The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1888-06-28
BRADLEY's BooMLEr.
The Kentucky Windmill Roasted by
Chicago Paper.
IChinn orc, LI,ril.,,nn Do

uon. MIR. Bradley, OF Kentucky,
whose great run TOR Governor was
one of the phenomena of South
ern politics, has been vigorous
ly pressed for the Vice Presidency.
The pressure was largely animated
by the claim that he is an orator of
powers so splendid, of possibilities
so incElculable, as to insure that if
he were permitted to address the
convention his nomination would
be made absolutely certain. Who
ever was responsible for this amaz-
ing error can not make sufficient
atonement to Mr.. Bradley. There
have been Southern orators from
the days of Francis Marion and
Patrick Henry to the days of Tom
Marshall, and 4 host of new men
whose flowery grace and tropical ar
dor have ct least interested, If they
have not deeply impressed, their
colder northern brethren, but to
place Mr.. Bradley in the category
of even the amateurs of the Lyceum
or the rousihg disclaimers of the
cross-road mass-meeting, is to do
him a great injustice.
There are certain Indispensable
in oratorY. An orator must think !;
an orator must conceive q scheme
in an Grafton an orator must have
a purpose to accomplish. His pur-
pose may be only to entertain, as is
generally the case with Daniel
Doughterty, who, even when his
theme is utterly barren and even re-
pungent to his own sensibilities,
can charm his hearers by the polish
OF his phrase and the fascination of
his personal manner. An orators
purpose may be only to bewilder,
in order that he may afterward per-
suade This is the mode by which
Mr.. Gladstone generally proceeds.
1t has been a favorite method with
Mr.. Blaine, and both these experts
in finance and economics can safe
ly undertake almost any time; and
with almost any audience, so superb
ly to marshal arrays of facts that
their premises will perforce be
granted in sheer hopelessness of
understanding them and once that
state of mind is produced, the spell
is dit work whick wins and converts
and confirms the devotion of parti-
sans.
What purpose Mr.. Bradley had
is easy enough to divine. 1t was
double. He meant to delight the
convention and be meant 20 per-
shade it that he is the meteor Hash
in the Southern sky. The maneu-
vering by which his opportunity
was created had oil the appearance
of prearranged spontaniety. There
was general good nature in the ao-
qpiescence of most Of the delegates
in the demand urgently supported
by his true or pretended partisans.
AS speech making was not the reg
ular order of business, it was GER
tain, of course, that if speeches
were made they would be extempo-
raneous and offered to the conven-
ton merely as recr, alive distrac-
tions until the belated committee
should appear
AT length, after considerable dilly
daliying, Mr. Bradley was on the
rostrum While il is true that all
orators are not lean, it is generally
true that adipose is not intellectual
in oratory. Mr.. Bradley is heavy,
fiorid, and rather commonplace in
general appearance. The mechan-
zeal plant of an orator he possesses
is fair form. He has good lungs
and vel. rounded chest, Il good
wearing quality of tone, and he is
one of the few men who have spok-
en- in the convention without
scratching the membranes Of the
throat before they talked lwo min
utes. But Mr. Bradley, proved to
have no other, faculties or traits Of
oratory. He does not think. In
the text of his discourse, which
proved to be written, and to which
he was several times obliged to turn,
there is not 10 be found a solitary
thought which has not been in cir
culation for many years and isthor-
oughiy worn. Mr., Bradley belongs
TO no school, Of orators, unless an
elecic one be created, and he hes
selected from many speakers and
from any number Of poor speeches
the familiar catches which viii
bring cheer from the sympathetic
whenever they are uttered, AMI
whose utterance by any man con
dennis him. Not only did Mr.
Bradley. present the cabinet OF hack
neyed quotations with great effer-
vescence of larYnx, evoking every
time applause and generally quiet
Laughter, but he assayed one bit Of
flying in which his metaphor will
scarcely bear the acid OF common
sense.
Mr.. Bradley destroyed the preten.
sinns which have been put forth fol
him. Before he,can, deliver speech
es that will help make him an avail
able Vice Presidential candidate, he
must learn to think !. he must learG
that endless iteration of endless
twaddle, common in the paltriest
amateur debates Of rural lyceums
is painful and stupid. He neither
deliphted nor persuaded.