The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1898-01-20
jones VIEWED.
THE BOYS WHO THINK HE ISN'T
A CONFER ARE FOOLED

G. c. Packard, formerly of the Detroit
Evening journal, now leading Repub-
| lican of the Maumee valley and editor Of
the Toledo Journal, an independent
paper, is a man who has hal dealings
with men and Is able to judge them fair
| ly. He thinks John p Jones, Of Stark
county, is big man and conner. Here
is what Mr. Packard writes of Mr.. Jones
in the journal of Jan. 16:
have watched many public gather
iDgs, conventions and legislative bodies.
saw the closing hours of that memora-
BILE fight at Lansing, Mich, when Senator
Zach Chandler, the boss Of Michigan
politics, went down to defeat and the
weak Christiancy was elevated to a seat
in the United States senate. / watched
Garfield repel the crown in Chicago and
in the repelling win the presidency. 1
watched the great bolt, headed by George
William Curtis, when the Republican
party was rent in twain over the Blaine
candidacy. 1 sat in the wigwam in that
same city and listened in the early morn
ing hours as Bourke Cochran held five
and twenty thousand people spell bound
in his vain attempt to prevent the third
nomination of Cleveland, the Infamous.
l say have CHANGED to witness many of
these historical events, and yet in them
all do not remember to have witnessed
a more dramatic episode thau occurred in
the house of representatives Tuesday
last when John p. Jones, of Stark
dress, announced his independence of
even pre- sidential interference and boldly
insisted that he would not bow the knee
to Baal.
1t does not matter whether one were
touched with sympathy with the antis or
held tenaciously to Hanna, the effort was
magnificent and stamped this whilom
brawny miner as one of the coming big
men of the state. 1t was not so much in
what he said-albeit his words were
powerful, but in the manner in which he
presented his cause. Imagine legisla-
tive chamber packed and crowded to the
utmost capacity, humanity limited in
numbers only by the stone walls about.
| Understand that here was the crucial
point in the bitterest fight Ohio, the state
of hot and angry political contentious,
has known. Comprehend that here and
now, within the brief spaca Of minut S
to be counted on the two hands, the fate
of the machine, splendid, audacious,
corrupting pOwer-hedged and bulwarked
| by the great influence Of the administra-
tion and supported by every force known
to unlimited wealth, was to be decided.
You might have been the staunchest
| Hannaite Of them all, and yet you must
have been thrilled when this big, fine
| specimen of manhood arose in all his
| strength, and, assailed by hisses which
for the moment turned that august
chamber into den Of snakes, deflantly
faced his assaultPrs; brave, bold, un-
| flinching. And as he stood there in the
middle aisle, and, tossing back his name
of brown hair from his broad, high fore
head, as n lion might face uucounted foes,
declared his adherency to Republican
principles and to the administra 'ion he
love', and, above and beyond all this,
superior to his admiration and devotion
to McKi Kinley, insisted that as patriot
he would vote against Hanna. The
speech was not long but it covered the
ground. And man was talking Six
feet two or three, broad of shoulder, with
n front Of Jove and bearing which
plainly avouched the dauntless courage of
the II en-; in a voice exquisitely modu-
lated, full, resonant and powerful, filing
| the grOined arches with melody and pen
etrating to the uttermost confines of the
great hall, 1t rang out in splendid defense
of the common people, that beleaguered
throng which tolls and suffers while the
mighty prevail. As l said, it was not
so much the words-although this man
Jones voiced the best defense of the
course of the recalcitrants offered in the
capitol throughout the entire fight, but
the man that impressed. And, except /
greatly misjudge him, we are certain to
hear more of this erstwhile humble
miner, born and bred to toll, ere the
history Of the ensuing years are written.
1t was great effort, and deserves, as 1t
must receive form all who listened to it,
hearty and generous applause.