Evening journal., 1896-11-04
THE PRESIDENT AS A PHRASE.
MAKER

It was remarked in these columns a
few days ago that Mr.. Bryan had en-
ployed but few really trenchant phrases
during his long campaign tour Only
his reference to the Grown of thOrns
and cross Of gold" remains firmly fixed
in the public memory, and even this, it
is said, was borrowed. There are, of
course. various other things he has
said that are bright and to the point,
but they have been lost in the great
mass of verbiage he has inflicted upon
the country. His speeches certainly do
not "scintillate" with wit or sense.
Each is a clumsy paraphrase of almost
every other And what is true of Mr.
Bryan is true, in less degree, of Major
Mckinley. The Republican candidate
has a forcible way of putting his argu-
ments. His sentences are better con-
structed than Mr.. Bryan's or else his
official stenographer is a more judi
cious editor than the shorthand re-
porter who accompanied the Popocratic
candidate on his travels. But neither
Mckinley nor Bryan, despite their in-
finite opportunities during the Fall and
Summer has made any very important
contribution to our stock of familiar
quotations."
President Cleveland, on the other
/ hand rarely delivers a public address
without giving utterance to some
/ phrase calculated to linger in the popu-
| lar memory. Much that he says is
| commonplace and dull. He has the fac
ulty of multiplying words to no evident
purpose and occasionally transgresses
one of the first rules of rhetoric by
splitting the infinitive" But i'm spit,
of all his faults he has given us a grea
number of sharp and useful phrases
Perhaps he plans them deliberately il
advance; perhaps they spontaneous
| But at any rate, they are more plenti
ful in his speeches and letters, on tn,
whole, than they are in those of al
most any other public man of the day
Mr.. Cleveland is q ponderous sort o
person, and we might not look for sucl
a sprinkling of memorable sayings il
his utterances, but the fact remain
that they are there, and that many o
them have passed into our common
speech.
'Innocuous desuetude," for instance
is used without thought of its origin. l
fits our conversational necessities on
good many occasions, Just as 1T is
condition that cOnfronts us-not
/ theory" does. Party honesty is part
, expediency," Public office is publ
trust" and other similar phrases hav
become political classics, and will re
main in use long after Mr. Clevelan
is dead. The president illustrated agai
the facility with which he coins thes
clean-cut phrases in his address a
Princeton on Thursday. "The nobl
} brotherhood of higher education, 9Th
) cankering rust of national dis
honesty" a breach impossible to re
pair" Princeton University, pane
piled in her patriotic traditions an
= glorious memories this treacherou
b and fatal wound" "an exclusivenes
! savoring Of assumed superiority.
} sympathetic in every untOward situa
ton" "the bright heights of our ns
tional destiny"-are not these or som
Of them felicitous above the average
, Mr.. Cleveland is not a great rhetoriciai
, but he has a way of putting a goo
deal in a few words when he sets on
\ TO do So And it is no detraction froi
his merits to say that his aphorisms al
only occasional. Even Homer nod
and we must not expect too much frOl
a busy public man, especially hare
I working president of the United State
The critical analyst may object tn;
Mr.. Cleveland's style is too flower
and that he gets most of his effects
a the rather obvious method of alliteri
d ton. But no matter what the proces
$ the fact is the same. He says thinl
y that are remembered and that is mo
j. than some of his contemporaries ca
do.-Providence Journal.