The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-11-15
DE ARMOND OF MISSOURI
Pen Sketch of a Leading Democratic
Congressman.
louisville CONFECTIONERY

via "A. LIE ATIuOllu OIL MISSOURI Is a man
much talked about at the capital these
days. He may be the leader of his
party in the Fifty-sixth congress. A
large and influential element of the
Democrats do not want Richardson
and they will not have Bailey. John
Allen and Amos Cummings are certain
to be for anybody against Bailey, and
John Allen and Amos Cummings weigh
a great deal more than Charles l..
Bartlett of Georgia and Claude A.
Swanson of Virginia-the original
Bailey men, who conducted his cam
paign against Benton McMillin in 1897.
De Almond is in a position to reap
and garner the crop that Richardson
and Bailey are cuitivating. One of the
three will be the Democratic leader.
At present the advantage is with the
Tennesseean. Should Richardson have
a good lead at the start he will get the
plum If Bailey has it the thing is as
good as De Almonds. That is the way
they are talking now.
De Almond came here in 1891, a mem
Der of the Fifty-second congress. He
soon came to the front and if he had
had the gigantic physical structure of
young Mr.. Bailey he would have taken
the leadership when Crisp died The
very first speech he made attracted at
tention. 1t was a political speech, and
good one A small man, as lean as a
greyhound, with sharp features and a
voice that differs from all other voices
the thing about the man that attract
ed most attention was the frigidity of
his whole nature, moral mental and
physical. It is impossible to move him.
He is the blue steel. Napoleon Bona
parte and Andrew Jackson, regular vol
| canoes below the collar, were always
cool in the head, though in state of
eruption about the heart. De Almond
is cold all over and he is a good hater,
too.
1t was in the Fifty third congress
that De Almond gave his colleague,
the Hon. Uriel S. Hall, that terrible
lashing. Physically, it was David and
Goliath over again. Hall was as tall
as Justice Harlan and just about as
heavy. De Almond was as small as
| Clarence McElroy and just about as
delicate. Hall was as hot as a pullet
! laying its first egg, and De Almond
was as cool as that celebrated icicle,
which, curded by the frost from purest
snow, hangs on Dian's temple. Hall is
! a sincere man and a courageous man.
There is nothing that could induce him
| to conceal an opinion, nothing that
| could induce him to continue the advo-
cacy of q proposition after he was con-
| WINGED it was wrong. And that is a
! great, thing-in congressman. His
weak point was his vanity, which he
could not conceal, and made no attempt
to conceal it. He was proud of the
! fact that his father had forced him to
study Adam Smith when he was a
schoolboy, and he told congress about
| it on two occasions. One day Bourke
Cochran quoted Adam, and Hall chal-
| lenged the correctness of the quotation,
and for 48 hours he was boiling over
| because he could not get the floor to
floor Cochran with the volume of Adam
that he logged around for a week.
Now, it is admitted all hands round
that Adam Smith was about the great
est reasoner since, Bacon, unless Locke
and Marshall be exceptions; but it is
the driest reading l ever got hold of. 1t
| is pure Greek to me, and | was not
at ali surprised when the members OF
the Democratic cloakroom refused tC
hear Hairs eXpounding of him in that
theatre after Crisp had refused to per-
nit him TO eXpound him to the CALLER
les. The incident will acquaint you with
the character of the man.
/ 1 may remark that the late Thomas
E. Bramlette of Kentucky, when a boy
of 16, read, studied and digested Black
stones Commentaries On the Laws OF
England" He reveled in the work as
do intelligent boys in Defoe's master
pieces: but Adam Smith would have
staggered even Tom Bramlette, though
Hall claimed that he could the Gordiar
knot of him unloose,
Familiar as his garter"
Well, one day Hall got up and made g
speech, in which he recanted and re-
nounced his former views on the silver
question. [ believe he cited ST. Pau
as another illustrious character who
turned from his way after lightning
had stricken him. Certain it is he cited
Gladstone. who started out a Tory OF
Tories, and wound up the leader of the
Wings. Indeed, Gladstone wrote a bool
that fools and knaves twitted him with
for years and years. Disraeli, an ever
greater man, started out a Liberal ane
became the leader of the Tory party
John c. Calhoun started out a protec-
zionist, and later tried to break up the
Union because of the protection in the
tariff of 1928. Daniel Webster started
out free trader, and became the ables
of the champions of protection. There
is authority for it that in the beginning
Clay opposed the bank. Nay. There il
authority for it that Jackson, at thu
start, favored the bank, which he de-
stroyed. These men were no more dis
honest than was st. Paul. Consistency
is the bugaboo of little minds say!
grim old Tom Carlyle.
Hall went on in q long, rambling
speech, quoting Drecedents of thu
changes of great men on great ques
tions, probably not emitting Stafford
the minister of Charles I, who started
out more "diggin' than even JOIN
Hampden on the other side Claimin!
to be in such good company he de
clared he was ready for any fate. TIL
speech was well enough; but some
where in it he stepped on De Almond
| and without any occasion to do so.
would have been better for him had IL
stepped on a copperhead and beel
bitten by the reptile on the shank.
, De Almond was on his feet in an in
slant A Spanish grandee of the six
t teenth century could not have beel
more contemDtuous, and some of hi
sarcasms were worthy of John Ran
dolph. 1t only illustrated that the coo
man always has the advantage of tn
impetuous man. l am sure that it di
not illustrate that he is the more hon
, est man. The Republicans pricked u
/ their ears. They were glad OF the dis
/ comfiture of Hall, but here was a Eel
low that might do the same thing 70
Dalzell or Grosvenor some day, anG
faith. he looked and spoke as though h
had the impudence to try it, and so h
did. From that day to this Mr.. d
Almond has been a sort of maitre d
arms, his rapier ready to leap from it
scabbard on the instant, and he ha
been pretty tolerably severely let alone
and until Tom Reed gets down fror
his perch on the speakers stand, tn
floor &C the house will continue to oh
serve the rule discretion is the bette
-. L..