The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-06-24
Especial Correspondence

caSO-lnuuence OF w omen III OiipiSs
Mrs. Lakes Exploit.
Especial Correspondence
CHICAGO, June 20-As l write the Dem
ocratic national convention is meeting il
the wigwam. These great political as
semblages are not only spectacular and in
spring, but they contain features whicl
the Observer of human nature, the studen
of society and the analyst of our nationa
life seize upon and discuss with profit ant
interest. While this, Chicago convention
is of course similar in the main to thu
one which we have just left at Minneapolis
it is different in many important particu
lars. The most noteworthy difference is IL
the absence of representatives of the col
ored race in this great gathering. So fal
as l am informed there is not in this con
vention, either as delegate or alternate
one colored man. And yet the signs of the
times are that the day is rapidly coming il
which the colored race will be represented
in the national conventions of both politi
cal parties. At Minneapolis the colored
men were decided feature. There were
fully eighty of them holding seats in the
convention as delegates, and as many more
as alternates. One-eleventh of the conven-
ton was composed of men who had more
or less African blood in their veins. | am
glad to say that, as rule, these colored
representatives acquitted themselves with
credit. Their manners were good, their
temper even better than that of the aver
age white delegate.
When the great national oratorical
contest came on in the convention hall the
colored delegates surprised the vast
crowds in attendance. Black men came
up out of blank obscurity and charmed
the assemblage with their rude but in
spiriting eloquence. One in particular
a very dark man from Tennessee-came
near touching the highest note in the
chord. He had popular theme, the name
of Blaine, and the sympathy of great
majority of the people in the hall But,
even with these advantages, other orators
who had preceded him failed to touch the
popular heart. This colored man, Boyd
by name roused>more genuine enthusiasm
than any man who talked for Blaine, with
the single exception of Edward Wolcott,
who is fast coming to the front as Amer
ica's greatest orator. Boyd was favored,
as most of those of his race who spoke in
this convention were favored, with a
mighty voice.
Oratory in a small hall and oratory in
one Of these mammoth convention audito-
RUINS are widely different. At Exposition
hall, Minneapolis, and in this great wig
wan the man with an average voice would
do well to decline appearance upon the
stage Think Of a hall covering nearly an
acre of ground, containing 1900 or more
people-a stretch of eyes, faces and ears as
far almost as the eye can reach-a great
eXpanse horizontally and vertically to be
filed with the sound waves fl ON one little
throat, and marvel not that some of the
best public speakers in the country fail
while addressing the multitudes who COM
pose these national conventions. The col
ored men who spoke at Minneapolis did
not fail in this regard. Their mighty
voices rang out clear and strong to the
farthest hooks and crannies of the edifice
Is the colored man the coming orator of
America? | sometimes think he is He
has the physical strength the development
Of throat muscles, the sonorous tone, the |
native enthusiasm and the rugged fervor
which only needs softening and culture to
convert it into the magnetism of genuine |
)ratory. l regard it as a noteworthy cir |
2umstance that the second most effective |
speech at minneapolis do not say the |
most artistic or polished-was made by a |
;olored man. The first without question, |
was that sllvern, that Ciceronian effort of |
young Edward Wolcott's Better charac-
OF 1t L cannot give than that made |
20 me by Congressman Boutelle the next
lay. Il have been at all the national con-
Ventions of the Republican party for
jhe last twenty years." said Boutelle,
and IN congress and campaigns and
IN many other occasions have heard some
II the greatest orators and greatest ora
ions OF modern times. Wolcott did what
have up to this time thought to be i'm
possible, and that is to make speech at
east equal in beauty, in eloquence and
magnetism to Bob 1ngersoll's Justly ia
nous speech nominating Blaine in 1876"
The cOlored men at MINNEAPOLIS behaved
themselves well. There was plenty of
drunkenness, too much disorder, a great
surplus of idiotic efforts to show loyalty to
md enthusiasm for ones favorite candi-
late. But the colored men did not offend
n any of these particulars. They were LOYAL
o Blaine or Harrison, as they had been
Elected to be, or as they had decided to be
he wishes of their constituents. but they
I'D not think it necessary, as thousands of
AAANAA NAH, w oO COHuuCU themselves |
hat had savage from the interior of
africa or the South Sea Islands suddenly
ppeared upon the scene of revelry and
rotesquerie he would at once have fled in
ear OF his life at the hands of these so
allied representatives of civilization.
The delirium of hero worship was car
led to a most ridiculous extreme in the
convention, though | think
here are signs in the air that hero wor-
hip is in its decadence in our politics. and
hat noise and furore are losing their eff {
acy as political agents. In these particu-
hrs we have probably reached high tide in
his country, both in conventions and in {
lmpaigns, and while in future we shall
robably be less spectacular than we have
cen in the past, there is a chance that we !
nall be more rational. Here at Chicago '
here is less of the grotesque methods of {
zpressing earnestness than there was at
though / am convinced the '
cling is fully as deep. In the Repub-
can convention men of high standing in |
leir communities, men of years and dig t
ty, made boys and almost mountebanks
themselves by carrying Blaine plumes 9
Harrison banners through the streets !
nd hotel corridors, singing at the top of {
leir voices, end occasionally stopping to c
limb upon one another's shoulders in SUI {
-eme effort to outdc all others
The hest sion I saxU in this