New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1897-01-13

Our l1ssi;e
Governor.
The Message All Right, but its Deliv-
cry Occasions a Struggle.
The Minneapolis Times Describes His
Battle with Words of Many
Letters.
had as lief the town-crier spoke the lines

Hamlet
The Times of Thursday took a fall
out Of Gov. Clough by drawing per
picture Of his cultured excellency while
reading his annual message to the as.
sembled solons. Here it is:
The Times IS informed byla state cap:
itol authority, who is IN position to
know, that the governors annual mes
sage was written by ex-Rev. LIE Grand
Powers, who already thus early is ap-
pointed labor commissioner. Those who
are familiar with the literary style Of
Mr.. Powers support this statement with
internal evidence. Certainly the phra-
seology, as well as length. is very Pow
ers.like and exceedingly un- Clough-like.
No wonder the governor could not pro:
nounce all the words, and had to omit
reading numerous manuscript pagesNcov-
erlng some circumlocutory and jaw
breaking topics. David read at it an
hour and ten minutes, and then left one
third of it unread.
One of the pet terms of commissioner
Powers. which David could not get
through, was the word "publicist." The
governor wrestled with it, scrutinized it,
punched it on this side and on that, and
finally concluded. that Powers intended
to say ''the public
In this same passage the governor, al
so exhibited his popularity Of elocution
in passing over the punctuation marks,
often reading right over perico with
out pause. >-
For example, Rev. LIE Grand Powers
grandiosely referred to ".that unwise
movement from the farm to the city
which all publicists have of late de-
plored." The author of s'Ihe Purchas-
ing Power of Gold'' then went on to
say: "Tilling of the soil is the most i'm
portant industry in the state.'' But the
governor made this Powers-lke passage
read Cloughly, to-wit: -.-
"That unwise movement from the farm
to the city. which al the public have Of
late deplored tilling of the SOIL" etc.
This was different, and LIE Grand him.
self, who sat with arms folded and head
thrown back in the front row just under
the platform, in order to- be ready at
hand to prompt his gevernorship in the
difficult passages, was much put out at
the plebeian way in which David mutt.
lated The passage, and with difficulty
could restrain himsel
The word "metallurgy," in the chap
ter on the university, also puzzled hiz-
zoner. After stabbing at it once OF
twice, the governor concluded that the
reverend author was talking about theo-
logical matters, and go pronounced the
word, something like mythology" II
was with great wisdom that the Cover.
nor steered clear of the chapter on ami.
NAL diseases and turned that down en-.
tirely without reading. How could the
governor be expected to pronounce. lei
alone understand the meaning, Of such
terms as sstuberculin" andstuberculosis.'
Powers ought to. have known better.
Tie proofrcadcr who took q few hours
off and eagerly devoured Governor
Clough's message, says that the cover
hor wove an enhancing love story
around very good plot with some ex-
citing scenes thrown in, especially where
the game and fish commission rescued
the heroine from the Sioux at New Ulm.
Minneapolis Journal.
May White