San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-06-30
HON. CHAMP CLARK.

equaled record of 80 years in the senate
of the United States-or as he pompous-
ly expressed it six Roman lustrums'-
won't be a marker to him.
''Luck In 1874 he wanted to be gov
ernor of Missouri and came very near
having his hearts desire gratifed in
that regard He lacked only one-sixth
of one vote Of securing the nomination,
which was equivalent to an election
Perhaps that is the closest shave on rec
ord for great Office. The history of the
governorship of Missouri is the queerest
and most inexplicable chapter in the
annals of American politics. 1t is worthy
of the profoundest consideration Of the
whole school of philosophers. In every
other state in the Union the governor
ship is used as stepping stone to high
err preferment-to the United States SEN
ate, the cabinet, the federal supreme
bench, foreign ministerships, embassa-
dorships, the vice presidency and even
the presidency itself. But in Missouri,
by immemorial custom, the governor
ship is considered as the top round in
the ladder, the jumping off place, the
ultima Thule. Missouri has had govern
ors great and small, governors good,
bad and Indifferent, but their fate is the
same Over the doors of the stately GU
bernatorial mansion at Jefferson City
there ought to be inscribed this senti-
ment from Dante's 'Inferno:' All hope
abandon, We who enter here"
"Only one governor has really sur
vived it, and that was Trusten Polk in
antebellum times. He would not run
for governor until all the party leaders
had agreed to make him United States
senator, which they did He pulled the
party through, and they kept their
promise to him. He served as governor
only 81 days. The history Of the gov
ernorship Of Missouri has always re-
minded me of that tale in the book of
Job where the man of Uz and his
friends were feasting and messenger
broke in upon their merriment with the
grewsome intelligence that there had
been a great storm in which all the sons
of Job and their retainers had been
killed and he alone was left to tell the
tale.
"At any rate, Cockren wanted to be
governor and was baked in his ambi-
ton by only q fraction Of a vote, but a
miss is as good as mile, so we are in
formed by some ancient proverb maker.
He ought to thank God every night for
that lucky escape. Had he succeeded he
would in all probability have had before
him two years in the governors Office
and after that oblivion. His defeat was
q blessing in disguise and laid the foun-
dations of his fortunes 1t is passing
strange what small and seemingly triv-
ial things determine the destinies of
men and even of nations
by the accident of being the last
man to embark ON steamboat after the
affair at Belmont, General Grant was
started on the road to Appomattox and
the White House. By faying Sir Robert
Peel on the night when he announced
his free trade policy in the house of
commons, Benjamin Disraeli took the
first step in that marvellous career which
dazzled the world and which ended in
the premiership and an earldom- Be
cause his uncomfortable horse ran away
and carried him straight into the enc
mics lines in some obscure battle in
south Asia, enabling him to capture
the commanding general, Arthur We'll
lesley subsequently added Waterloo to
the long line of English victories, be-
came the Iron Duke and sleeps among
the storied great in Westminster abbey.
By reason of the fact that his pistol
failed to fire ON the occasions when he
attempted suicide young Robert Give
concluded that God intended him for
great things and lived to create the Brit.
ish empire in India, to become peer