Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1894-01-05
The Prayer to Cleveland
which Has Made the Political hit of
the Times.

]
the Times.
Calls for the prayer "to Almighty Cleve-
land" have been so numerous and persistent
that it is here given in answer to these re-
quests. 1t appears TO have first seen the
! light at Democratic county convention
held in Gunnison, Col, last October, and
is unmstakabya "drive' from the disgrun-
tied free silver wing of the party in that
section. At the close of this convention,
according to a local paper, Edwin Croke,
mayor of Erwin, arose and all the delegates
reverently bowed their heads while lie Of
! fered prayer to almighty Cleveland His
voice was filed with emotion, and the re-
porter found it difficult to get every word.
! But here it is:
The Prayer.
O almighty and all-powerful Cleveland,
who art in Washington, when not fishing
thou who art the father of Ruth and Ruth s
sister, and the godfather of the Democratic
! party its father wouldn't own it if he
were here), we hail thy name as the great
! political prophet of the century We bow
down before thee in humble political ODE
! dience. When thou sayest go, we 60;
when thou sayest come, we come. We
have no desire but to serve thee. If thou
sayest black is white, we will swear to it
! and lick the everlastin' stufiin' out of the
man who disputes it. When thou takest
snuff, we will sneeze; when thou sayest free
| silver, we will echo thy words; when thou
sayest gold, then gold it is. We are Dem
| OCrats after the improved modern type.
! Our business is to vote the ticket and vote
! 'er straight. What is it to us whether we
| have free silver or not? We are but dogs
| that eat of the crumbs that fall from our
masters tables. When the crumbs fall we
wag our tails: when they fall fast, we wag
faster; when they don't fall, we stand and
wait until they do. This is Democra-
| cy. This is the kind of Democracy which
! elected thee, our great and almighty Cleve-
! land
O most adored master, we love thee
! for what thou has done for Us. We love
thee because thou art Cleveland. We hum
| bly, surrender ourselves to thee. Do with
us as thou wilt. Though wheat is but 40
| cents a bushel, we love thee; though cotton
! is low, we love thee: though business is
| dull. we love thee; though thousands, mil
| lions, are ont of employment. We love
| thee; though our children are clothed In
rags. We love thee; though our wife, the
| dear companion Of our bosom, is scantily
dressed. and looks so shabby she can't 90
to church, we love thee; though we are
sinking deeper In debt, and poverty is
| knocking at the door, and hunger ; star
| ing us i'm the face. we love thee still. This
shows our great faith and love for thee.
| Our wives and children We aye willing to
sacrifice, even a the lIindoo mother sacri-
ices her offspring, 10y throwing it under
the crushing wheels OF the juggeruaut.
O mighty Clryel md. word, cannot eN-
press our love for thee. We love our party,
too. What care We about the many prom
iscs il made? We know it promised free
silver, and We know it won't give il TO Us,
but We will stick to the party. We know
we said if ii did not do the things ii prom
isei to do we would leave il, but We lied
when We -aid il. We thought then that
We had some manhood about us, but We
amt. We have no Independence Thou,
. mighty Cleveland, hast all the manhood
and Independence in the party. We are
fools, liars. lick >pittleS, mudsills. We
have no business to want anything or TO say
anything. Last year, We favored free sill
Yer, and now We have to oppose it, We
favored it then because We thought it was
right We oppose it now, most adored
master because thou tcllc>t Us to. Amt
We a honey OF the first water? Did ever
dog serve his master more faithfully? Did
/ WV N'@ 80 'N'' i'' '' '"'-"'S
master, We are ever ready To serve thee and
party. All the pay We ask is to be patted
on the back by some local politician and
called a good Democrat. We amt got
any sense. We don't want any, only
enough to vote the ticket. 1t don't take
any sense to be a good Democrat. What
a joyful thought. We don't have to
think, We don't have to worry. Our
work is all mapped out for us. All that
is expected is to do what we are told to do.
We thank thee, O Cleveland, that we are
Democrats. We thank thee for the panic
We thank thee for the hunger and idle men
and women in the land. We thank thee
for low prices. We thank thee for the
banks that have busted and the thousands
of business failures since thou hast come
into power. We thank thee for the hard