The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1898-08-18
HOW stone
LOST HIS JOB.
e. Was the Original Offensive
Partisan.



Serving Their Party, Colonel stone
Promptly Went on the stump-The
Campaign to Open With Bang of
Big Guns at Pittsburg and to BE
Full OF speech Making.
Especial Correspondence,)
Philadelphia, Aug. 81 suppose
viii have to plead guilty to originating
one expression In the political lam
guage Of the country. although l don't
give utterance to it." said the Republi-
can candidate for governor the other
day. Colonel Stone Is temporarily So
journing at Atlantic City, but comes
up to town frequently. While the cam
paign will not be formally opened un-
til the second week Of September, when
the state League Of Republican clubs
meet at Pittsburg. the party enthusi-
asm has declined to await on formal
tiles this year. and the calls for Colonel
Stone have been 80 frequent that ne
will have but little time outside of his
own state between now and the elec-
ton.
He has ALWAYS been good cam
paigner, since he began making Re-
publican speeches before he was OF age
and his remark quoted above had ref
erence to this phrase, offensive par
tisanship," which he was the occasion
for President Cleveland to embalm
among the modern classics OF political
expression. Colonel Stone was the origi-
nal offensive partisan. He happened to
be United States district attorney for
the western district of Pennsylvania
when the state campaign OF 1856 came
on, and in pursuance OF President
Cieveland's attempt to emasculate as
many leading Republicans as possible,
received an intimation that If he did
not display offensive partisanship,
which Is to saw II he would sit on the
fence and let his party ticket look out
| for itself, he could retain his office.
That Is Just what he didn't do. He
went on the stump at the first call from
the state committee, and President
Cleveland promptly exacted the pen
| atty by putting man In his place
whose partisanship, being Democratic,
was presumably innocuous.
If the president had wanted va
| cancy In that Office he could not have
| devised II better way to get 1t, for one
! look at the head and neck that top out
the gigantic figure of the present Re-
publican candidate for governor Is
enough to indicate that he Is not well
| built for taking orders from anybody.
! He Is deliberate in the extreme In
making up his mind. as Is usually the
habit with farm bred men, who like
to roll a subject over from one end of
the furrow to the other and back again
but he doesn't sub-let the contract to
ANYBODY else and his convictions will
all stand without being hitched.
He comes naturally by his disposi-
ton, with New England blood on the
one side OF his ancestry, and Pennsyl-
vania German Nn the other. His father
although only a so acre farmer n poor
man all his life. was the general trus,
officer Of the neighborhood, and for q
years before his death nobody In the
township thought of making vii
without getting him to write II, and ap
pointing him executor of the estate. iC
was naturally, of course. man who
liked to be the head of his own house
hold. and so, when the present candi
date for governor. at the age of l5
went after the cows one night, ant
didn't come back. but followed his two
older brothers to the army instead, tn,
old gentleman promptly went after hin
and got him discharged. But he shortly
discovered what President Clevelanc
found out in 1856, that whether It wa!
his country or his party that h
thought needed his services, his sol
couldn't be held back. 1t was only {
short time till he ran away and en-
listed again. and this time his fathc
concluded he might as well let him go
He showed the same indecenden
spirit in the matter Of hs.hret nomina
ton for congress. The delegates ha,
been elected in the interest Of the thei
sitting member, Colonel Thomas NJ
Bayne, hut at the last moment h,
astonished everybody by declining
denomination. and turned II over tt
Colonel Stone. who had not previOusl.
been mentioned az candidate. Their
had been no contest, and the distric
was so overwhelmingly Republican tina
any Dissatisfaction which might haV
arisen from this unusual circumstanc
would have had no effect on the Ie
suit, but Colonel Stone promptly d.
clined to receive n nomination on any
body else's credit, and went into nay
primaries and won out on his owl
strength.
One of the best descriptions of how h
impresses people as campaigner, b,
the way. appeared in the Scranton Tri
bune last week, as follows:
Colonel stone. the Republican nom
inee for governor Is not popnjay
nor a poseur, as those who met hin
yesterday can attest. He Is modest
straightforward and unassuming man
who without any flourishes impresse
the observer with his reserve strength
and his sincerity. No man who look
him steadily In the eyes or takes care
full measure Of his words and manne
will depart from his presence with
feeling Of skepticlsm as to his integ
rity or his moral courage. The cleal
grit and stubborn fiber Of the obscur
Tioga county farmer boy who worke
his way to the front by sheer dint o
persevering studiousness and industr,
is in him yet, and also the candor an,
the total absence Of vain pretension.
Colonel Stone Is not an orator an
does not try to be- Those who shal