The Great Falls leader. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1888-1900, 1889-10-12
MONTANA AND HER ORATO RS.

eastern orators has been made by g. P. Con-
molly in an article written to the Newark,
N. j., Sunday Call which isnot in the least
disparaging to our western Ciceronean.
His parallels drawn between the republi-
can Demosthenes and the democratic
Scipionis is Illuminated enough and by
no means deadly. While tiattering to
Montana's war-horse, it is not disparaging
to Maginnis.
While it is true that the style of the
western orator is unlike the more classic
mold permeating the intellectual atmos-
phere of the east, it is also true that each
is so peculiarly adapted to the various
conditions and purposes that, were they
reversed, it would be at the risk of doing
violence to both. ....
The western audience has keen relish
for the humorous, which is readily ac
counted for because the vicissitudes of
western life lead many to- fall back upon
that trait which nature has interviewer in
the character of every mortal-the sense
of the ridiculous-and which needs but
the pruning of adversely to develop into
the most favoring conditions. 1t has been
said that the boy in the rear of the ranks
who in the very shock and carnage of bat
tie cracks his joke and rends for the mo-
ment the shackles of fear, is no less a
candidate for the gratitude of his country
than the general who leads his batallions
into the belching jaws of the enemy's guns.
There are two kinds of humor--the intel
lectual humor which appeals to the mind,
and the humor which shakes the man,
ripples through his soul and batters at
| the rusty hinges of the dungeons of preju
dice. 1t is the latter that is distinctively
western.
The orators perceptions are quickened
by the presence of either his cultured or
his hard-sense auditors. He falls into their
arms popular favorite, or ne rudely
treads upon their foibles and dislikes and
ultimately learns to shape the expression
of his thoughts to those forms and ideas
most acceptable to them.
OF Lincoln's great speech at Cooper
Union it may truthfully be said that it
was a revelation to the people of New
York. There was western force and
freshness to it that took the Gothamite
audience by storm. His quaint, idiomat-
ic expression; his method of calling
things by their right names; the honest
simplicity with which he demonstrated
his logical conclusions-these were all
peculiarly and ideally western.
Mr.. Connolly seems fully conscious of
the domination of the foreign allies here,
who have held Montana land-locked,
hide-bound and tongue-tied for twenty
years and almost doubts the power of the
people to throw off the democratic octo-
pus that has so long and 80 securely fas-
tened itself to her vitals. He says:
The people of Montana, though pro-
verbally hospitable, are singularly sensi-
tive and independent. For quarter of
a century they have suffered the un-
wholesome influences and bowed to the
yoke of foreign domination which
neither knew nor cared whether they
| were slaves, sufficiently lHGellSeHI W
assume the sutfrages of citizens, OF free
men ignorant of their rights, or knowing,
not daring to maintain them. And now
that the rock of slavery has been rolled
J back from the grave of liberty, shall
they be generous in rejoicing and extend
the manumitted hand to those who,
though tardy, at last broke the chain and
made them fetterless and free? or shall
they together lock hands in blameless re-
turn of selishness and close their lips
against the words of welcome?
He pays an extravagant compliment to
, the oratory of Maj. Maginnis:
Undoubtedly they will warmly welcome
, these descending political hosts; but the
odds are even that they will be met and
vanquished, in the intellectual arena, al
least nv home talent. On the democratic