New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-04-30
THE CLEVELAND BOOZE.

The effect Of Mr.. Clevelands speech nj INC
Reform Club dinner last Saturday night upon
the leaders Of the various factions of the disor-
ganized Democratic party must be something
of a surprise to that gentleman himself There
IS no reason to believe that he had any intention
in that rather turgid and involved oratorical ef-
fort Of sprngng himself once more upon the
country. 1t was in his ordinary heavy and lum-
bering STYLE and altogether like HMM fact, as
suitably described by n contemporary plaSl-
arism Of himself. 1t was carefully prepared, to
be sure as all his set speeches are. of necessity
But the fact that he had not taken the trouble
to commit it to memory as he has been in the
habit Of doing heretofore when he was supposed
to have designs on the American people. would
indicate that he had no Interior sensational pur-
pose Being a guest Of the club, and consc-
uuently the beneficiary Of a twelve-dollar din
ner without its costing him cent, he naturally
desired to give the club its moneys worth In
appropriate remarks on Present Problems the
topic assigned him. And as the current rate
at which after-dinner orators are expected to
commute for their entertainment is a twenty
fve-dollar speech for a three-dollar dinner, he
met the requirement with what he doubtless
considered was hundred dollars worth Of re-
marks for twelvc-dollar dinner. He Is not the
man to cut rates on post-prandal oratory. A
man of less strict sense of justice might have
cut the speech down at least 80 per cent with
out imparing It's force or destroying the sense,
but Mr.. Cleveland is the sort Of man that would
rather overpay his entertainers with a redun-
dancy Of remarks than have one Of them 60
away with an unsatisfed longing
That being his feeling on the subject, with
the consciousness that 1t perfunctory per-
Torrance in payment for a dinner with no de-
sire on his part to make a sensation or hurl
himself for the fourth time into the face and
eyes of the American people, IT must have aston
ished him somewhat when he awoke TO find that
his speech was taken by eminent Democratic
statesmen as a bid for the Presidency in 1900
Mr. William Jennings Bryan, at present the
recognized head Of the party in consequence Of
his having been its last Presidential candidate,
thought he saw 1t at glance. and FASTENED to
say that it was in the circumstances. highly in
decorous and improper for Mr.. Cleveland 10
appear in public at this time. A vague sort of
suspicion exists in the public mind that Mr..
Bryan not only considers himself the logical
candidate Of his party for 1900. but that he be-
lleves no other Democrat has any right TO put
himself in the way of ii. AT any rate, he was
in print as soon as he could get there after the
publication of Mr.. Clevelands speech with very
earnest warning to the Democracy to beware
Of that statesmans Vaccinations. Smutane-
ously Colonel Henry Watterson, Of Kentucky,
an opponent Of Mr. Bryan, plunged into print to
say that the speech was undoubtedly bid for
the nomination in 1900. and that it ought to be
frowned down by the faction to which he and
Mr. Cleveland both belong because Mr.. Cleve-
lands ambition is insatlate and he has already
wrecked the Democratic party. Colonel Waiter
son Is just as much in earnest as Mr. Bryan, and
both are worked up about it 10 an unusual de-
gree.
Meantime the small contingent Of Mugwump
Democracy represented by the Reform Club,
whose alteration Of Mr. Cleveland is irlepres-
sible and unceaslng. regard these demOnsra-
tons of Indignation and alarm with mingled
amusement and contempt. They say that Mr.
that what his enemies fear is that the honest
masses. who have arecdy forced as nomlna-
ton three times upon the reluctant politicians
and party leaders. will repeat their demand and
even against his own wishes, compel his nom
Ina ton IN 1900. And there really IL something
amusing In the excitement which the ex-Presl-
dents very ordinary and commonplace remarks
have occasioned among Democratic politicians.
1t seems rather hard II this eminent private
citizen cannot read little speech TO his al
mrers In payment for dinner without the poll
ticians Of all factions rising up and charging
him with further mischlevous designs in promo
tion Of his own selfish ambition against the
party he has already wrecked. And yet 1t Is not