St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-21
A MODEL OF RHETORIC.

The summer is here now, and the
schools are closed; but our children may
well drop their pleasures for day and
memorize the clear and stirring SEN
fences in which Mr.. ERWIN breaks this
sad Intelligence to the public. He be-
gins quietly enough, and there is moth
ing in the preludium TO suggest the
awful denouement. He says, in the first
place, that his object is to acknowledge
the honor conferred on him by his selec-
ton as a member of the state central
committee. Would to heaven that this
were the real object of the letter, Then
he adds, in terms of rare simplicity, that
he is grateful for the honor. Here he
pauses-not periods worth, but only
for a semicolOn's length-and at once,
without warning or seeming effort, rolls
out this priceless paragraphs:
MY every sense is awakened TO the stern
and immediate necessity of this profound,
earnest and heaven-led movement against
the world-old forces which have enslaved the
economic liberties of men and nations-a
march begun in prayer from bondage which
will not be opposed nor stayed until man is
free and the divine command to love one
another is not alone a standard of individual
action, but the rule ana base of the govern
mcnt of men,"
Could anything be grander, or larger,
or more ineligible than that? Could
JOHN MILTON, in his windiest day. or
DR.. SAMUEL JOHNSON, after his biggest
dinner, have knocked off a sentence
half so complex, half so rotund? The
GLOBE trOws not. Mark its complete
ness. Not one of BILL ERwIN's senses
is awakened. but all his senses-his
sense of taste and sight. as we'll as his
nose and his ears. He does not omit
single organ. Notice, too, his delicate
compliment to IGNATIUS DONNELLY
and doc" FISH, when he calls the Peo
pies Party ''heaven-led." And then
mark the loud, but subtly ambiguous,
shout of triumph with which he con-
cludeS. He declares that something
will not be opposed nor stayed until
man is free; but whether it is the
word. or the prayer, or the bondage, no
fellow can make out. How great, how
clever!
But this is not all. "BILL" goes Oh
to say that he is not fit to work along
side of IGNATIUs DoNNELLY and doc"
FISH. He admits that people should be
willing TO hold Offices if they can get
them, but he adds:
Zach individual, think, has duties per
sonalities moods, sorrows. wounds and
blood-born prides, in whose broad domain
lie comped the unseen but potent destiuies
which control design and give intention the
sacred character Of fate
The GLOBE has always thought this
way itself, but up TO this point has
never dared to say so in public. 1t
thanks Mr.. ERWIN for his courage in
speaking right out in such fashion upon
so important topic There has here
t0fore been some doubt as to whether
the average Individual had more than
one pride, but it is now settled that he
has several prideS, all blood-born, and
that he has moods and lenses as well
| as persons, numbers. genders and cases.
and that ''destinies" of the most eX-
traordinary character pitch their tents
in them every evening at shutdown.
And then on top of all this, with the
public's heart throbbing over these pro-
found and vivid truths, he nerves him
self for the climax and sobs: There
fore. l resign" Really, this is too
cruel. The world could have stood any,
thing but that. If he had put it less
abruptly, less finally, more rhetorically,
it could have been endured. But such
breyity, such directness, suck decision
is too much. The GLOBE will not an
swer for the consequences, and it prays
Mr.. ERWIN as christian American, "
as 'son of the Republic" and as the
"least ostentatious soldier" to recon
slider his dreadful resolution.