Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1886-10-23

eOatef on earth. His command OF lan-
guage surpasses that of any public man
l know. He uses many uncommon
words, and in such q way that his shade
of meaning is expressed IN the shortest
and most forcible manner. His speech
nominating Gen. Grant ut Chicago was
n of the greatest orations of our his
tory. Do you remember the verse with
which he bagan it Yes" said I, sit
was something like this Z:
1fyou ask me whence my candidate,
My sole reply shall be,
He comes from Appomattox
And Its famous apple tree"
"Well," continued the general, II can
tell you where Conkling got that verse.
1t was not original with him, but was
the work of a friend. Sometime before
the convention he and this friend we're
out riding together and the friend read
to Mr.. Conkling a poem which he had
been writing about Grant. The above
was one of the verses of the poem.
When it was read Conklingu said "That
is a good thing and I may have occasion
to use it," He then made the poet read
it over several times until he had it
thoroughly committed to memory. The
steady applause of full fifteen minutes
which followed it when uttered at Chi
cago showed that he was not mistaken
in its value" "Do you think Conkling
has any political future?" 1 asked. "He
may have" was the reply, "but it seems
to me only in one emergency. If q
mighty issue should come before the
country and the people should become
INVOLVED in it to such an extent that the
issue ove%rshadowed the men who repre-
scented it, Conkling might come to the
front as one of the great orators of a
party and us such regain his old foot
hold. At such times leaders become
heroes in the peoples eyes, and such an
occasion may yet remake Roscoe Conk-
ling. The great mistake of Conkllng's
life was in his attempt to go back to the
senate. He made the attempt against
his better judgment and I don't believe
he intended to MAKE it when he ten
dered his resignation"
ooh, yes, we have had a powerful in
crease of Democrats in the territory
since President Cleveland was elected"
said a Dakota man who stands we'll with
the administration. "When I went
there, fifteen years ago. 1 was the only
one in my county who cast Democrat.
ic ballot, and at the last presidential
election IN my town we had just four
Democratic votes polled. But when it
was ascertained that Cleveland was
elected mark the change. We held n
a ratification meeting, and behold, we
had lis men in line for the preliminary
procession. l tell you, we are continu-
ing to increase at that rate, too, and by
the time the territory is ready to come
into the Union rs a state rest assured it
will be Democratic. fear, though, that
some of our new recruits will backslide
in the event of q Republican president
being elected before Dakota is admit
tod"
The house misses Sam Cox and if its
sessions are to be enlivened with my
humor it will have to come from the
new members. Representative O'Neill,
of St. Louis, has been talked of as the
coming funny man of the Fiftieth con-
gress, but he seldom appears on the floor
and will by no mean fill the vacuum
left by the absence of Cox. One by one
our great humorists have been dropping
out of public life. When Tom Corwin
died a great fund of good stories and Wit
ty anecdotes was buried with him. Thad-
deus Stevens had a great fund Of wit.
Senator Nesmith, who died this year, en-
livened many q day in the old capitol.
Proctor Knott set the country wild with
his Duluth speech and now and then
raised a laugh during a dull day in the
house, but Knott left congress two years
ago and gave up the field to Horn, of
Michigan, Jim Bedford, of Colorado, and
his old rival, Sam Cox. Now Bedford,
Horr and Cox r. gone and none haye
yet developed to fill the places.
Bob Burdette says "The candidate
from Kentucky was before the civil SER
vice commissioner. what is the
meaning of 'idem'? asked the examin-
er. Whisky promptly answered the
candidate. Whisky exclaimed the
disguised commissioner. you want to
be chief of the bureau of education and
fail on a question that any school boy
in America can answer. Idem means
the same.' 'Well,' replied the candi-
date, that's whisky all over my state.'
He got a $4,000 p~ostofice.
Gen. Phil Sheridan thought that Gen.
Mcclellan should have had Il military
funeral. He said that absence of either
sword or flag from the coffin made him
feel that "Little Mac" vas not getting a
soldiers deserts. 1 understand that the
funeral wa in accordance with General
McClellan's wishes. A reminiscence of
1864 was recalled to me by Il remark
of Sheridan. He said 81 fought in the
valley to whip Mcclellan and to elect
| Lincoln, which is the nearest I ever