The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1897-05-21
YHE DEAD SCORED
National Bi-Metallist Pays Its Compli
ments to Cleveland.
TRIBUTE TO THE DEAD PROPHET
His Political Career, Alliance With
Wall Street and the Woldorf's,
Morgaus, Ect, Etc.

With the reports of late that Grover
Cleveland would he logical candidate
for president again in 1909, the press
throughout the country. and especially
the free silver papers, have taken the
matter up, and now that Mr.. Cleveland
is no longer in the executive mansion
they do not show him the respect
which decency demanded while he
reisned SUI RENE in Washington. They
treat him now only as All individual
and without the Office back of him to
command respect. Some pretty harsh
things are being said Of hl,H. The lat
est Issue of the National Bimetallist
May 10TH contains the most generous
scoring and severe criticism which has
probably ever been heralded at an ex-
president. We believe in allowing the
dead to rest peacefully, but as this
summing up of Nj. Cleveland will in
terest most people we herewith repro
duce what the BiWetallst says,
WulCu Is uS lOliOWS 3.
In its first Washington number The
National BimetalliSt waved Il kindly
but gratifiod adieu to Grover Cleveland
as he left the strong white light in
which he had been standing as Presi-
dent Of the United States, and retired
to the shades of private life. Many Of
r~,.o AI.
with undue kindness, and perhaps we
did. But our joy was SO great at get
ting rid of him, as we fondly hoped,
forever, that the wellsprings of our
generosity bubbled over spontaneously
and tempered the unk,nd things which
under different circumstances we
might have felt it our duty to say
When clergyman Is preaching "a fur
eral sermon over the remains of one
who, when living was very great
reprobate, he frequently says kindly
things Of the deceased. and speaks
words of consolation to the few friends
he may have had. But should the de-
ceased by any sort of a miracle be re-
stored to life and at once return to his
evil habits, the minister would be
quite sure to recall his words of COM
mendatiOn or excuse, and admit that
the gentle emotions always inspired
by death and not sober Judgment had
controlled his language.
Just SO we feel with reference 10 Mr..
Cleveland. We looked upon him as
one dead politically aud we We're
quite content to say good-by with no
severity OF expression. We knew that
he had a few friends and there was no
desire on our part to wound their feel
ings. We had never been able to see
any real merit in him, but we thought
it barely possible that the undeveloped
germ of some good quality might be
lying around somewhere in his ample
physique. AS he had been deprived Of
the actual power TO work us any more
harm, we were disinclined to do him
the injustice OF assuming him to be
utterly and incurably bad, with no re-
deeming feature whatever. Since his
recent outbreak at the Waldorf we are
satisfied that we made a mistake, and
that those who accused US Of handling
him with 'kids' had good cause for
complaint The National Bimetallist
humbly apolOgizes Hereafter it may
not say much against Mr.. Cleveland,
but it will strenuously avoid saying
anything in his favor
There is really nothing in the man
personally which deserves any notice.
Intellectually he does not rise above
mediocrity Upon the subject of tariff
reform there are fully ten. Thousand
men III the United States any one of
whom can make better speech or
write stronger essay than he ever has
or can. His utterances have been
made up of ponderous polysyllabic
platitudes, suggestive of no originality
Of thought, and they have been re-
ceived with respect merely because
upon that subject he was fairly in ac-
cord with his party. His attempted
discussions of the money question are
not worthy of moments serious con-
sideratiOn, and never would have at
tracted the slightest attention but for
the official position he occupied.
He has certainly shown some faculty
in the acquisition of wealth, and he
enjoys the proud distinction of being
the first man who was poor when
elected to the presidency and was rated
in the millionaire class at the end of his
second term. But we all know that
the piling up of wealth does not de-
pend so much upon intellect as it does
upon disposition and opportunity.
Mr.. Cleveland has kept in close &C.
cord with "Wall street, and under
such circumstances a President Of the
United States has great opportunities
for acquiring wealth. We are not
aware that he has ever performed an
act Of genuine patriotism in his lfe.
He certainly never took any chances of
being killed in order to prove it, and
it is equally certain that for any public
service he may have rendered he has
been very generously paid.
But it is doubtful if any man ever
lived who could surpass him in arro-
CANT assumption of superior wisdom
and lofty patriotism. In his speech at
the Waldorf he reached the very acme
of sublime self-assurance. With no
apparent consciousness that he was
overstepping the limits of propriety,
and almost of common decency, he
coolly declared in the face of an aston
ished world that the l3. 500, coo OF his