The herald., 1898-10-01
GEN. BARNES AS AN ORATOR

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Those who listened to the address OF
General w. H. L. Barnes last Thursday
evening probably felt well repaid Tor
their time in forensic sense. General
Barnes is a brilliant talker, and never
fails to make himself interesting on
any topic that he chooses to discuss. He
knows how to mix the spice of wit, hu-
NOR, sarcasm and invective into his dis
course. He rounds out a classical Pc
riod with consummate skill. He appre-
ciates just how deeply to go into dis
cussion not to make it tiresome and yet
to apparently put his adversary in the
vocative.
But with all these brilliant qualities
which are conceded, General Barnes
fails to display deep thought, logical
reasoning or convincing argument. In
this respect he is very similar to the
silver-tongued Tom Fitch. Everybody
likes to hear either Fitch or Barnes. II
must be a dull audience that would not
listen attentively to either of them as
long as he would be willing to talk. But
when all is said, and the intellectual
treat has been enjoyed to the fullest ex-
tent, one turns away with the feeling
that either speaker would have acquit-
ted himself with equal brilliancy had he
taken the other side Of the argument
1t is the intellectually of the man that
shines forth, not his sincerity of pur-
pose. This Is the reason why Fitch
and Barnes, the two most brillian ora
tors of the Pacific coast are not con-
vincing speakers. They are great as
whoopcrs-up Of a crowd who already
believe in the side which they present
but they accomplish little by way OF
making converts.
To analyze this proposition a little
more closely, and taking General Barnes
Thursday evening speech by way OF
example, 1t may readily be seen that his
desire to round out a period with ele-
gance and force often leads him to an
extreme or sweeping assertion which
neither his own sober thought nor that
Of his audience would justify. Thus,
in referring to Mr.. Mcguire, he said:
He has had his hands in the public
pocket most of the time for nineteen
years and has drawn from the public
treasury upward Of $65 900 in gold coin
of the United States without ever rem
dering one dollars's consideration
therefor.
Yet a little further along General
Barnes says:
Mr.. Mcguire made a good judge. He
was on the bench of the superior court
In San Francisco. 1 had great deal
of business with him as q judge, tried
q number of cases before him, and
found him always a man OF remarkable
memory, Of very considerable compre-
hcnsion of facts and remarkable for
the courage of his convictions.
If Mcguire made a good judge,
then 1t is evident that he must have rem
dered some consideration for the amount
said that he never rendered dollars
worth Of consideration. The statement
is uncandid on it's face. General Barnes
falls down on his logic.
Again, referring to Judge Mcguire, the
speaker says:
l will defy the most sane of that
crowd of lunatics who march under his
banner to point out one oct introduced
into the Legislature by Mr.. Mcguire that
had the slightest tendency, even In the
most remote degree, to make his fellow
citizens wiser happier. better
Now, is it possible that General
Barnes wishes to characterize approx
mately one-half of the voters of Califor-
mia as a crowd of lunatics? If he ac-
tually believed this, would he dare to
walk on the streets unguarded? Would
he lie down to sleep peacefully in a
building susceptible to combustion? If
he believed it, would he not take the
the state? No, General Barnes does
not believe his own assertion, and he
knows that his audience knows he does
not believe it. Therein is he uncandid
and unconvincing.
Again, referring to Judge Mcguire,
the speaker says:
His latest assertion is that my dear
friend, Henry Gage, hired me to go
round the state with him. l hardly
know how to characterize such state
ments
No wonder General Barnes invective
fell short at this point. There Is not
a politician In the state so innocent of
interior management that he does not
know how General Barnes services as
q campaigner are secured. For the
paid, and paid handsomely, for every
state campaign he has made. His