The Houston Post. (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 25TH YEAR, Ed. 1 Sunday, January 16, 1910 Page: 28 of 56
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28
HOUSTON DAILY POST: SUNDAY MORNING. JANUARY 16. 1910.
JUSTON POST
BY THE
USTON PRINTING COMPANY.
>H!*srow, President; G. J. Palheb, Vice
*ident; A. E. Claiikson. Secretary.
OFFICE OF PUBLICATION.
Nos. 602-604 Travis Street.
at the Post office at Houston, Texas, as
Second-Class Mail Matter.
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ELING AGENTS—J. H. Barton. S. M.
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JGN OFFICES—Eastern brsiness office.
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CITY—The Post is delivered to any part
ty by carriers. Mr. Theodore Bering has
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Theodore Bering. S. A. Robbins, C. T.
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ire the authorized collectors of all city
th. advertising and subscription), and no
leuld be paid to any one other than thosi
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less Manager, is shown. All accounts of
should be paid by check in favor of
1 Printing Company." Subscribers fail-
■eceive The Po*t regularly will please
te office promptly. Every paper is ex-
» be delivered not later than 6 :jo a. m.
, Texas, Sunday, January 16, 1910.
THE CALL TO SERVICE.
7ir>1 He hud spoken these things, white
eld. He was taken up; and a cloud re-
n n out of their sight. And while tlie»
cadfastly toward heaven us He went up,
vo men stood by them in white opparel;
so said. Yc wen of Galilee, why stand
f up into heaven* This same Jesus,
taken up from you into heaven, shall so
like wanner as ye hare seen Him go
•en.—Act* 1:9-11.
h the account Luke has written of
iner In which Jesus ascended into
after His crucifixion and resurrec*
1 of the descent of the two heaven-
en Kers who reminded His disciples
uty which henceforth devolved upon
1 which connection for their rcassur-
ii encouragement the btatement is
ed that this name Jesus "shall so
like manner as ye have seen Him
icaven.'*
we have coupled with the trumpet
uty tho blessed assurance which for
ars has lightened the burden of
1 effort when "in the burden and
the day" the path ahead seemed so
th difficulties and the goal of Chris-
ration so far away that despair be-
e natural Impulse of the heart in
a living faith.
I proneness 011 the part of humanity
ion the supernatural, there might
?n in the minds of believers in the
of Christ doubts as to the absolute
#
0 truthful narrntive of the account
by Luke were it not Jesus' own
*e confirmatory not only of the as-
which was to come after His cruci-
>ut of the manner in which He
elurn to earth: "When the Son of
II come In His glory, and all the
jels with him, then shall He sit
* throne of His glory: and before
II l>e gathered all nations"; "And
11 see the'Son of Man coming in the
•f heaven with power and great
iristians must not stand gazing up
ven. There Is work to do, work,
every direction in which they may
hey have willing hands. "Lift up
s, and look on the fields; for they
a already to harvest." "We dislike
t, but, alas, truth compels the ad-
that those who profess to be dls-
Christ are too much given to "gaz-
nto heaven"; they pray often and
the "coming of the Kingdom of God
and then look up and await Its
they may sometimes hear the cry
acedonla," but they oftener fail to
despairing wail that goes up from
n city, yes, from their own block,
itian America!" is it possible that
yet have to be truly converted to
tough the example and teaching of
" nations?
liglon of Jesus has its keynote, so
In service to humanity as the way
•ther heart; in such service there
lg strength and inspiration. Jesus
taught the way. Think of Him as
ed aside at noon in the city of
to the parcel of ground on which
<b'« well, "and being wearied with
ey, sat thus on the well," and there
bucket with which He might draw
n His thirst. He asked the woman
oe to draw water.. "Give me to
nd say, tT you will, that His was
n of service in which the strength
1 endurance was tested to -its ut-
lesus salth unto them, My meat Is
i will of hlrn that sent me, and to
S work." > '
thoso who would have hope in
10 nn ssage, "Go work in my vlnc-
ay," should appeal with growing
11 He .shall come again. "And about
nth hour He went out, and found
andiiig Idle, and salth unto them,
id yo here all the day idle? They
Him, Because no man hath hired
saith unto them, Go ye also into
ard; and whatsoever Is right, that
receive."
>eat, there is work, and lots of it,
once this is no time for Christian
to stand gazing up Into heaven.
THE COST OF LIVING.
ug to the cost of living in Indus-
ers, which continues to rise stead-
interesting to observe that Mrs.
lilitz, Instructor of cooking in the
New York Cooking school on the East Side,
declares that the Jump in living means that
the wife of the laborer must go out to work.
Thai, of course, if attempted as a general
relief of the stress, would not solve the
problem. It would merely throw into indus-
try a mass of labor which is not required
and that would force down wages and in-
tensify the trouble.
We must not forget that the rising cost
of living is not an evil confined to the I nited
States. Food is high the world over, prov-
ing that the population of the area which is
depending largely upon other areas for sup-
plies is rapidly increasing. With this in-
crease comes an enlarged demand for food
products, and the increased demand serves
to send prices up.
Eliminating for the moment the question
cf trusts and tariffs, is it not evident that
too few people are producing their own food?
The cities are congested with population
and the result, is hundreds of thousands are
idle. The demand for that character of
labor is rot equal to the supply and wages
are low and not sufficient to maintain them.
In quite a number of Eastern States there
lr complaint of abandoned farms, which
means that the bulk of the food consumed
in these populous centers must be hauled a
long distance at great cost.
So long as our hundreds of thousands of
immigrants herd in the large cities, a rising
cost of living must be looked for, since they
increase the demand for food and depress
the wag ?s of labor with which the food must
be bought.
The solution of the problem lies in en-
couraging a movement to the farms. There
are too many people earning their bread or
trying to earn it in cities and towns. More
farmers are needed in all the States—people
who make their own food and do not have
to pay freight and middlemen's profits on
what they eat.
The situation ought not to be discouraging
so long as we have hundreds of millions of
acres of land capable of high production.
It has been estimated that Texas alone
might produce enough food to supply the
present population of the United States.
The expanding of our agricultural interest
is tho most certain step toward a reduction
of the cost of living. The abundance of gold,
tariffs, monopolies and all those things
count, but the man who eats food produced
011 his own farm is not troubled so much
by the high cost of living. The man who is
suffering is the city fellow with small wages.
He doesn't earn enough to pay for the cost
cf food production with the exactions of
transportation and middlemen's profits
added.
Texas is the solution of the problem. The
man who comes to Texas and gets a farm
can laugh the cost of living bugbear in the
fuce.
the tangles and controversies which have
obscured the real problems relating to the
conservation of our National wealth.
TAFT ON CONSERVATION.
The message of the president on the sub-
ject of conservation disposes of the charges
of those who assert that he has been at-
tempting to protect land-grabbing corpora-
tions. The president's attitude is reason-
able and sensible and he outlines a policy
which, if adopted by congress, ought to put
on end to lawless land-grabbing. Of course,
his message seems to be a tacit approval
of Secretary Balllnger'a conduct in the mat-
ters which have led to the Pinchot-Ballinger
controversy, but the president has not be-
come so partisan as to impose himself as an
obatacle to the final adjustment of that dis-
pute.
It is natural for him to have faith in his
secretary of the interior until moral de-
ficiency is proven. It would be the height
of unfairness to accept without question
charges which may be made against a pub-
lic official at this time. There have been
so many instances of proven rascality that
U is not difficult to set the country against
a public man by making scandalous charges
against, him. On this account it" is all the
more important to investigate.
The land scandals In the West are, of
course, of public import for the simple rea-
son that all citizens are concerned in an
honest administration of the land office and
In the proper disposition of the lands. The
direct policies affecting the lands are most
important to the people of the States in
which the lands are located, for their prog-
ress and welfare largely depend upon the
wisdom of the government in handling the
domain upon which their activities largely
depend.
President Taft shows himself strongly in
favor of an honest land policy and in addi-
t;on to honesty he would have the lawt>
amended so as to conserve all National in-
terests and promote the progress of the
West. The Ballinger-Pinchot controversy
ought not to Interfere with such a policy.
Manifestly, it is too personal to involve sucb.
vast interests, and if partisan heat does not
overcome the cool judgment of congress-
men all problems involving the public do-
main ought to be satisfactorily adjusted by
the present congress, or at least by the pres
ent administration.
It is not surprising that there is much
misunderstanding as to the status of the
public domain. This is to be attributed to
the scandals which have attended the ad-
ministration of the land office. Land scan-
dals Btarted with the government and they
are going to continue so long as an acre
remains under government control. The
Post is not one who believes, however, that
the president of the United States would de-
liberately throw his great powers in the
scale for grafters and cheats. He certainly
would not do so knowingly, and he is a pa-
tient and persistent investigator of all ques-
tions coming before him.
We think, therefore, the public can ac-
cept the message as an assurance of the
president's Intention to protect the public
domain from the encroachment of grafters,
and that in due tifcne he will straighten out
Let the dwellers in the murky and foggy re-
gions contemplate our clear January atmosphere.
Venus was visible to the naked eye every after-
noon last week, and thousands of our citizens of
leisure stood on the streets watching the beauti-
ful star, which fairly divided attention with the
steam roller that was repairing the pavement.
Tow Lawson's latest is to form a $50,000,000
tobacco company. That is, if the people will
furnish, him with the money.
The telephone officials inform us that they are
going to install a cooling device in the exchange
to keep the operators from getting too hot in the
summer time. We suppose the same officials
would pay fancy prices for a device that would
prevent the subscribers from getting hot all the
year round.
Ask the Lord to forgive you today for not pay-
ing your poll tax yesterday and promise on your
knees to discharge this duty tomorrow.
Champ Clark is over in the West lecturing
while all the fuss is going on at Washington.
What would our fathers have ..thoughi if during
the siege of Richmond General Lee had taken
a lay off to spend a week playing pinochle in
Mount Airy, N. C. ?
Charleston is probably the only town ift the
country which a slow old burg like Richmond
could have slipped up on in any such way.
Mrs. Kennedy, whose personal property is as-
sessed at $6,000,000 in New York city, is either
inexperienced as a widow or as a scad lady.
If she had enjoyed much experience as either
she might have sworn off enough to reduce the
total to a couple of thousand dollars.
Merely to accentuate the general superiority of
Houston over other towns we mention the local-
ly important fact that the hens are beginning to
lay again.
The metropolitan papers are writing about
"the Flonzaley quartette." We do not know
what it is, but its dizzyish name would indicate
that some dazzling sort of matrimonial stunts
ought to be pulled off among the Willy million-
aires pretty soon.
The next democratic president will be the hap-
piest executive who ever filled the office. He
will have so many more republicans to separate
from the public service.
We are warned that immigration may yet play
havoc with our Texas democratic majority. And
it may. Still, we shall not complain so our
working preponderance is permitted to remain
somewhere in the vicinity of 300.000 or 400,000.
A bill enacted by the South Carolina legisla-
ture provides "pensions for certain widows over
*5 years of age." As a rule, widows over 55
years of age are tolerably certain.
The sugar trust announces another advance in
the price of sugar, showing that the task of col-
lecting from the people the stolen money it has
been compelled to refund to the government is
proceeding in an orderly manner.
Emil Karl Mueller is in jail in Los Angeles
on a charge of bigamy. He is said to have mar-
ried fifty women. Jail must seem something like
heaven to a man with that many wives.
Mr. Ilgenfritz, the St. Louis pianist, wears a
muff, says the Post-Dispatch. Wouldn't it even
up matters some for our sex if he should marry
and the wife would have to button something up
or down the back for him?
While the senatorial deadlock in Mississippi is
a matter of grave concern with, many people over
there. Colonel Jim Gordon of Okolona seems to
be enduring the suspense with perfect equanimity.
Some men left their sick beds in Boston the
other day to vote for the democratic candidate.
We suppose quite a number of men would have
been glad to leave jail to vote for the republican
candidate, but they didn't.
It is said that Mrs. Frank J. Gould is again
headed for the altar. It is difficult to say which
are the more numerous, those who refuse to stay
put matrimonially or those who decline to remain
unput.
We admire Pinchot and believe he has accom-
plished much good, but we are far from believing
that the National resources went to the devil
when the cable that attached him to the disburs-
ing office snapped.
Land in Sangamon county, Illinois, sold for
$241 an acre the other day. When land brings
such prices in Illinois, it is a sign that every-
body had better get in on the ground floor for
Texas land.
SOME POST COMEBACKS.
"Let in the light on the Ballinger incident,"
says The Houston Post. "This is the people's
government." Not yet, but soon, perhaps.—Louis-
ville Courier-Journal.
The Houston Post is overwhelmed with re-
quests to read men out of the party. Let it be
liberal with, its reading out, so long as it spares
John Wesley Gaines and Rev. Dr. Rankin.—
Knoxville Journal and Tribune.
"An Indiana woman is seeking a divorce from
her husband because he snores, and he admits
•it," The Houston Post tells us. How can he
know that he snores? and if he doesn't know it
why should he admit it? Afraid, to deny it?—
Montgomery Advertiser.
The Houston Post estimates that of the "5,-
000,000 men in the United States available for
military duty according to the war department,
1,000,000 are already colonels." Consequently it
seems safer to say that 4,000,000 are available for
military duty.—Columbia (S. C.) State.
The Houston Post remarks that no baby ever
comes into the world weighing less than twelve
pounds. That may be the rule in Texas, but
once upon a time there was a Johnstown man
who admitted that the baby born at his house
weighed only eight pounds.—Johnstown Democrat.
What a guilty conscience George Bailey of The
Houston Post must have, as he sits muffled in
overcoat and arctics trying to handle a pen with
gloved fingers writing of the gaylorious climate
of G. O. T. and cussing the janitor at the same
time because the steam heat is insufficient to put
warmth into his half-frozen frame.—Los Angeles
Express.
On a beautifully engraved card, in an envelope
neatly addressed to "The Little Yankee School-
marms," in care of the Union, George M. Bailey
of The Houston Post extends his wishes for a
Happy New Year. It is a pleasure to be en
trusted with such a message as this, by one who
has shown repeatedly that he appreciates the good
and beautiful as typified by the queens of our
New Hampshire school rooms. The Union joins
heartily with them in wishing Brother Bailey
many Happy New Years—as happy as may be
consistent with temperance and becoming so-
briety—each happier than its predecessor.^-Man-
chester (N. H.) Union.
Some Exchange Interviews
There will be new complications developed in
the near tuture in the contest for governor. We
believe two candidates will withdraw from the
race during the month of January. Political
moves to defeat and elect one certain candidate
lias gradually drawn the contest to two sides.—
Sulphur Springs News.
Which would seem to be the inevitable ending
to a situation where one party to the controversy
is bent upon forcing a single issue to the front
to the exclusion of all other issues as the one
dominant, determining factor in the campaign.
And in all great issues of the force and char-
acter of the one now occupying the attention of
the people of Texas, the people logically and nat-
urally line up on either one side or the other of
the question at issue, and in this way only may
a majority expression be had and an ending of
the agitation reached which otherwise would be
carried forward indefinitely and its harmful ef-
fects be felt' in the undermining of confidence
in the stability of political conditions, in the re-
tarding of the work of material development, and
in the destruction, or, say, the reduction of the
profits of industry, a condition for which, the
great majority will not long stand. The Post
doesn't claim to be posted as to the character of
the "complications and developments" hinted at
by the News; but this much it does know: That
the people of Texas would hail with delight and
great satisfaction a permanent ending to the pres-
ent political strife in Texas which is entailing
millions of loss annually to the State in effort
absolutely wasted, and which, loss can never be
recovered, no matter how hard we may try. For
effort once wasted means the permanent loss to
society of that which should have represented its
gam—the fruits of industry peacefully and profit-
ably expended to replace which is a legacy of
debt which the present bequeaths to posterity.
*4 »
The announcement of the candidacy of Miss
Mary Phillips of Ballinger for the office of dis-
trict clerk, subject to the action of the demo-
cratic primaries, appears today in the Ledger.—
Ballinger Ledger.
Miss Phillips, it would appear, has served four
years as deputy in the county and district clerk's
office, and in that capacity has given eminent
satisfaction. The position she held was a sub-
ordinate one, but there is likely to be found
somewhere in the constitution and laws of Texas
a provision to the effect that all public servants
in the State shall be "male citizens" of the State,
and if this is true, and a disposition existed to
contest her election, she might lose the office on
this objection alone. In some cities of the State
women have been elected as members of school
boards and The Post does not say that they
should not be elected to such positions—but those
who say they know the law insist that women
hold these positions on sufferance only, and The
Post feels sure that no woman, either in or out
of Texas, would at all thank Miss Phillips for
defeating her husband for district clerk, were he
a candidate for the office against her, no matter
how ardently she might love her.
♦ ♦ *
Public men are beginning to show evidence of
alarm over the unreasonable cost of living and to
discuss the probable consequences if the present
almost prohibitive prices shall continue to pre-
vail, and there is nothing to indicate a change.
Empty stomachs cause men to become ugly, and
hunger is a breeder of rioting and disorder.
This has been the experience of the past and
stomachs have not undergone much of any
change. They are still exacting and when not
satisfied they become rebellious.—San Antonio
(Labor Union) Dispatch.
One wonders what would happen in the United
States were railway porters in the Grand Central
Railway station in New York or the Union sta-
tion in St. Louis, working for 18 shillings ($4.32)
a week and paying "two and six" (36 cents) a
pound for porterhouse steak as they do in the
cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, where
the bread winner for the family eats meat once
a day and the rest of the family dine on oat
meal porridge and sour milk three times a day
and look forward with expectancy to the coming
of Sunday when a "long lie and a tea breakfast"
awaits them all ? There would be a revolution in
this good old country; that's what there would
be. Quit buncombe and contrast conditions in
the United States with those obtaining in Eu-
rope at the present time, and if you do not say
that America is still the workingman's paradise,
the Interviewer will give you a brand new "felt"
in which to celebrate Washington's birthday—the
father and deliverer of his country. Let us get
away from old grooves and face the facts and
conditions as they exist and strive through close
organization to maintain America's standard of
excellence in all things, even to the living con-
ditions of her workinginen and women.
♦ ♦ +
Discussing the gubernatorial situation the Hol-
land Progress puts these few questions up to the
several candidates for governor:
We would like to hear from the candidates
for governor on the following questions: Will
you force yourself on the school book board?
Will you veto the appropriation for the State
Normal schools? Will you go fishing on election
days when there are vital questions to be voted
on, in order to keep the people from finding out
where you stand ? Will you dismiss your ap-
pointees if they attempt to show the rottenness
of the system under which they are working?
Will you send out a special man to collect taxes
where there are county officials elected by the
people to do this? Will you send an armed body
of men into a community of liberty-loving, God-
fearing people to dictate to them what they shall
not do, in other words, do you propose to serve
the people or have the people serve you?
The Progress would better be guarded as to
its expressions on politics, or it may wake up
some fine morning in the near future to learn
that it is an agent of the "rum power," and that
the fact that it is published in a God-fearing and
lawabiding community and that it is both God-
fearing and lawabiding itself, will count as noth-
ing in its favor with the editor of Home and
State who has judged the guilt of those who are
against him in advance. There is 110 atonement
for THEM. They are the lost sheep of prohibi-
tion politics.
♦ + *
Of couyse he will not withdraw just now, but
it's a sate prediction that Mr. Davidson won't
run the race through. Already, the race is nar-
rowing down to Colquitt and Cone Johnson, and
prohibition will be the main issue. And so, after
all, it seems that Dr. Rankin's flirtation with the
ex-attorney general and his own admission of
deceit, will get the pious doctor nothing—not
even a smile from the man he deluded with false
hopes.—Corpus Christi Caller.
The people will withdraw him at the proper
time. There is no room for straddlers or "secret
understandings" this year.
♦ + ♦
The Winnsboro Free Press has changed hands,
R- M. Smith disposing of his interest in the
paper to James L. Ray, late of th* Wood Coun-
ty Democrat. Sol R. Smith, a son of the original
owner, retain* a one-third interest in the Free
Press.
Probably Annihilated.
(From the Atlanta Constitution.)
A correspondent asks the address of Editor
Bok. We don't know. He said recently that
the club woman is superficial.
By Savoyard.
William H. Taft is a jurist, born and bred,
the son of a great lawyer, and in the formative
period of his public career, he was at the bar
and on the bench. He was an honest lawyer,
and as a judge he held the balance "right ad-
justed." A great big boy of a man, his fund of
good humor and his store of broad catholic char-
ity are ever flowing and ever inexhaustible. He
is a republican, all right—no doubt of that—and
the best of the lot, from my standpoint, who has
held the office of president. Not so great a man
as Lincoln, not so illustrious a man as Grant,
perhaps not so able a man as Ben Harrison, he
Js yet what never was before—a republican who
is president of the South as well as of the North.
And that is a great and a grand thing.
Mr. Taft has said that he intends to carry out
the "Roosevelt policies"; but they who have cor-
rectly observed the man know that when the
Roosevelt policies and the law conflict, and that
is^ not infrequent, if I know anything about it,
this administration will uphold the law and let
the Roosevelt policies slide. For example, Presi-
dent Taft is not going to suspend the law and
grant indulgence to a monopoly like the steel
trust to absorb its chiefest and practically only
rival, like the Tennessee Coal and Iron company.
Mr. Taft will not hurl the lie in the face of a
man like Alton B. Parker, when the ink is not
yet dry on a letter beginning, "My Dear Har-
riman." In the first place, our now president is
not given to epithet. In the second place;, he
could not write the Harriman letter at all.
And it is the difference in the training and the
characters of William H. Taft and Theodore
Roosevelt that is the occasion of this talk, or
suggestion, that if Taft stands by Ballinger and
ignores Pinchot; they will deny Taft a renomina-
tfon in 1912 and set up Roosevelt again. Now
these fellows can go on with their conspiracy,
for this administration is going to be bound by
th.e law, something that the last administration
held in positive contempt when it conflicted with
the vanity or interest of Theodore Roosevelt,
which it constantly did.
It is remarked that during the winter of 1911-
12, the political scenes of 1879-80 will be meas-
urably repeated in this town, when U. S. Grant
was on the last lap of his swing around the circle,
and both parties in congress were busy hunting
a man to be president. It was my first winter in
Washington, and there was more president-mak-
ing here than T have seen during all the winters
I have spent here siry:e—more in both parties.
♦ ♦
But the situation then was far different from
what it will be in 1912. R. B. Hayes was installed
as president of the United States; but there was
not a single voter of the republican party—not
even he himself—who hoped or desired that he
be renominated, for such a thing would have
made an electoral college in 1880 unanimously
democratic, whether we had discovered the wis-
dom to renominate the old ticket of Tilden and
Hendricks or not.
John Sherman was the choice of the bread
and butter brigade, and the republican South pro-
fessed t° be solidly for him. He was secretary
of the treasury and the virtual president. James
G. Blaine, as Stephen A. Douglas before him,
wras the candidate of young America, and some
of the "interests," and it is certain that he would
have received the republican nomination in 1876
if the "Mulligan letters" had not been exploited
and he had not had sunstroke. New England, or
some of it, professed to be a little mugwumpish,
and was for Ben Bristow of Kentucky, who had
prosecuted to the penitentiary some of the minor
culprits of the whisky ring. Other New Eng-
landers were for Senator Edmunds, and Maine
was solidly for Blaine. Then there was Win-
dom, who had his lightning rod up, and was.rcal-
ly in some danger of being struck.
But the real republican circus was the Grant
third-term crowd. Conkling, who looked, and al-
most acted. Julius Caesar, was the soul of it, and
the "Old Guard" was his army. Don Cameron
was then the boss of Pennsylvania, and John A.
Logan was almost supreme in Illinois. Grant
must have been a very great man to have in-
spired the loyalty to his fortunes he did in 1880
when he had not a single particle of present pat-
ronage to dispense, and T am sorry that the dem-
ocratic party can not boast a band like the "306,"
the Tenth Legion of our politics.
Unfortunately Matt Carpenter was then in lu's
last sickness, and died the following February.
He too was a Grant man, and might have turned
the scale at Chicago in June had he been the
vigorous man that he was when he pleaded for
Tilden in the election contcst of 1876-77. But
Grant would have been nominated anyhow had
not the opposition organized the convention, with
Senator Hoar in the chair, and abolished the unit
rule. When New York was called during one
of the thirty-six ballots, Conkling, the chairman
of the delegation, though in his seat, failed to
respond. Again and again and repeatedly the
clerk called "New York." Finally Conkling
rose, the most splendid figure of even that, the
greatest, if not the most momentous of our Na-
tional conventions, and said: "I beg the pardon
of the chair and of the entire membership of this
body; but I had discovered that Mr. Jimmy Bel-
den, a member of the New York delegation from
Syracuse, was meditating a cumulative treason.
I only gave him time and opportunity to consum-
mate it." Beldcn was a Blaine man.
4. 4.
May I be excused if I repeat a story about
Uncle Belden that possibly I have related be-
fore in some letter? Be that as it may, I shall
venture it again. Uncle Jimmy had oceans of
money, made out of the tariff on salt. Every
farmer who turned pork to bacon in the United
States paid tribute to Belden for the salt with
which it was cured.
Frank Hiscock, who would have been a great
man indeed, if he had not been so careless and
lazy, was Belden's rival for boss of the repub-
lican party in Syracuse, and sometimes one of
them triumphed and sometimes the other. In the
spring of 1892 Uncle Jimmy left his seat in con-
gress to go home and see about the city pri-
maries. His ticket was nominated, all right, but
the democratic ticket was elected by a big ma-
jority. When Uncle Belden got back to Wash-
ington, republican congressmen, young fellows
from New York like Hooker, Chickering and some
others, surrounded him in the cloak room with a
Babel, all meaning, "How did it happen, Uncle
Jimmy?"
The old fellow, hanging up his hat, gruffly re-
plied: "Damned if I know; I give 'em all the
money they asked for!"
If the unit rule had prevailed at Chicago in
1880, as it does in democratic National conven-
tions, Grant would have been nominated the first
day of th.e balloting; but they smashed the unit
rule, and Conkling lost many votes of the New
York delegation, Cameron many of the Pennsyl-
vania delegation, and Logan many of the Illinois
delegation. That beat the third term, and for-
tunate it was that it was so. If we ever have a
third-term president, that man will die president
and master of this Republic.
When the news got to Washington that Gar-
field was nominated, I was in the senate gallery
and looking at James G. Blaine. He walked right
over to the stock sticker and scanned it to see
the effect on Wall Street. Five minutes later, as
chipper as a chicken cock, he was up making one
of his breezy speeches 011 an unimportant item
of an unimportant appropriation bill.
* * *
On the house side the democratic majority as
a matter of courtesy adjourned in order that the
republicans might hold a ratification meeting. It
was the dolefulest thing you ever saw. The town
was for Grant, personally the most popular presi-
dent since Frank Pierce. He was now beaten,
and there was a feeling that if treason had lost
at Appomattox, it had been re-established and
was now victorious at Chicago—that was the
general and pervading republican idea in this
town.
Old Pig Iron Kelley, the "father of the house,"
who had voted against Garfield, the caucus nomi-
nee of the republican party for speaker of that
very congress, because the now nominee of the
republican party for president was a member of
the Cobden club of England and a free trader—
Old Pig Iron Kelley was made chairman of that
doleful ratification m«eting. There was not a
man in either house wit? thought Garfield had a
About Third Terms
Tamoertn'i With Iriri?«
By Judd Mortimer Lewis.
WISHING.
I wish I had the duck that wrote
That "Spare the rod and spoil the ch,
I'd like to have you make a note
Of what I'd do to him ! I'm wild
When I think of the harm it's done
Through all the ages, down to no
The children it has caused to run
Affrighted, crying, stumbling—Wow .
<
That's how I feel! That fellow stuck
In every father's hand a gad,
And it has struck and struck and struck
Across the backs of lass and lad
From that day 'way adown to this,
Has scarred and bruised each baby form—
When I think of such things, you wis,
I can't help hopin' hell is warm !
The father who will take a child
And bruise its tender flesh with blows
Because it disobeys, has piled
Wrong onto grievous wrong! He knows
In his own heart the blows he deals
The trembling child, each whack on whack
The trembling, pleading baby feels,
In justice should scar his own back.
He knows that if he took the time
To study and to understand
The nature of the child 'twould climb
Straightly and truly, and his hand
Should guide it lovingly and well
Along the way that it should go;
No plant is straightened by a yell,
No child made better by a blow.
That's why I wish I knew the duck
Who wrote those words long, long ago;
I hope his shrinking soul is struck
A hundred strokes for every blow
His words have caused to be struck here,
The blows 011 baby shoulders piled;
Love never joyed to see a tear.
True love has never struck a child.
A duck come into our sanctum next Monday'll
be a week an' said he would like to take us apart
an' talk to us. an' we told him that if he couldn't
talk to us without takin' us apart he had better
go nosin' along about his business bccause vye
ain't no vivisectioner an' always wasn't, but
whilst we was a-fussin' at him th' barkecp fin
next door who has been arguin' with us about a
booze bill durin' his leesure hours fer several
years got disgusted an' went home, so th' feller
sot down onto our table an' asted us: "Air you
instrusted in th' rum question?" "Air we!"
said we runnin' our long red tongue out an' wop-
sin' it around our face, "We air!" "Well,"
said he leanin' over an breathin' into our face
with, a breath thet would hev melted a hole
through a armor plate, "air you aware thet rum
is a-destroyin' thousands o' men every day?"
"We air," we replied, "an' we air doin' what we
kin to git even." "Brother,"' asted he, breathin*
hard, "air you fightin' the demon?" "We air,"
we replied; "wo air one of th' biggest booze
fighters in th' community, an' whilst booze is a-
destroyin' men we air destroyin' booze ter a
fare-you-well." Then he pulled a bottle outen
his bottle pocket an' asted us did we have some
sort of a chiny dish he could pour th' dope in
an' we got^ him one an' he poured her in; then
he asted us if we had a common wire nail, an'
we took off th' nail thet holds up th' .gable eend
of our pants an' holded 'enj up whilst he. niad.c
his demonstration^ he leaned over an' drapped
th' nail onto th' dope an' thet nail bounded
straight up into th' air fer two feet an' we could
almost hear its scream of anguish as it fell back
inter th' dope, then it went wigglin' an a-wigglin'
around an' around th' dish o' booze an* throwin'
off green bubbles, then it doubled up ap' straight-
ened out a few times like a angel worm with
appendicitis, then it sunk an' when it touched
th' bottom it bounded into th' air ag'in ah' hol-
lered, an' finally when th' duck fished it out an'
held it out to us it was a perfect corkscrew.
"That," says he, "is what booze does ter your
insides! ' "\V£iL' says we, an' wc was so in-
trusted in th' ma^er thet we was fergittin' ter
hold onto our pant^ "cf thet is what booze has
been a-doin' ter our insides then we air as full
o' corkscrews as breakfast food is o' shavins!"
Then before he could stop us wc lied grabbed th'
booze an' pored it through, th' hole into our
face, an' we done cverythin' he done, on'y we
done it twice; as soon as th' duck seen what
we had done he split th' wind, an' us after him,
but he took a straight line whilst we run over
houses an' children an' everything else, an' run
about a mile ter gain a yard so we didn't ketch
him, but he needn't have ben so skecred, we
on'y wanted ter ast him where lie got it at; on
our way Lack we thought we would stop an'
twist \ erb Sapp outen his hole an' we managed
ter git inter th' house, but" th' stairway was so
busy wc couldn't make it—every time we got
jic-ar th' top of it it would'squirm an' straighten
out an' we would hit th' bottom, so we con-
cluded we would go on outside where we could
spread ourself, but it was a long while before we
could ketch th' door, an' we was battin' around
in there like a June bug, an' happenin' ter strike
a winder we never did go through th' door a tall.
But Verb needn't ter congratulate himself thet
th' warhoots we give was hoots of dispair, fer
we air goin' ter hand him his'n before we air
done.—Alkali Eye.
BOW-WOW.
While there's very little reason
And less rhythm to my rhyme,
I rather think a baby
Beats a poodle every time.
—Birmingham Agc-Hc
But still, you wise philosophers,
I'll tell you what we'll do;
We'll have an English poodle
And a tootsie-wootsie, too.
—Philadelphia Tel
I do not in the street "car
Like the end-seat hog.
But still I much prefer him
To the woman with a dog.
ghost of a chance of election, because it was be-
yond the ken of finite man that the democratic
party that was to hold its convention at Cincin-
nati a few days later would discover asshood
enough to turn down the old ticket; but that is
precisely what the democratic convention did,
and it is the only aggregation in the world that
could then, before, or since, have done that im-
possibility.
Just to the north of the house of representa-
tives in those days was a news stand, presided
over by a very handsome Englishman. I had
gone there to buy a magazine that day, and by
my side were Page of California and Hazleton of
Wisconsin, who subsequently elected Keifer
speaker of the house over Frank Hiscock and
Tom Reed. This dialogue occurred between them:
"By George, Page, who is going to put up the
campaign fund for Garfield?"
Gollin, by God!" was the blunt and some-
what profane reply of Page, who had bet $iooo
an hour or two before that Grant would be nomi-
nated. De Gollin was the paving man; but let's
not reopen that.
•fr ♦ 4*
Things are different now. Taft is ndt H^yes, .
and Roosevelt is not Grant. Taft will have his
party, or a big majority, behind him for renomi-
nation, and even if Roosevelt should contest it
with him, Taft will beat him.
Nor is that all. Even if Roosevelt were nomi-
nated, not even the democratic party could do
enough fool things to elect him; for when this
country once allows a third term, thereafter all
terms will be life terms.
If somebody that was fit for it should tell the
true story and all of it about the Grant third-
term movement of 1880 it would be an interest*
ing chapter.
.Washington, December 29, 1909, _
* > '
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The Houston Post. (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 25TH YEAR, Ed. 1 Sunday, January 16, 1910, newspaper, January 16, 1910; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443343/m1/28/: accessed June 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Library Consortium.