The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-15
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
John A. Wise Tells n Story and Applies It
to the Young Reformer.

John A. Wise Tells - Story ana Applies ~
to the Young Reformsr.
From the Washington Post.
They were telling a story about the
what John A. Wise of Virginia said to
Theodore Roosevelt.
Roosevelt" said Wise. after they had
mutually shaken hands and expressed
themselves as delighted to meet-they had
known each other for a long time
Roosevelt, in your crusading and speech
making and the interviews you publish
you remind me nightly of a story
There was a man fell dead in Union
Square one day and carted to the morgue.
No one knew him. although later a party
took a look at him and said that, while
by no means sure he thought the deceased
was a man named Jones from Troy.
THE officials wired the Jones family at
Troy. informing the Joneses that they
had the dead body of the head of the
family and asking what was to be done.
The Jones family wired back:
'Embalm father and put him in rose
wood casket. We will be down in New
York Tomorrow
Next day two of Jones sons showed up
at the undertaker's who had been called
by the New York officials to take charge
of the corpse and carried out the wired
istructions of the Jones family. The UNI
dertaker was all smiles and subdued ur-
banity and received the two sons as
pleasantly as he might, and still be pro-
fessionally mournful. The son shook
hands with the man of caskets, weeping
silently the while.
would you like to take look at the
body before 1 box IL up to go back to
Troy?" asked the undertaken
Yes, the Jones sons thought they
would AS the undertaken removed the
bandages from the face of the departed.
so as to permit the grief-bitten children
view, the lower jaw dropped gruesomely
and displayed a set of false teeth. At
this the younger son started convulsively
and pointing at the teeth. said:
Brother, look here. That's not father
at all; it's somebody else. Father never
had false teeth
1T certainly is not father, said the
elder of the two, and, of course, as 1t
isn't father, father must be alive and well.
This is joyful hour. brother. Let us re-
pair to a saloon and become exceeding
drunk in its honor
But, hold on shouted the undertaken
as the two Jonses. no longer bereaved,
were about starting away to act on the
bibulous suggestion of the elder; hold on:
who's going to pay me for all this good
embalming fluid and this excellent rose
wood casket?
Surely not we,' responded the Jonses
fer on him a coffin. But this is not father.
We owe you nothing. Whatever you have
done for the poor stranger who lies there
you must look to him to square. The
Jones' household will not meet any bills
of his contracting
Then the two Jonses went away and
were at once presently embarked on a
spree.
After they had left the undertaken
turned to deceased and addressed him.
And Ii is here" said Wise to Roosevelt,
where you come in"
" Now see what you've DONE said the
undertaken Indignantly, as he shook re-
proachful forefinger at the silent clay be-
fore him. Now see what you've up and
done As the game stood you were about
to have a swell funeral, with a grave in
high-priced lot. You were to have a
rosewood casket as your last envelope.
and your last resting place would have
been adorned with monument that
would have been out of sight. And you
up and spoil II ALL Now, you're going to
get a pine box istead of rosewood, and be
carted away to grave in the potter's
field, there to sleep unwept, unhonored
and unsung. And why ask? What has
worked this serious and dismal change in
your fortunes? It's simply because you
couldn't keep your d. mouth shut
And" concluded Wise, as he laid a
sympatnetic hand on the young reformer' s
shoulder, ''as i look at you, Roosevelt.
and think how, one short year ago, YOU
were the pet of party. you who are to-day
an orphan of politics, a fashion Of politi-
cal founding whom everybody is trying
to leave on everybody else's doorstep, and
remember how your fortunes were
changed, I cannot but think of that in
dividual who dropped dead in Union
Square. You, like the corpse, might have
hAan hIIr lad In tla
the republican party. Now you, like he.
will I'LL a grave in some potter's field of
politics, and all because you, like he.
couldn't keep your mouth shut"