Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-11-02
HESAVESTHE COUNTRY
The Modest Confessions of a
Campaign Spellbinder.
Is ALWAYS ON THE RIGHT SIDE.

Although! He Is . Veteran of Many Cam
paigns. Mr.. Spellbinder Ever Manages
to Identify Himself With the Winning
Party-The Art of Campaign Oratory.
Now and then during stump Speaking
seasons try to do little something toward
saving the country myself The result
has been that the country has been safe
ever since 1 began to tell audiences of NY
fellow citizens what they ought to do,
writes William L. Visscher in the Chicago
Times Herald. Not that they have always
acted exactly as / desired, but they have
come close enough to it to save the coun-
try, and am Saskatchewan gratified.
Somehow 1 have nearly always been on
the winning side, and that certainly ought
to be evidence Of good Judgment, for it
takes something more than just common
rabbit foot luck to get on the right side
long enough before election to make
speeches for the winning party Still
don't remember to have ever secured any
thing from it, barring little bit of hur-
rying glory and military title Several
governors that l have helped to elect-or
thought l did-have given me appoint
ments on their military staffs but in those
positions / have not found either fame or
emolUment. Occasionally, however,
have had a back seat in a proscenium box
at the theater or other gatherings where the
governor and his staff had been invited to
review whatever happened to be the show
Frequently the show was an artesian bore,
but the company-I refer to the governor
4 - N..fT
uniforms with all the gilt trappings and
the etceteras that followed were often seri-
ously expensive Is another matter, but one
should not always expect fame and emolu-
ment for doing his plain, patriotic duty.
When was a lad, before the civil war, I
used to take the prizes at school for decla-
nation, and this led solicitous friends to
think that would be greater orator I
have since learned that to make a sreech
ON 1.-THE political issues of the day. one
| must know something else besides mono
| rizing addresses from Daniel Webster,
| Henry Clay, Patrick Henry ct al If one
| continues to deliver other mems speeches,
| he is likely to run against Il deadly paral-
| lei" some time, if he is CT sufficient conse-
| qucnce to be parallcled.
Besides, in these days, there are frequent
| ly persons in audiences who will ''speak
| out in meetin" and ask questions that
| Webster, Clay, Henry and others had not
| taken up. l met man like that up in
| Michigan short time ago while instruct
| ing the dear people, from my standpoint,
| ard he would have driven me crazy, or out
| of the stage door, if l had not been fore
warned of him and had not secured a few
| pertinent points in his private history that
l could, and did, throw at him with 81
| lencing effect.
In the early days alluded to 1 was once
started out to make speeches in county
| political campaign by some mistaken gen.
tlemen who were overconident of my &C.
clamatory powers. They wrote speech fer
me, and got 1t by heart so thoroughly
that 1 could almost repeat it backward.
Once, however, in an unguarded moment
l consented to "divide time at a country
schcolhouse meeting with voluble squire
Of that ilk. The squire was versed in
neighborhood politics and Scandals and he
| used mo up to such an extent that 1 rar
| away and went to sea. / have never learn
ed exactly how that election went, more
| for the reason that / never cared to know
than any other. But the county is safe
1t is still on the map, though it has beer
considerably cut up, and several othel
counties have been taken from it. Thi:
shows that the county could stand q great
deal.
Later ON in life, when had learned
more, and yet didn't know half as mucl
rs l thought did at the time of the coun
ty campaign, 1 took to making politica
speeches in Colorado for Mr.. Cleveland
when he ran against Mr.. Blaine. The stat
went for Mr.. Blaine all right by mucl
larger majority than it had been in tn,
habit Of. giving his party, but hope I an
not betraying q confidence in saying tina
Hons. Charles Thomas, Thomas Patter
son, Governor Grant and other distinguish
ed local orators were also stumping tn
state at the same time. Still, this is no
said in self defense. Mr.. Cleveland, though
elected elsewhere-refused to give me al
office, and am glad Of it now for severa
reasons, chief among which is that
might have become u confirmed Office seek
er or possibly a confirmed Democrat.
During the last eight years, until thi
one, I had a habit Of making alleged pc
litical stump speeches in the state Of Wash
ington, and men used to come II and
miles over all sorts of roads to hear NE
principally for the reason, as I have sine