THE COURIER.
V
will and their fitness to represent a
few thousand people, must demon
strate them to one cold blooded, ju
dicial, undemonstrative group of
Americans after another. To use the
figure of May Irwin further: She can
not sing, she is not beautiful, she is
not chic, but she has temperament
Mr. Bryan is frequently very illogical,
his figures are hyperbolical and he
has cultivated the style of a bygone
oratory, but be has temperament and
his audiences listen with pleasure
whether his faith is theirs or not
The mistake Mr. W. D. Oldham and
others who imitate Mr. Bryan make
is In copying his oratorical flights and
eliminating his simplicity and earn
estness from their labored efforts.
Besides, these others lack tempera
ment. Public speaking is not their
calling, and very large audiences fre
quently regret the accident that com
pels listening to them. Newspaper
men who endeavor to be im
partial attribute the mechanical ap
plause that followed Mr. Oldham's
nomination of Mr. Bryan at the Kan
sas City convention not to any lack
of enthusiasm for the candidate but
othe flowers of poetry, mythology
and history that Mr. Oldham attach
ed to his speech, while the lamp
burned. For instance instead of say
ing that Mr. Bryan favored both
metals for money; he said that he
favored "the gold that flushed the
winged sandals of Hermes and the
silver that glitters in the bow of
Diana. This orator who was nomi
nating a man for an office of the
greatest dignity and power said that,
it remained for him "to pronounce
the name that had been thundered
forth from the foot of Bunker Hill
and echoed back from Sierras' sunset
slope, and that reverberates among
the pine-capped, snow-crowned hills
of the North and rises up from the
slumbering, flower-scented savannas
of the South." After this there was
not much for a stupefied lot of dele
gates from Oshkosh, Kalmazoo, St.
Louis, Chicago, Pittsburg, and New
York to do but yeir.pound the building
wave flags, and set in motion the
marching clubs that had been held in
reserve. No audience will take that.
6ort of thing from anyone nowadays
but Bryan. If a republican speaker
attempted it he would lose caste
prestige and everything eise he really
needs in his business. Even sopho
mores who first gave the style a name,
no longer make use of it.
"Hot Pie."
A former resident of Lincoln, while
sojourning in Boston in December
was induced to buy a pie from a boy
with a basket full. The boy hawked
them as -hot pics" and the gentleman
was hungry and on his way to the
station, besides he is a Yankee, and
the pies were properly browned, flaky
and stood the further test of making
his mouth water.- The gentleman
bought one and foun.d that it was
. frozen solid. He collared the boy and
asked him what he meant by selling
him a hot pie frozen solid. The boy
told him that '"Hot Pie" was the
name of the pie he bought. This was
- before the days of "Hot time" and
Hot stuff" and the purely figurative
. use of hot.
By the same token, some of the ac
tions of the Abraham Lincoln club of
this city require explanation. The
Abraham Lincoln club is just the
name of It. The name, the composl
tion.and the measures, it occasionally
adopts, have no connection.
The Rain.
In a recent letter to The Chicago
Record, Mr. William E. Curtis, the
popular correspondent of that paper
repeats a remark Mr. Blaine made
when he asked the manager of the ex
cursion for the delegation from South
American countries, if he bad ar
ranged the trip so that the train
should pass through Iowa in the day
time, because he said that Iowa was
the finest agricultural exhibit in tht
world. There is more of Iowa under
cultivation than of Nebraska, but Ne
braska is a plantation of green now.
The long, dark green blades of the
plant, that is like a palm, covers the
state. The corn leaves, for lack of
water, had begun to curl and crackle
in the hot wind like fodder stalks, but
the three and five inches of rain all
over the state has changed all that
and even the farmers have begun to
smile and admit that Nebraska is a
good agricultural state and that
President McKinley is a reliable man.
A Misstatement.
Public speakers are tempted to
make exaggerated statements in or
der to attract attention and to be
more impressive for the moment.
The Reverend Rowlands yields to this
temptation too frequently. But his
sermons are printed and read by
those who are not members of his
church and who regard the misstate
ments of a preacher with less pa
tience than those of other people, for
the very reason that the pulpit is an
elevated stand from which the or
dinary minister speaks to a congre
gation more or less under the sacer
dotal influence of the place and of his
priestly calling.
In a recent sermon the Reverend
Rowlands referred to trade unionists
as "murderers and assassins" and
their lodges as "hotbeds," "nests of
mischief" and "kindergartens of
crime where they have fostered assas
sinations, engineered murderous cru
sades against the welfare of society,
against legitimate business and com
merce; and instead of helping they
have injured the toilers."
The most superficial knowledge of
trades union meetings disproves such
characterizations. Trades unionism
is a development and the best mem
bers of any union are good students of
political and social economy and it is
in such intelligent study of the hard
est problem in the world that will
eventually do more than anything
else in solving it. Mr. Arthur in ans
wering Mr. Rowland's undemonstra
ble charges reminds him that there
are 1,000,000 unionists in this country
and 2,000.000 in Great Britain. "If
these were assassins this country
would not be the comparatively
peaceful land that it is." Desperate
strikers sometimes kill the men who
have taken their places and some
times destroy property. They have
never committed unlawful acts by
the authority or advice of the union
of which they are members.
In March, a year ago, Mr. Rowlands
made some curious statements about
the United States which were com
mented upon in these columns at the
time. If he makes such breaks about
this country and its government,
which he has seen, how much cre
dence should be given his words con
cerning the Filipines, which he has
not seen, or that fairest land of all,
which no man has seen ?
It is scarcely wise to call all unions
"hotbeds," "nests of mischief" and
"kindergartens of crime" because a
few members of unions occasionally
break the law and commit acts of
violence. It is also not justifiable
because there is occasionally a min
ister, whose statements are undemon
strable to conclaed that ministers are
blind leaders, ucscholarly, and given
to making assertions without inves
tigation or research. Although, after
reading a number of Mr. Rowland's
sermons it is impossible to believe
that he possesses a candid mind, I can
not believe after reading his latest
sermon tnat he ever was present when
enlightened artizans discussed the
conditions of employment.
J J
Vanity and Folly.
Acting under the direction of Na
poleon, Duroc wrote Barere thus: "It
wi'l be proper that Citizen Barere in
sert in the journals articles tending
to animate the public mind, particu
larly against the English." It must
have been a desire to animate the
public mind against our own govern
ment that induced the pastor of the
First Baptist church of this city to
pen, preach and publish some por
tions of the sermon which he deliver
ed last Sunday. From that sermon,
as published, this is quoted:
"The negroes we enslaved and bru
talized. When liberated by the for
tunes of war we have lynched them
by the thousands when they gave any
suspicion of misbehavior."
Evidently the word "we" as here
first used refers to the government
which, by law, authorized the enslav
ment of the negro. The liberty lov
ing, united colonies that put forth the
instrument described by Doctor Row
lands as "our nationally inspired dec
laration that there shall be no gov
erning of the people except with the
consent of the governed," later be
came the liberty loving United States
that adopted the constitution and
thereby made human slavery a part of
the organized law of the nation.
Having obolished slavery we are sol
emnly told by one who cannot be sup
posed to have forgotten the command,
"thou shalt not bear false witness,"
'that "we" have lynched negroes not
by ones, twos, tens, or hundreds, but
by thousands. Not because they were
guilty of crime, not because they were
charged with crime, not because they
were suspected of crime, but "when
they gave any suspicion of misbe
havior." Lynched because of a sus
picion of bad manners. Who is the
"we" he referred to? The govern
ment has not since the immortal
Lincoln issued his emancipation pro
clamation lynched any negroes.
While the pastor may be slightly ad
dicted to exaggeration he will hardly
assert that he singly and alone or in
connection with the congregation he
was addressing, has lynched so many
negroes on mere suspiciou of misbe
havior. To quote farther from the
sermon:
"No Armenians have suffered from
the Turks and Bashi Bazouks more
unjustly and cruelly than have the
Indians suffered from the American
agent and soldier. "What ground have
we for believing our treatment of the
Filipinoes would be any better?"
Our high standing as barbarians
will be appreciated by a brief refer
enc to the Bufferings of the Armen
ians. At page 445 of "Turkey and tne
Armenian Atrocities," by Reverend
E. M. Bliss, appears a tabulated state
ment of the outrages to which the
Armenians were subject in the Har
put district in the month of Novem
ber, 1895. From this statement it
appears that 29,595 persons, including
51 teachers and ecclesiastics, were
killed, 1,383 were burned, 3,266 died
from hunger and cold, 4,330 died in
the fields and on the road, 760 died
from fear, 8,000 were wounded, 15.179
persons were forcibly converted to
Islam, 1,532 were married by force to
Turks, 28,562 houses were burned, 227
churches, monasteries and schools
were burned and 94,870 persons were
made destitute and needy. This in
one district in one month. And yet
we are told this does not exceed in
brutality and cruelty the treatment
which the Indians have suffered from
the American soldier and Indian
agent. With such a record for bar
barity can we longer wonder at the
crime of seventy-three? "What may
not the Filipinoes expect from the
First Nebraska?
Having stated the exact facts with
reference to our civilization the pas
tor proceeds to deal in romance thus:
"Had we delivered the Filipinos
from the oppression of the Spaniard,
and then offered them sympathy, help
and protection to organize their own
government, how much splendid in
fluence and confidence we would have
fostered. How these poor, persecuted,
oppressed and down-trodden people
would look upon us as their very pres
ent help in time of trouble. Our
statesmanship, politics, morals and
religion they would have welcomed
and blessed."
Equaling, if not excelling, the
Turks and Bashi Bazouks for cruelty
and barbarity, our "statesmanship,
politics, morals andTeligion," are the
elements required for the elevation
of the Filipinos. Possibly the inhabi
tants of these far away islands have
heard of our tendency to lynch peo
ple of color by the thousands because
of a suspicion of defective deportment.
They may have learned what the
characteristics of an Indian agent are
and because of this knowledge they
may not prefer either our morals or
religion. The loss is theirs.
V
MEN OF THE
KANSAS CITY CONVENTION.
HERBERT JOHN'SOX.
Dear All:
Convention work is over. I saw
nearly every cession of the convention,
went everywhere in the hall and studied
the big guns at close range. Friday
night I saw the Santry-Gardner fight in
Convention hall and so wound up a
most interesting and instructive week.
As early as Friday and Saturday be
fore the Fourth, delegates and bosses
began to arrive and the hotel lobbies
were thronged with politicians and
sightseers. I could hardly crowd
through the lobbies of the three big
hotels where the headquarters of the
various candidates for vice-president
and the big bosses were. The Tam
many headquarters were at the Mid
land where sixteen bartenders were
humping themselves day and night to
give every loyal "dimecraf a chance
to prove his faithfulness to the tradi
tions of his party.
Wednesday at noon the convention
was called to order by Chairman Jones,
and the fun began. The convention
was made up of the same kind of irre
sponsible, light-minded stuff as the one
in Chicago in 1896 and it waB difficult'
for the leaders to keep the wandering
minds of the delegates and spectators
down to business long enough to or
ganize. The cherished Bcheme of"E
Pluribus Sixteen to Unum," Bryan to
be nominated on the Fourth failed of
realization. The convection was like a
child, irresponsible, fliehtv. readv tn ha
led off into demonstrations of delight at
any trivial circumstance which attracted
its wandering attention.
It was late Thursday afternoon, at
6:07 o'clock, before the organization
was completed, platform adopted and
Bryan nominated, although it was
expected to do at least all but adopting
platform on Wednesday. The proceed
ings were constantly delayed by irrele
vant cheering and those who yelled
loudly for Bryan and Tillman, were
equally ready to cheer for Hill or
Croker, or, in fact, anybody or anything
that turned up at all conspicuously.
You may like to know my general im
pressions, especially since I was in a
-f
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