The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-12-07
BILLY BRYAN'S RIVAL,
Something About Congressman DolIiver.
Of Iowa, by Many Regarded as the
Vests Brightest Orator.
From the Illnstrnted Amerlcan

FROM the Illustrated American.
With the exception of the speaker,
no man in congress is more famed for
his witty epigrams and bright compar-
isons than Jonathan z. Dolliver.
1t was he who described the attitude
of the Democrats on the tariff ques-
tion as that of men "emptying hard
coal ashes in high wind, with their
eyes shut and their backs to the sub
ject."
'Mugwumps," he said on another
occasion, treat their conscience like
the stock in trade of a baking powder
company; they solemnly insists that
everybody's conscience has alum in it
except their own"
When the Democrats during the
pendency of the Wilson bill were try
ing to reach a conclusion, he told
them that it would be "as easy to fit
the hundrcd-headed dog of the ancient
fable with a straw hat as to put all
| intelligible tariff platform under the
feet of the democratic party" Aud
it was he who first characterized Ma
jor Mckinley as the advance agent
of prosperity"
A MAN OF BRAINS.
Il
humorist His speeches are noted for
tteir breadth and throughncss as well
as for their striking interest. He has
spoken in nearly every large city IN
the country. Among hs most noted
adressess We're those at the Mckinley
banquet at Madison Square Garden in
1890, at the Lincoln dinnsr of the Re-
publican Club in New York, before the
/ ho c. nd tf,
the veterans on Memorial day at Get
tysburg and at Arlington.
Although still under forty, he has
been, within the last ten years, three
times chairman of the republican state
convention of Iowa, and the speeches
that he has made in congress would
fill a large book.
! There was time in Mr.. Delivers
life when the future did not look so
cherry as now. He had been gradual
ed in 1876 from the University of West
Virginia--of which institution, by the
way, he recently declined an invitation
to become president. He found 1t
absolutely impossible to get a place to
earn living, even at manual labor.
Times were hard in his native state,
and he did not seem to fit in anywhere.
| taught school in Illinois, one winter
in the country and another as princi-
pal of high school at Sandwich. Hav-
ing read law there anG afterward in
Morgantown, West Virginia, he settled
! in Iowa and built up thriving prac-
/ tice preparatory to coming to congress
in 1889.
| His ancestors were New Englanders,
f1y,,, RrI,A
men in the Colonial days that a head
! land of the Essex coast of Massa-
| chusetts is still known as Delivers
neck. This geographical name fur
| nished much diversion for his enemies
| in 1894 During a severe storm that
| year some vessels stranded on the
! headland; and some populist news
| papers in Iowa, bearing in mind the
strong prohibition leanings of the COM
munity in which the congressman
lived thought it a great joke to tell
of the wrecks on the Massachusetts
coast under such titles as: Four
schooners went ashore last night on
| Delivers neck" They also hinted fa-
cetiously that that sort of thing was
! getting very common among states
men of Delivers sort.
Mr. Delivers father, who is now
! eghty-one years of age, was an itin-
| Grant Methodist minister in West Nir-
/ ginia. He used to do his circuit on
| horseback, and relates many interest
| ing incidents of the saddle-bag period
of the church's history. He is now
| somewhat infirm in body, but keenly
active in mind and thoroughly inter-
ested in everything. He went through
the new library of congress a few days
| ago, and took great delight in reCiting
| the whole of the passages there quoted
in part. When asked for his general
| opinion of the structure, he said: II
never expect to see anything so beauti-
full again until l stand in the house not
made with hands, eternal in the
heavens" That is perhaps the richest
tribute the library has had.
In his boyhood in West Virginia the
present representative acquired much
reputation for other than statesman
like traits. During one great June
freshet he performed prodigies of valor
in swimming out after logs which came
down the river near his home, getting
astrde of them and steering them into
port. This he did for several days; and
when he left for the west a few months
afterward some of the old settlers re-
| marked lnat IL was TOO bad TO lose q
boy who would make such a magnifi-
cent riverman if he would only remain
| there.
During the last campaign, Mr.. Dol
| liver constructed a large tent which
| would accommodate 5000 people. This
he carried about from place to place in
his congressional district, and held
meetings in it, at which local bands
provided instrumental music and cOun-
try glee clubs discoursed stirring songs,
Se is a signal success as a political
speaker. In the campaign of 1884 his
gift first attracted national attention.
Mr.. Blaine heard him speak several
times, and was so much impressed that
he made large prophesies for the young
| orator.
The congressman's popularity at
home is in part attested by the fact
that there have been named in his
honor eight babies, a postofiice, new
! variety of squash, and a lake. Fate
has dealt harshly with two of these
Grover Cleveland abolished the post
office, and the lake dried up, The seed
from which the squash grew came from
a congressional package which Mr..
DolliVer sent to an Emmett county far