The San Francisco call., 1896-04-05
The Orator Blames Bourbon
Stupidity for Business
Depression.
LOOKS FORWARD WITH HOPE.
General Barnes, One Time College
Cbum, Is the Other Speaker
Of the Evening.

by the portly form of Colonel Stone,
president OF the Union League Club, and
radiating from them in the form of dou-
bic horseshoe sat $50 or more other Union
1eaguers. The dinner was given in honor of
DR.. Depew, and among the $50 were many
well-known San Franciscans who own
allegiance to the Republican party.
Given to the honor of Mr.. Depew
himself, the dinner was still a
political affair, for DR.. Depews
active participation in politics, 10 the
point even of more than once being
named for the Presidential nomination,
made it so. But the further fact,
of which he makes no conceatment,
that ne is, in his present tour of the coun-
try, ohampioning the cause of Nor
ton. the choice of his State for
President, set the seal upon it, even
with the name of the Union League
distinguished Republicans at this
particular dinner the personality of
Chauncey Depew rose over and
above all. 1t was not Morton, but
Depew that brought them together.
When Mr.. Depew smilingly referred in the
course of his address to ''the man that
l am shouting for" there was a general
polite burst of applause. But when
he referred to "Ohio bringing forward, as
she ought, the favorite of all, - there broke
forth lasting storm in the mere anticipa-
tion of the utterance OF McKinley's name.
With what political import there may
have been in this, the banquet of the year,
the deeper interest to those at the table
still lay in the fact that Colonel Stone had
the guest OF the evening at his right hand,
while on his left there sat an old college
chum of this same guest IN the person of
General Barnes.
Chauncey Depew was introduced as the
most distinguished American citizen in
private life. That was thing very proper
TO say. for Mr.. Depew has long been so
recognized.
His fame as an after-dinner speaker was
referred to-and that has stood up as a
monument in the land for many, many
years.
This is his first visit to the Pacific Coast,
and, therefore, it was natural that a deep
interest should attach not so much to the
dinner as the after-dinner speech OF the
guest OF the evening.
He fulfilled every expectation. Clear,
WHY pOlHlCO. 1ull lQcdS, 1dIIG1lnR 10
his hearers. and yet bold enough to trench
with graceful tact, however, upon doubt
full ground, he evoked a frequent and en-
thusiastic testimony that he had caught
his audience.
The delivery was graceful, easy and
free, running with never an instant of
doubt as to the choice of word, and with
no apparent effort at oratorical effect-an
ideal after-dinner address.
He spoke for an hour, and while talking
slipped his first glass of wine of the even
ing.
When he sat down the audience an.
plauded until it became weary. and then
rose to its feet and drank to his long life
and good health.
Then some one cried "Barnes," and the
cry ran round the tables.
LET me make this introduction, said
Mr.. Depew, rising again. "Forty years
ago, about, 1 went to Yale, a callow
youth with yellow hair falling over nv
shoulders-the very greenest man from
Peekskill.
In the class just ahead of me- discoy-
eren the shining light of the university-the
man who was to hold my attention, set for
me an example and show me the way. He
was already recognized orator, and he is
one of the few men that in their college
days stand pre-eminent who fulfill their
promise in after life.
~ refer..to him who is now YOUR fellow
citizen, General Barnes, my college mate
of forty years ago.
Then General Barnes rose up on the
other side OF Colonel Stone and returned
the compliment in his own fashion. He
told the story of his friendship, ana how
he had come to the banquet this night
filled with eager curiosity to see
and hear the man who had been
his college chum, and who, parting
with him at the college gate, had gone
into the world to become the most eminent
and representative of American citizens.
Then he followed over the path that
Depew had taken in bis address, and with
those strong, round poetical figures of his
qulckened the pulses of his hearers until
the applause burst beyond all restraint.
and the audience mentally said, "They
are a pair of them yet
General Barnes address was one to
quicken the spirit of patriotism to the
uttermost, and his peroration brought the
audience to its feet perforce as it ad risen
to Depew in cooler admiration.
The address of Mr.. Depew was as follows:
Mr.. President and fellow members of the
Union League Club: Several of the gentlemen
as they came tonight into the reception-room
told me that they recognized me from my pic
lures. / wondered with the vanity of a man
of my years if l was like the pictures In the
San Francisco papers. They certainly make
me a contemporary of Noah a few days after
he had his photograph taken when released
from the ark.
Nevertheless have had beautiful time In
San Francisco from the newspapers as well as
from every person in the town with whom
have come in contact. 1t affords me infinite
pleasure TO be here tonight as the guest of the
Union League Club. I belong to most every
club in which men of my size can be admitted,
but most of all / value the MEMBER
ship in the Union League Club 1
belong to the Union League Club of
New York, which believe was the parent of
them all. Some clubs stand for the social
element and others for other good things but