherman.
"It reminds me of the time Col. Ana
doneran J. Balderson of our town
started out to be minister to England
under Cleveland's first administration.
He found that job gone, and compro
mised by applying for assistant secre
tary of state. Failing In that, he asked
for United States marshal. Failing in
that, he asked for the postofllce at
home, and then, failing in that,
straightened himself up and said:
' "Thank heaven, we have a Democratic
governor in Kansas, and he will not
turn me down.'
"He came home three months later
I with a pair of Gov. Click's old trous-
' ers, and to that end has your reform
' brought those who for 40 years have
been fighting the party's battles."
Mr. Handy rose proudly and said:
"Reform reform what crimes are
committed in thy name!"
The Big Crowd's Tribute.
What a curious thing is a b'ig crowd
of civilized men and women gathered
mm - . -1i.
NOT MUCH HELP.
Mr. Jackson, who had but recently
moved into the suburb, knew his
neighbors on either hand by sight
only, and consequently on a cold win
ter's night, when his home caught
fire, he was surprised and pleased by
the alacrity with which they came to
render their assistance.
"I say," Jackson cried excitedly to
his right band neighbor, "will you run
down to the corner and ring the
L
SHERMAN
for. some formal occasion. Yesterday
afternoon the sibilant lisp of the great
crowd in the Coliseum fell like a great
wave on the shores of the place, in
Idle conversation as tho proceedings
of f'.e convention droned on. The
committee on credentials made its re
port, and the great crowd lapped it
up as the sea laps up the sand im
personally, uninterested, utterly id'e.
There was no fight, and evidently the
orowd knew 'there would be no fighL
The regular order proceeded, and
Senator Lodge was installed as per
manent chairman, and the great crowd
the great buff sea, rocked idly to
look at him. He began to speak with
some fervor, and little rlpple3 of ap
plause played across the tide. His
earnestness deepened the billows
slightly.
And the waves lulled and wero quiet.
And then, not while he was at a cli
max, but as the man before them was
reaching deeper and deeper into tho
soul of the place and the occasion, the
sibilant lisp of the crowd hushed, ana
in the great silence the man spoke,
simply and strongly and without ora
torical flourish or emphasis. "He has
enforced the laws as he found them,
and so he is the best abused and most
popular man in America."
It was not much of a tribute. But a
wavo of sincere feeling swept over
the quiet tide of humanity. It was not
a strong wave not much stronger
than the first wave that came rolling
in. But another wavo followed it, ana
another higher and stronger came af
ter it. The speaker, who did not rea
lize what was about lo come, put out
his hand to beg silence, but a huge
wave of applause came over him, and
he ducked and backed o!T good-naturedly
and let the wind of emotion
play as it would across the restless
sea before him.
At Flood Tide.
In another minute, perhans two. Sen
ator Lodge rose again to face the.ris
ing tide, but It rolled in on him with
a great roar, and men knew that the
storm of applause had corao which
Theodore Roosevelt's work as an
American citizen had conjured. So
they let it rage, and for nearly an hour
the waves of that storm broke and
roared in that place.
Then the crowd, In that hour of joy.
gathered individuals in and they
ceased to be individuals and became
the crowd. At times tho delegates
were swept off their feet. State after
state rose, like black billows on the
face of the waters, and cheered and
waved pennants and sank to equilibri
um only to ruflle up again and cheer
with the crowd. No state was able to
Keep its mcoring. And in the tumult
and the shouting thee were no re
actionaries. New York was as bo's
terous as Wisconsin, and Kansas
joined Pennsylvania.
"Roosevelt, Roosevelt, four year3
more," they roared, and the cry
skimmed over the waves of applause
like a gull, and like a gull it was evan
scent. It signified nothing. And then
slowly, when the deep answered deep,
the calm came and the speaker went
on with his speaking.
It was all so simply and so natur
ally done, all so evidently s!ncere.
without claque or prearrangement,
that there was in its undercurrent an
element of sadness. For it seemed a
good-by rather than a bait to Theo
dore Roosevelt, and those who have
feared him feared him no more, and
those who have trusted him were hap
py, but rather sad than joyful.
Once the big show the presidential
nomination was over, the remainder
of the work of the convention, the se
lection cf a running mate for Secre
tary Taft, was completed in short
order en Friday morning when Hon.
James S. Sherman of New York was
named for socoad place on the ticket.
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.
(Copyrlsht 13CS. by Geo. Matthew Adams.)
. . a--irf--y-f--yijrj-jjTjj-
J J " ii"uir rLfirinr
alarm?"
"I'm awfully sorry, sir," the man
answered, "but I have a game leg and
can't run."
"While I'm getting some of the
things out, will you yell Tire?' " said
Jackson, turning to the ether man.
"Got laryngitis and can't yell," said
the other, in a stage whisper.
Jackson gasped; but. pulling him
self together, he exclaimed:
"Well, bath of you go into the house
and bring cut easy-chairs, thea sit
down and enjoy the fire!"
Beware of fortaae tellers especial
ly if they are tke aasateur kind that
hold your kind wliile they read the
signs in your face.
A MATTER OF COMPULSION.
N tfvft No Dinner, the Itula
Pawn ky Barney.'
Lai
. ftx years ago. when tke king visited
DabMn, some aaaaiax.tecidenta werW
recorded dae to tan grotesaaencaa jd
some hotel waltecs sppareatly jaat
freek fross rural Hie.
One hotelkeeper' told" suck a aeJy
imported -server" that he must Al
ways serve every .en with soup at
dinner and be quite certain that ke
had U. -
Thereupon ensued "the following; .
scene between a visitor and the new ,
waiter: ,
"Soup, sir?" said Barney.
"No soup for me." said the visitor.
"But you must have it," said Bar
ney; "it's the rules of tho house.'
"Hang the houseP exclaimed the
visitor, highly exasperated. "When I
don't want soup I won't cat it Get
along with you!"
"Well," said Barney, with solemnity,
"all I can say is just this it's thi
rules of the house ami sorra a droj
else ye'll get till ye finish the soup!"
London Telegraph.
POOR CHAP!
Visitor Do you find it economical
to do jour own cooking?
Young Wife Oh. yes: my husband
doesn't eat half as much as when we
had a cook!
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