The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1896-10-23
he Waved His Hands, Tore His Hair,
and Rauted Like a Maniac
on Silver,
TALKED THROUGH HIS HAT
Made the People Relieve They Were
Mtnc owners and That Free silver
Was the Remedy Tor An Evils,
Public and Private,

he presents the appearance ~ an Idea
anarchist, His voice CRATES upon tn
ears OF his hearers and rises and fall
with distressing irrrgularity, Ha,
Rarkley been provided with tusks las
night. the 800 people assembled at Fish
er's 10 hear him would have cnjoyr,
seeing the best DR. Jelyll who ever at
tempted the part when standing. ST
lent, Barkley is not of repulsive appear
ance, but when he begins 10 talk h,
frightfully distorts his features and
with the hideousness ot his poses, give,
his hearers the impression that they
have the delirium tremens, What /.
stated above is not gold bug ca,
narJi," but a fact II is very difficult tc
listen TO the man, His delivery 1.
simply distressing.
Probably six hundred people. twenty
Ave of whom were ladies, We're present,
For the most part the audience was
composed or the most radical OF free
silver ugitators, and Barkley's tone
suited them very we'll, Early In his
speech he told a story which was told
originally on Bryan. He says he asked
an aSsemblage the difference between
Bill Mckinley and Buffalo Bill and a
little tot answered that the latter had
a show II was some time before the
audience "tumbled," but when Il did
there was all kinds OF applause, The
story Is IA old as the hills and demon
strRted that even an eX-minister can
tell campaign stories.
Barkley said he got his political Views
from Mckinley. who. he declared, be-
lleved in a double standard He paid
his compliments to Senator Mitchell In
the following glowing language:
III Mitchell said that he had SOM
ersaulted from Silver Creek broken his
political neck and had gone back To the
gold ranks because he wanted to return
to congress. he would have saved all
this wind" meaning the venerable
senator's speechesl,
In the midst OF an eloquent outburst
Barkley referred to the 'patriotlclsm
OF the Populists. This caused a smile,
but. as Barkley evidently knew no bet
ter and the audience seemed to sym
pathize with him. the smile soon faded
away
Barkley Is a strange man, but his
reasoning" is far stranger. He said
"all sound money men will have to
vote for Palmer and Buckner. because
Senator Mitchell says the Republican
platform declares for blmetallsm See
what your party has done for you,
boys?" He characterized the RepublI-
can party as a new" party because
il once declared for both metals and
now for one until such time as other
leading nations will agree to recognize
silver-a condition which, by the way
might not necessarily raise the price
OF the white metal II Is one thing.
Barkley said, TO look Ikea Republican,
and another to be one. To illustrate
his point he told a story OF a boy
who had a pet lamb which he loved
dearly. The lamb died one day. and
the boys heart was broken. But he
had a hog, and his father told him that,
II he skinned the lamb and put Its
hide on the hog, his grief might be
assuaged This the boy did, and the
hog learned nearly all the tricks per-
formed by the dead lamb but the boy
couldn't possibly make the hog grunt
as did his dead pet. While playing with
the hog-lamb one day the animal es-
pied a swamp covered with green slime
and, true to it's natural instincts, plung-
ed into the filth. And it is the same
way. Baryley declared, with the sound
money Democrats-they have the
sheepskin on, but the grunt OF the
swine and plunge into the slimy swamp
by placing a candidate in the field to
defeat the boy orator Of the Plattitude.
When Mckinley is elected-or, to use
Barkley's expression, II Mckinley Is
elected-these hogs-the Republican
hogs, too-will root up the country and
ruin us all.
Then he went on to say that the Re
publican platform contained no remedy
for the Ills Of the country. THE Re-
publicans say we will have a panic II
we have more money! Just Think
But he did not tell the people they
would have to work just as hard for a
dollar under free coinage as now, and
that that dollar would only buy one
half Of what It will now purchase. But
he probably forgot that. Neither did he
tell his hearers that, instead Of having
more money under free silver, the abb
sence Of gold from the circulation
would decrease the volume Of money
nearly one half and leave even that
portion remaining in circulation depre-
ciated fully one-half in its purchasing
power.
Now" he continued, "f national BIZ
metallism will not make thing good,
how will international bimetallism
make the same thing gOod| The au-
dience seemed to think this silly ques-
tlon a good point and set up great
yell. But when he asked the fisher
men if they didn't think 1t an outrage
that they could not take their silver
bullion to the mints and have it coined
into dollars, the sapient suggestion Of
the ex-reverend gentleman simply
brought down the house, the large num-
ber Of silver bullion owners in the audi
ence being loudest in their applause.
He said he liked the banker and was
,oncelted enough to think the banker
liked him; but he wanted to keep the
banker out Of the government and the
government out Of the banker" Har-
,ey Scott, editor Of the oregonian,