The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-31
THE APOTHEOSIS OF \ FOOL

Among those who have been showing
their teeth and, simultaneously, their
ears III this amazing, this phenomenal
campaign, the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt
Is easily in the front rank of exhibitors.
We know him of old as Il person in whom
the craving for notoricty is vcrc slightly
if at I'LL tempered Ivy prudence aud self
restraint. lie has taken many prizes.
here in Washington, to say nothing of
other places, as the very Prince of Bump
tiousness and the High Priest of Brutal
Arrogance. faithfully, he is Il we'll
hammered, wcll-cducated, quicl-wittcd
gentleman. sporadicnlly he is pcrhaps
the most thoroughly Beotian hoodlum
who has ever been struggled into polite
society.
But Roosevelt was never so much his
sporadic self as on Tuesday when, adj
dressing il sound money audience ut the
Wool Exchange New York, he said: In
MIR Bryan and his adhercnts have ap-
pealed TO the basest set in the land, the
farmers. If they are not So then why do
they believe that he can make 81 out of
% cents. He tells them it can he brought
about by Il free royalty-the right to burn
and plumber without interference of the
police. But this man of Bryan's, Gov.
Altgcld, of Illinois, is far more dangerous
another civil war;
Consider for one moment the mingled
brutality and stupidity of this utterance
First, Roosevelt dencunces the farmers
rs the basest set in the land and then
he explains that he calls them base be-
cause they believe II foolish thing He
doesn't know that they believe it. He
simply takes up one of the silliest and
most offensive assumptions INDUCED in
by the ri 4 raft of sound money spoutcrs
fixes it without rhyme or reason upon the
farmers, and then brands them with in.
fanny rs the result of his fantastic syllo
gism. We pass by his crazy denuncia-
tions of Bryan rs the prophet of plumber
ami coniiagratlon. That is il harmless
outburst of hlsteria. But what are we
to think of Il man who pretends that he
respects himself and who demands re-
spect from others, and who yet speaks of
in entire class rs the basest in the
land because, as he alleges, though
without proof, they believe in the mpos-
Sible and the ridiculous> Even if the far
neis actually held the conviction he as
cribes to them, that would not make them
Infamous. Crcdulity is not II crime. IL
norance is not penal. But Mr. Roosevelt
does not know that the farmers are creGu-
lous and ignorant, rs he sees fit TO charge
lie merely says they are and then holds
them up To eXecration They are the
men who toll, who produce the articles
which are the corner stone OF orr civil
Zntion and the factors of our pros pcrity.
They are the men who, by their patient
industry, their simple courage, their quiet
strength, their transformations devotion
and endurance, create the harvests upon
which the usurcrs. the spectators, and
the drones grow rich while they strain at
the stone OF Sisyphus. But for them,
our cities would crumble into ruins. But
for them weeds would grow in the chat
tering market places where money
changers now flourish on their sweat.
They are the yeomanry, the back bone and
the sincw of the land. They are the he
rocs who come to the rescue of the Union
when Wall street sncercd and hid They
are the men whom this brawling popiniay
calls base Washington Post