The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1881-08-04
IN. Y. Tribune.]
Snear.

Mr.. j. Edwin Speer, OF Cincinnati,
who welded the temporary and tran
STORY gavel in the Ohio Democratic
State Convention on Wednesday,
seems singularly felicitous as we'll as
an uncommonly Howery person. "The
Democracy Of Ohio," he said, pranc-
ing at once at dead run upon the
very centre Of the occasion, "are once
more gathered together to pay their
annual VOWS" Which is a euphe-
mism for ''tell their annual lies"
annual vows" is very good. The
Democracy of Ohio are not as
rule in favor Of paying anything ex-
cept vows, and those only in resolu-
tions. The "Ohio idea" is that vows
are irredeemable, like greenbacks;
that the more they issue the better off
they are; and that the only way to
take them up is to issue more and
keep them in circulation. Hence the
annual VOWS" The phrase is we'll
chosen. "We are making" continued
Speer, another circle in the years of
the oak. We have met to add one
more leaf to the perennial laurel"
We have not the slightest idea what
Speer is driving at in these fbrous and
verdurous remarks, nor indeed do we
care. Enough for US that they are
pretty and sound good. Hypercriti-
cism might perhaps object to the pre-
else terms used, and insist that a re-
gard for truth would have substituted
The upas for the oak and the decidu-
Gus slippery elm for the perennial
laurel; but it must be remembered
that regard for truth is never permit
ted to hamper the fancy of a chair
man of Democratic Convention. We
have no hesitation in saying that these
two sentences, as they stand, are just
as pretty as they can be.
Dropping arboriculture at this
point, he plunges into Scripture. ''We
God and take courage, like Paul at
the 7hree Taverns." Could there be
happier use of language? Few ora
tors would have had the boldness to
draw from the life Of the great Apostle
to the Gentiles parallel for Demo-
cratic Convention. Speer did it.
Seizing upon the only passage in the
life Of st. Paul after he had ceased
prosecuting the saints which could
furnish the parallel he desired, he tells
them they are assembled to "take
courage like Paul at the Three Tav-
erns." This is the inspiration of
genius. Speer is evidently equally
familiar with the life Of St. Paul and
the habits Of the Democratic party.
Had he put this part Of his speech in
the form Of a conundrum, thus
"Why is the Democratic party like
st. Paul ?"-he would have staggered
the whole Convention. Probably no
Democrat in Ohio could have guessed
it. And yet the answer is simple and
easy enough to any one who remem-
bers that Paul took courage" at
''Three Taverns." For it is at EsThree
Taverns' more or less, but usually
more-that the Democracy are in the
habit Of taking courage" It is not,
to be sure, very lasting courage, but
it lasts at least through the Conven-
ton. No doubt a majority of the
delegates whom Speer addressed had
already taken courage at three or
more taverns in Columbus. And had
done it, too, without the remotest no
tion that they were initiating st. Paul,
and furnishing Speer with a figure of
speech and an illustration at once
eloquent and unique.
Skipping then with the ease and
grace of practised orator from the
New Testament to the Old. Speer
ikens the Democracy to the Chosen
People. Though years in the will
derness," he says, ''the true Democ-
racy, like the children of Israel, finds
water in the rocks and mama on the
ground" And they do indeed; water
for which they have no use, and
mamma that they heap up in their
greed with the same result as followed
the accumulation of an over-supplv
by the Israelites. But they are very
like the Israelites in other particulars
-as, for instance, in their longing for
flesh pots, their everlasting grum-
bling, and in the singular and solemn
circumstance that none Of this gen.
Grafton will ever reach the Promised
Land. Surely no man was ever so
happy in his illustrations as Speer.
Having exhausted the resources of the
Old and New Testaments for analo-
gies, he strides into profane history
and proceeds to tumble that "bare-
rooted democrat, Socrates the Sub
lime,'' into the tumultuous torrent of
his discourse. "When Socrates, the
sublime, barefooted Democrat he
says, s''proclaimed the doctrine that
the king was no greater than his sub
jects, Athens gave him hemlock, but
the doctrine lived" Without being
able to perceive the precise relevancy
of this allusion, we can still see that
it was good thing to ring i'm Soc
rates on the Convention, and that the
speech would have lacked complete
ness without it. Is it any wonder that
after this address the Convention re-
solved that "the humanities are nom
PARTISAN and that a commission
should be appointed to revise the tar
iff? 1t seems likely that nothing in
particular will come of the Conven-
tion; but however that may be, the
literature Of the period has been en-
riched by Speer's beautiful speech,
and that is Of itself ample compensa-
ton for the defeat of the ticket.
Educated Women.