The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-03-13
HOT ROAST FOR CLEVELAND.
Continued from First Page.)

! Cleveland is strong man exactly as
| the hog is a strong animal. Stubborn,
without courage, persevering without
judgment and greedy without gratitude,
these unpleasant characteristics Cleve-
| land and the hog have in common.
| There are several ether points Of re-
semblance; but I have no desire to be
| hard on the hog. To his eternal credit
be it said that the porker is content
with his penfold. and has never aspired
| to defile the white house with his filth,
to discredt the presidency with his folly.
l have said that Cleveland is in some re-
spects like Napoleon. There is a mutual
rights. Both manifest & contempt for
the higher culture, an abnormal egct-
tism, base ingratitude, a foolish belief
in fatalism; but while Napoleon rose to
| eminence by the dynamics Of a com
manding intellect, Cleveland was cast up
tious; but he had the advantage of Ma
poleon in that while genius. he was
also d gentleman. Domineering he WAS;
but 10 him the glory Of his country was
! dearer than life or crown. Instead Of
making the Imperial City a satrapy OF
Armenia because Aeneas came from an
cient Ilium; instead of sending ccngeni-
tai hGotliclSs abroad as ambassadors to
belittle the llatins: instead Of tying his
country's hands by cowardly and In
equitable treaty with an ancient enemy,
| he made the world to rock beneath the
martial tread of Rome, the forum the
court of arbitration for the earth, and
princes to bow the knee wherever his
eagles few Even American sovereigns
might shift the cares OF government 10
the shoulders OF one whose charity was
broader han his ambition, whose mailed
hand was the symbol eternal justice,
hose intellect WAS his country's MODEST
| jewel---might entrlst their political for
tunes TO a man who was Tacitus in the
| studio, all Aristrides in the purple, an
Apollo in the, forum and q Mars in the
field Caesar and Napoleon treated the
peoples representatives with almost
Cleveiandesque discourtesy; but neither
sent a substituted hired assassin--to
the front to DO his fighting while he
played pinochle for the beer and wal
lowed around fourth class bawdy houses
with disreputable widows.
Of all the strong men Cleveland most
resembles Cromwell; still he is to the
Lord Protector what the shadow Of a
shade is to the substance. The minds OF
the two men conform in many respects
TO the same mould; but while Cromwell
is courageous for his God, Cleveland is
only obstinate in behalf Of his own ego
! tism. The intellect of each is vigorous
and tenacious, but narrow; and you may
without finding two Others elevated to
high Office by civilized nations who are
SO grossly ignorant. CromWell's book
learning was confined to the Bible;
Cleveland's has an even narrower boun~
Diary, The latter has absolutely no con
coption off English literature. The only
! Horace he ever heard OF is surnamed
Boies, while Troy suggests to his mind
only collars and cuffs. 1t is dollars to
doughnuts he couldn't tell who invented
the electric telegraph or built the first
steam boat. It is stated on respectable
authority that at the time of his first in
augural he had never read the constitu-
ton Of the United States. How that may
be do not pretend to say; but his fire.
uuent violations of the fundamental law
! of the land gives to the statement
strong vraisemblance. Cleveland prob
ably knows less about more things than
any other man in America who can read
and write; yet he is ambitious to be
thought learned, and, like the editor OF
the Gal-Dal News, searches the diction-
ary for archaic and obsolete words of re-
sounding length with which to adorn
! his labored lucubrations and make the
ignorant wonder how one small head
can hold so much. .Innocuols desue~
| tude" is fair sample OF his linguistic
damphooery. An essayist, a magazine
writer, whose clientele embraces only
the educated, may be permitted, when
drawing fine distinctions, to indulge in
Observation-Disclosures, and even borrow I'M
translateable illustrations from other
languages but what must we think OF a
president who employs in message, in
tended for hoi polloi as we'll as the il
luminati. words which not one suffragist
in ten can understand? He. must place
him on the same form with the pedantic
editorial ass who flaunts boarding school
French, dog Latin and exaggerated eu-
phuisms in the columns Of a nickel
newspaper. Cleveland knows nothing of
the nation he aspires to rule; nothing OF
it's past, nothing OF its present. How
can he? He has not read a dozen books,
and has not seen dozen cities. Such
| political education as he has was ac-
! quired from the slums OF Buffalo and the
New York bankers. Of the interests and
| needs of the great middle class, upon
crooked roots and rotten limbs Of which
illinois makes legislators Webster, Clay.
! Conkling, Blaine, Greeley, Sherman