The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-09
CHAUNcEY nEpE,z.

OF all men in p bic life in the United
States, Chauncy NJ Depew of New
York is perhaps most widely known
outside Of our own country. He is re-
garded almost as of gentle breeding,
widely if not deeply read; if not con-
sldered as profoundly learned man,
at least one of general information
and possessed Of a remarkable intel
hgence, quick intuition, brilliant
wit, and if not an orator of the first
power. at least blessed with a gift of
speech that has made him famous as
an after-dinner speechmalzer, not only
in our own country, but abroad as
well.
Wherever he goes his fame precedes
him and makes him sought for to
grace all manner of occasions; and
the great after-dinner speechmaker,
apparently enjoying his notoriey, al
ways responds, until he comes peril
ously near dropping into the position
OF sort of hack orator He
talks by rote, he certainly talks
very often without much thought; he
is fast degenerating into a sort of
talking machine, until all that has to
be done seemingly is to turn the men
tai crank, and the talk comes. 1t
may be very commonplace talk,
sale humor, and insufferable wit; it
may have no purpose in it whatever;
but it is talk. nevertheless. and as
Chauncy NJ. Depew utters it, it
passes current with many as a sort
Of oratory
These reflections respecting Mr.. De-
pew were suggested by the report in
our yesterdays dispatches Of the
Michigan Republican convention held
at Detroit. As the convention was
assembling in the auditorium the
delegates were apprised of the fact
that Mr.. Depew was in the city. How
he came to be there, accidentally or
through design, we are not informed;
but at any rate he was there, and one
may be pardoned for believing that
he was there to gauge his prospects
for becoming the tail of the Republi-
can presidential kite.
Of all this. of course, we make no
complaint, for all this an aspirant for
the vice-presidency has a right to do.
Nor was it of this that we purposed
speaking. We only wanted to call
attention to Mr. Depew's speech at
the Detroit convention, for of course
he did speak. No sooner was it learned
that Mr.. Depew was in the city than
a committee from the convention was
appointed to wait upon him and invite
him to speak, which, as before said,
he did. And it is to that speech that
we desire to call attention, not to the
matter Of it. but the manner of it,
and lament the coarseness of it.
The dispatches report Mr.. De-
pew as having said: THE con-
duct of affairs by the De-
mocracy has been characterized by in
competency, idiocy, pig-headedness
and inability to run machinery. There
is, however, a period in the history of
every nation when the fool-killer
stops"
This language, while it might be
excusable in Ben Tillman and a hun
dred other fifth-rate blatherskite poll
ticians in the country. but we submit
that it was scarcely to be expected
from one who poses as a refined gen
tleman, polished scholar, a brilliant
orator" a leader in society, railroad
magnate, one Of the first of living
Americans, and to foreign countries
the representative of all that is re-
fined and elegant in Americas so
ciety. We must needs think that
Mr.. Chauncy NJ. Depew let himself
down when he resorted to such vulgar
slang phrases in order that he might
be severe. 1t may be a difficult thing
for some men to be severe and at the
same time meet the requirements of
parliamentary custom. but we had
hoped that our American publicists.
especially one of our chief publicists,
could have been severe and not
positively vulgar.