The herald., 1893-10-14
A.RRcoRD BREAKER.

1t was the divine "Williams' whC
said. some men are born great, other
achieve greatness and still others hav,
greatness thrust upon them" Th,
case OF the Populist Senator Allen, o
Nebraska, seems to US to differ from any
OF these grades. which, hitherto, havs
been thought to be amply sufficient te
cover all variations of fortune. During
the session of night before last this big
Populist actually stumbled on greatness.
At the time when the country needed
somebody to protect it from the great
undermining assault of Wall street. the
senate walls-the only buttrees that
stands between the people and the one
man power required to be surmounted
by champion of undoubted power and
courage. Allen happened to be around,
and at once availed himself of the op-
portunity to give his lungs thorough
airing. For fourteen hours he stood in
the breach; and during that time
all past records as to windy suspiration
OF forced breath were exceeded.
Yea, they were all blotted out, and
not so much as reminder was left OF
them. As single-handed talker and
sounder of the individual bazoo, Allen
has simply swept the rag from the bush,
gathered in the persimmons with his
larynx and left old Loquacity herself
without leg to stand on, and all for a
patriotic purpose. Time was when q
great crowd gathered around the walls
OF Jericho and raised such camor
that the very walls themselves fell
down. In this case the matter turned
out differently. 1t was as though Elm :.
gle defender on the exposed walls OF
Jericho had raised such din that the
besieging hordes of the Israelites were
laid out by the clamor raised by the
champion OF the Jerochoites. There is
good leather in Allen, and long may he
wave! He enabled the American
party to win the day, or the
night rather, in fine style. 1t
may be said that it is cruel to talk men
to death, and that fourteen hours of
incessant speechifyines in the limited
range OF KEYS allotted to oratory, are
more than human flesh and blood can
bear. Under ordinary circumstances
there is something in this. But then,
all the same, the speaker, Populist
though he be, had the satisfaction of
knowing that, by his rasping and
cacophonous notes. he vas keeping the
monocrats awake, and stimulating that
tendency to insomnia at work which
will happily, rid the country o. some of
its dyspeptic so-called statesmen and
real enemies. When this noble rever-
berator of swelling periods filled the
senate chamber with his eonorous re-
trains he must have felt as did the
Horatii when they held the bridge in
the "brave days of DID,"
All honor to Allen OF Nebraska, of
Populist fame. From all accounts ne
must be cousin German to the late Billy
Allen = Foghorn Allen --of Ohio, of
happy memory. The Nebraska states
man has made name ana fame in dav;
or rather, in fourteen hours. He has
shown his ability to talk the Cleveland
silver contingent to death, and in
thorough style. The man who can ex-
haust Dan Voorhees, and make him cry
peccavi, even though the weakness be
only momentary, has written his name
in large and luminous letters over the
front of the national capitol. However
short lived may be his party. he has left
a record for square longwindedness that
will probably never be surpassed. Not
even the cyclones that blow across the
smooth plains of Nebraska with rip
snorting energy can dare to claim super
iority to the gentleman that halls from
that ambitious young commonwealth.
Allen is worthy even to represent the
cave of the winds.