Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-10-30
The Man From Maine.

lean citizenship he may add anything
to the general intelligence OF the peo-
PIE OF the Far West on political mat
tiers. 1t is far more so to be compelled
to show up the defects of a man who,
from the honors that have been &C.
corded him, we have cause to believe
should be an educated gentleman,
even il he may not possess the rudi-
mental qualifications Of statesman
ship.
1t is fair to state that large major
ity of the vast audience who thronged
Olympia Theater, last night, to hear
Congressman BOutelle, OF Maine, were
present to do honor to the Office he
held, as well as to accord all due re
spect to the man, and it was unfortun-
ate for the gentleman that when a
slight applause was heard in a remote
part of the building when he men,
toned the name of Bryan, that he was
thrown completely off his guard and
attempted to rebuke those who en-
gagged in it. This led to repetition
OF the oilense, whereupon the speaker
quite lost his temper and with flashing
eye and blazing face proceeded in the
billingsgate Of the street fakir to
abuse a portion of the people, who had
as much right to make a decorous ex-
preston Of opinion as he had, people
who were as much guests OF the party
which entertained him as he was.
This was the more unfortunate for the
gentleman, inasmuch as in bis excite
ment he forgot what little grammar
he ever knew, and his verbs and adj
verbs, nouns and pronouns, became
mixed in interminable confusion
Only think OF a Congressman using
the word "git" for "get," and "pro-
gress" (verb) for "progress" (noun),
and closing his TRADE with " Come out
from your dark place in the corner. l
want to see the color OF your eye. 1
did not come all the way from Maine
to be scared by owls in the woods.
You will know more before l get
through with you than you do now,'
and other undignified remarks, not to
say anything of such an insolent ex-
hibition of temper, in the presence OF
an audience largely composed of ladies.
Mr.. Boutelle's arguments were,
in the main, an insult to popular in
telligence, they were SO easily deprived
OF the conclusions attempted, by the
simplest of analysis. For instance,
he boosted OF the good times under the
Mckinley bill during which good
times the Homestead horrors culmi-
mated and the thousand strikes and
seven hundred lock outs occurred, and
compared the rdlue of certain sta
pie products with their decreased ralue
now, but quoted no figures to show the
increase of production, that came as
a God-send to enable people to keep
body and soul together.
He boosted of the daily addition oil
two and half millions to the wealth
OF the nation between 81 and '92, one.
third of the whole increment Of the
entire world. He gave no intimation
however, of what had become OF the
money, but his audience were not slow
in determining that point with the
1925, 100000 wallet of Rockefeller in
view, and the $l00,000,0O0 purse o.
the Vanderbilts swinging in the air
and the fifty to one hundred mil
lion "eel-skins" bobbing up to sup
ply corruption funds for sitting the
voices OF the hundreds OF thousands O
laboring men whose families are thinly
clad and suffering for food. Hi:
auditors could see the utter heart
lessness of a boast Of wealth for the
few and poverty for the many.
Then again he said that Bryan was
in favor of policy that would enable
the man who owed" honest money" tc
buy silver bullion at SO cents, take il
to the mint, have it coined, and pay
his sound money obligations in silver
dollars. And he said this without any
apparent blush of shame. Can il be
possible that the statesman from
Maine could have had such a con.
temptible opinion OF "back-woods'
audience as to expect that such silly
proposition would deceive anybody!
Did he not seem to know that the
weakest intellect of his own constitu.
ents of Skedunk may possibly drop
on the proposition that to be enabled
to purchase bullion at SO cents and by
the new process OF free coinage convert
it into 10O-cent legal tender dollars,
would be bonanza to him. If any
Maine man is so stone blind through
Hon. Boutelle's representations, as to
sell his SO cent metal, under half its
value, his body would doubtless find a
resting place in Passamaquoddy Bay
soon as the deception was discovered.
But the most disingenuous and dar-
ing essay of the "Gentleman from
Maine" was his denial that silver had
been demonetized by the act of 1873.
He told of the object OF the law, how
it was a compilation or codification OF
laws passed at various times by Con-
gress, and that the act was simply to
place in compact and convenient form
existing laws, and that it recognized
silver by coming a new trade dollar OF
42O Che said 4S0) grains fineness, but