The San Francisco call., 1896-10-28

AOO dNOLAI1Ds SAIJ OCts %fs--h ACH
the train bearing Thomas B. Reed of
Maine entered California through its
southern gate this morning the snow was
falling IN his Eastern home and the cold
breezes from Lakes Erie and Michigan
were chilling the marrow of the residents
of Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. 1t
was raining on the sand and sagebrush
that skirt the orange land, but as the day
wore on the dirty clouds became white
and rolled toward the horizon, leaving
bare a sky of purest, deepest blue, such as
that against which the white marble
temples of old Greece stood up, or such as
shine in Egypt land before the stars come
out at even to make the somber showows
of the pyramids more sacred and more
mysterious.
Mr.. Reed stood upon the rear platform
of his car and glanced upon the sandy
pain cf cactus and sagebrush, relieved
here and there by clumps of the yucca
palm and the dried stalks of the Spanish
bayonet. Beyond him arose the brown,
bare mountains. the iarthest deepening
into smoky hue, their tops tipped with
the first SHOWS OF the year. He took full
breath of the cool, light air and smiled.
1t did him good. Mr.. Reed is a large con-
sumner of California air. tor he is a big
man-over six feet tall and $50 pounds in
weight, with shoulders, chest and lungs
10 match-and be muttered, What a
difference what difference Then he
took another full breath and remarked
that the air of California always made him
feel so much better.
The statesman from Maine is a large
man, mentally, physically and morally.
He is one of those rare men who loom up
against you with the suddenness and the
terrifying ponderosity of an Atlantic
liner in fog. You lose your presence of
mind, and no matter how captious You
may be, you first skip out of the way and
you protest as well as you can in the big
wake he leaves behind him in the water.
When you see him and hear him speak
you do not wonder that the crushed
called him "Czar' Reed. Yet all that he
did to deserve that title was TO rule that
q Democrat present in the flesh in the
House of Congress and visible to the eye
of the Speaker, with all his sins and i'm
perfecsions, was also present politically
and as such should be marked on the roll
call.
Mr.. Reed does not wear whiskers. If he
did he would look too much ike a Popu-
list. He has full, round, big fsce with
fat cheeks, q double chin and thick eye-
lids. 1t is the frame and countenance of
jolly Friar Tuck. and, TO tell the truth,
the big man from Maine is as jolly as any
friar dare be, even in the olden times
when a laugh and joke were not con-
sidered sins.
There was nothing in the landscape par
tHcularly to enIiyen man until in the full
glory OF the warm sunshine the orange
groves ard vineyards on the outskirts of
Los Angeles were reached. The orange
groves were the subject of Mr.. Reeds at
tention, with here and there a field of
green alfalfa so refreshing to the eye
Here and there in front of a humble farm
house was something red as flame waving
in the breeze, and as the eye got properly
focused upon it it resolved itself into the
stars and stripes, waving to do honor to
the visiting statesman from Maine.
Judge Enoch Knight, sound-money
Democrat, formerly of Maine and now OF
Los Angeles, was waiting at the southern
oates of the State with the committee on
TecepLlO0s ne ID dH Otu liioho VI MI
Reed and was cordially greeted by the big
man. Mr.. Knight is going TO vote for Nc
Kinley. and he asked Mr.. Reed what he
thought of the prospects from his own OBJ
seryations. Mr. Reed said that he had
the utmost confidence in the election of
Major Mckinley. The free-silver men in
the Republican party would be more than
offset by the sound-money men in the
ranks OF the Democratic uarty.
While he admitted that there were
great many unknown qualities in the con-
test, he could not find room for any doubt
as TO the general result. from the fact
that the business men and all other con-
servative citizens had taken hold OF the
matter in earnest, realizing fully the i'm
portance of the coming election, and that
class of citizens had never yet failed to
carry ar election, he said. The election OF
Garfield was due to the efforts OF the
business men of the country. and they ala
not make any mistake when they sup
ported him. The sober second thought OF
|the country had been awakened to the
emergency and was asserting ITSELF He
Nad found that almost all the business
hen of the country were for sound money.
The parade to greet Mr.. Reed was one |
of the longest ever Eeld in Los Angeles.
1t seems as though the whole country had
poured into Los Angeles city to see him.
The sidewalks and streets were impass-
able and the orange colored ribbon with !