The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-03-13

On his Dill to provide for a continuous /
'slns1ae passage as navigators call it, |
from the Chesapeake bay to the ST. |
Johns river, Florida. According to his |
map and figures, but 81 miles of cuts |
are required, and, with that completed, |
the larger half of our Atlantic coast trade |
could be done by vessels that need not |
go out to sea at all. His bill is warmly |
approved at the war and navy depart
ments All this, however. has nothing |
to do with oratory. The most unfortu- |
nate man in the business is Mr.. Hardy !
of Indiana. He came too late or too |
early, and don't know which. At any |
rate, he is sadly ont of date. He came |
to this congress literally possessed by |
the idea that, while tariff and finance |
were we'll enough as temporary issues. |
the great and lasting issue was honest |
elections, especially in the south, and |
he rather fattered himself that he knew |
all about that. The old heads fastened |
to point out to him that that was not |
now the game. They could not quite |
suppress him.
He first broke out on Mr.. Swanson Of
Virginia and abruptly asked him in the
midst of a speech, "How many votes
did you get?'' There was a fiery sort |
of colloquy which the other members
couldn't understand, Mr.. Hardy stating
that more votes were cast in his dis
trict than in any three of the others
state, and then it turned out that he
had mistaken Mr.. Swanson for some
member from Mississippi, and the re-
suit was ludicrous. He next broke out
at a night session. Mr.. Pearson Of
North Carolina had told how South
Carolina precipitated the states into Sc
cession, Mr.. Talbert of the latter state
had come back with his usual fiery de-
Tense of his state, the two had made it
up and explained, and it was all sup
posed to be over when Mr.. Hardy sud-
denly broke out with furious philippe
against South Carolina, reciting her
misdeeds from Calhoun down. Trouble
was looked for, but to the gratifica
ton of everybody Mr. Talbert simply
laughed at it. Old Republicans tell me
that the real fun of the session will be
when the election committee brings
these contested seats of southern men
into the open house. Mr.. Hardy is load
ed to the muzzle for that occasion and
is still collecting ammunition. He must
go off or explode. 1t is one of the odd
facts that the one point on which the
old heads on both sides are in hearty
accord is that the old southern question
shall not be made prominent and the
bloody shirt be waved no more forever.
Among the men who always say
something worth hearing and yet nearly
always get the laugh Walker of Massa-
chusetts is easily first. He believes in
his pet measure so thoroughly and IS SO
awfully in earnest that he leans over
toward the Democrats and talks as if
he were pleading for the salvation, of
souls, but the more serious he grows the
more do the Democrats refuse TO take
him seriously. In The Record his print
| ed speech is .spattered all over with
Laughter in brackets, and one hear
ing it knows the reason, but it must
puzzle the distant reader to find out.
Joe Cannon's Hopping gesture when
excited is known of all readers and al
ways amuses those who witness it for
the first time, but aside from that he is
a pleasing, genial speaker who digresses
! into humor whenever it will relieve the
tedium without injuring the argument.
Mr. Johnson of Indiana has actually
learned to talk with moderate speed at
| the beginning of a speech, but when
warmed up he goes it with the old race
horse rapidity. The official stenog
raphers say they know by his opening
what he ought to say or intends to say
and go by that, but as to taking him
verbatim there has been but one stenog
rapher in America who could ever do it.
Awfully Serious.
Mr.. Gibson of Tennessee could give
DR.. Talmage points as a contortionist.
| His movements actually lock dangerous,
| and the force of what he is saying is
sadly weakened by the attention his
| truly peculiar gestures excite. The vet
eran General Wheeler of Alabama is an
| other who always strives to be awfully
serious, and is, in fact, terribly in earn
est, yet gets the grand laugh. have
| long thought that the philosophers who
| had so much to say about the harmony
| of mans physical and intellectual ma
lures ought to make study of General
| Wheeler, he is such grotesque contra
| diction to all their theories. I am posi-
| tive that he might live for years in a
foreign country without being once sus-
| pected of having been a great cavalry
| general or of being party leader and
| prominent speaker in congress. If 100
| fairly good judges of human nature were
called to pronounce on his case, not
knowing who he is, my guess is that at
| least so would set him down as drug
| gist's clerk or dealer in cheap clothing,
while the rest would divide opinion as
| to whether he was retired salesman,
| or country schoolteacher, or something
of that nature. Surely no other man in
congress has about him SO little to sug-
gest the dashing swordsman, like le beau
sabreur Murat the ponderous Butcher,
! the handsome Turner Ashby and Jeb
| Stuart, or any of that class whose phys
zeal projections were a large part of
| their capital in leadership.
| Perhaps ought not to close with
| criticism Of q new member which, put
| it mildly as can will read like an ar