Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-04

itself 1t was the defense of man who
had been indicted for receiving stoler
goods. 1t was given him by one of his lega
friends who didn't take criminal cases and
who didn't want a case of that kind any
how. Cochran lost it, but his management
of it, his general knowledge of law, his
mental grasp of the essential features in
volved and his splendid argument, all serv
ed to. greatly advance him in the estimation
of both bench and bar. There were not 9
few old lawyers who even at that early pc
riod predicted that the briefless barristel
would soon make name for himself
1t was wholly natural that q man ol
Bourke Cockran's temperament and gifts
should drift into politics early in life. You
couldn't keel a glib-tonged Irishman out Of
politics in New York with a club. One ol
his abilities was welcomed on all sides
/ and he has been pretty much on all sides
since his advent His political acquaint.
ances and induction into the intricacies OF
machine management went hand in hand
with his advancement at the bar. 1t has SO
continued ever since-nip and tuck; with
the political nip, if anything, just q leetle
ahead of the legal tuck.
First Claim as q Politician.
His first claim to public notice as poll
tician was in his first year in New York and
was lald at Syracuse. 1t was at the Demo
| cratic State convention. Of course he was
! with the minority, where he invariably
comes out strong. As the leader-for he at
once assumed leadership-of this minority
faction of the party he made . great hit
He was downed-that is to say, the move
ment he represented was downed.
Bourke Cochran rose from its ashes, if
not quite famous, at least known through
out the Empire State. His history in poll
tics is curious one in that while he has
always been with the under dog, it doesn't
matter much what becomes of the dog,
Bourke is bigger and grander and more
famous than ever he was. His great fights
have been within the ranks of his own
party-invariably as high kicker. When
you have once seen and heard this premiere,
the rest of the crowd sink to the relative
standard of secondas, coryphees and mere
fgurantes When he appeared on the
floor of the convention at Syracuse In '79
he was but 81, almost a total stranger, poor
and lank of appearance, and in the storm of
the great battle between Samuel j. Tilden
and John Kelly the last man who would
have been called upon to champion either
side. He wore the badge of Irving Hall
that was all that was known of him. And
he was greeted by the same pandemonium
of yells and cat-calls that greeted him at
Chicago, differing only in volume. They
showered on him all epithets of contempt
and derision. But he needed them not
Eloquence of Peculiar Sort
Standing in the aisle, with right hand
raised, he waited until the bowling mob
gave him an opening Then, with bovine
voice and gently ripping words, his Ian
guage fell upon the listening ears like the
sound of running waters And like sweet
oil had fho
savage breast of delegate and alternate and
shouter alike. Now and then it poured
along foaming torrent to a climax cataract
before the thunder of applause had died
away to murmur smoothly across the green
meadows and to gurgle peacefully over the
cooling stones.
For upward ofhalf an hour the young
orator held the convention beneath his mag
ic spell The applause was spontaneous,
like the speech, and it rolled up from all
sides and reverberated from floor to roof
in unison. Then the factions went on fight
ing just the same as if the speech had never
been made. But Cockran's fame was as
sured. When he returned to New York it
was to find himself in political demand.
No money was yet in sight-his clothes were
poor and worn to seediness-but no matter.
The impetuous and big hearted Irishman
never thought of that He felt that he was
bound to be in the swim. The rest woald
care for itself He next appeared at the
Albany convention in 81 as the spokesman
of the Irving Hall Democracy, and there he
gained fresh laurels
Cochran Becomes . Tammanyite.
In the meantime, John Kelly had noted
the rising oratorical sun and cultivated
Cockran's personal acquaintance. The re-
suit was Cockran's desertion of Irving Hall
for Tammany. The young lawyer had been
appointed Sheriff's counsel and was now
holding his own financially, and rising,
rising like the waters of the lower Missis-
sippi in freshet, slowly. steadily, grandly.
1t was at the Chicago Convention of 1884
that Bourke Cochran was first introduced to
the national Democracy. TIE same old
factional spirit was at war in the |
New York delegation. Grover Cleveland |
was the bone Of contention-if may so far |
strain physiological facts as to designate the |
ex-President as a bone-Tammany was the |
ballet and Bourke Cochran the premiere |
high kicker. Cochran had an understudy |
in the person of Senator Grady, who pre- |
pared the way for him by an ill-tempered |
speech that made the Exposition Building |
roar with the collective anger of the floor |
aud galleries. The astute Manning and oily |
CANNON Fellows handled the majority of |
Ind for Cleveland. That majority embraced |
,he elements and embodied the characteris- |
,ics of old Irving Hall, and grim old John |
Kelly sat at the head of those against whom |
Cochran had formerly launched his rhetori- |
al thunderbolus
Accredited Spokesman for the Tiger.
Now, however, the great Irish orator and |
Master of the English tongue was the ac-
,redited spokesman of Tammany When
Grady had been howled down effectually,
Cochran pushed him aside and stalked down
he center aisle to the Chairman's g rostrum.
Passing through the reporters in front, he
tepped upon the dais like some courageous
,ulldog plunging into swarm of snarling
PANELS.
Practically the entire convention was
gainst him, delegates and spectators, for he
represented nobody but himself and Tam
many, and there was little sympathy for
Tammany there. 1t had made war to the
,nife against Cleveland's nomination and it
vas turning the same shining blade upon
he convention itself by trying to break
he Democratic tradition of the unit rule
from the time Cochran started for the
ribune to the time he reached it and faced
lis angry audience there was q continuous
langor from u, 900 lusty throats.
Ten thousand excited men rose as one
nan and shook their fists and yelled at him
4 horrible unison. When he shook his
eonine head and began to speak it seemed
s if a thousand blood vessels, over-strained
nth rage, would burst, or that the bowling
lob would plunge upon him headloEe from
be galleries and tear him limb from limb.
-et he stood there with feet planted solidly
part and clenched hand appraised, as if he
'ere statue of bronze.
A Presence That Could Be Felt.
cou1d bavo founbad hin, NTH r,r n.n.;, |