Mexico weekly ledger., 1898-09-08

| of his regiment defending his country,
| yet If he had been there in the flesh and
| had been the whole committee on plat
form he could not have drawn up q
more ringing declaration in favor Of BIZ
| metallism.
These self reliant, patriotic Vermont
ers have the gall to lug such old fogies
| as Washington, Jefferson and jackson
into o contest with McHannaism, have
they?
1t surely must be that there is some
| mistake in the Associated Press dis
| patches, or can it really be that these
| Green Mountainous are traitors and al
lies of Spain? Though Bryan, riding at
| the head of his legion, invades Cuba,
| Organism, which has been killed re-
peatedly, still lives in the granite fast
nesses of Vermont. Shocking, isn't it?
Too bad, too had!
Told of Joe Wheeler.
General Joe Wheeler is evidently q
| great ~favorite with war correspondents,
for they are fertile in stories about him.
| The general is and always was a'good
| news producer. Here is n OF b anec-
| dotes floating in the papers about cur
| congressional hero:
While the fight WI raging ut Santi-
| ago Wheeler saw his men waver, when
he shouted to them: STEADY, boys!
| Come ON now, the Yankees are giving
way! Lookl There they gol The Yam
| KEGS are leaving their guns" and, sud
| denly catching himself, he cried out
| even more vigorously: Oh it'll I
mean the Spaniards are runningl Go for
| 'em, boysf"
While I would not ARE to vouch for
| the truth Of that tale, because during
| three and q half years of association
| with the general I never heard him
swear or use a word not fit to be uttered
| in the best female society, it may be
true-perhaps is. No doubt # he did
| swear at Santiago the recording angel
| dealt as gently and considerably with
| his oath as it did with Uncle Toby's.
If it is not true, the man who manufac-
tured it displayed great ingenuity and
brought out the strong point in the gen.
erals later military career-its pathos.
The spectacle of this white haired old
man fighting va1iantly under the flag
| which in his youth he fought so valiant
ly to haul down is worthy of the artists
brush and the poets pen. If In the wild
rush of battle the warcry Of his young
life rose unbidden to his lips, who can
wonder? Also it was in keeping with
| the eternal fitness of things that the
| Yankee boys should hail his lapsus lin
| gu@ with a shout Of affection.
When the wal was brewing, the gen.
/ eral was among the leading jingoes. A
lady told me two anecdotes OF him then.
Senator Vest asked him, General,
| why are you so much in favor OF WARP
Because it's my trade, sir; my trade"
His daughter was trying to persuade
| him to stay at home and let younger
men do the fighting, urging his age and
| the fact that he had done fighting
| enough for one man. Finally she asked,
Father, why do you want to go?' He
| replied, eff a fish had been out Of the
| water for 33 years and came in sight Of
a nice pond of water, he would wiggle
a little at any rate"
These two anecdotes grew ont Of his
| West Point training.
In a speech in the house he stated o
| fact which the wal has demonstrated
| to be true, that a regiment Of raw
| Americans can by proper drill be con-
| verted into good soldiers in a month.
Five Minute Speeches.
Missouri has an exceedingly strong
| delegation in congress. One Of her most
! promising representatives is Judge
| James Cooney. He is an excellent law
| yer and forcible speaker-true as steel
in all the relations Of life.
In the senate the stream of talk, like
| Tennyson's brook, flows on forever.
| They have no time limit. No senator
| has gall enough to even suggest that
| another senator has talked long enough.
That very sensible performance would
| not be according to senatorial courtesy,
| don't you know? Hence Matthew Stan
| ley Quay's 20 hour speech on the Will
| son bill!
In the house the drift of things ora
| torical is toward short speeches. The
| best talking done there is under the five
| minute rule. The house has an hour
| limit. g., the longest time a man
can speak in the house is a hour, I'M
| less by unanimous consent. At the end
| of an hour any one member IA stop the
| dow of jowl by the simple process of
~objecting, 80 he needn't be bored by
any one man for more than 80 minutes
unless, like Barkis, he is "willin." A
merber has to be making an interest
ing speech in order to secure extension
of time. "The hour rule is me Of
Henry Clay's best legaoies to the house.
In his fight with President Tyler
though a member of the senate at the
time-such was his influence that he
induced the house to adopt the hour
rule in order to shut off the Tyler ora
tors, led by Henry A. Wise, who pos
sessed the most marvellous vocabulary
of any man that ever appeared in on
gress. Clay tried to gag the senate, but
it refused to be gagged.
Even the hour is hard to get in the
house. There are $50 members, and
there is not time enough to go round.
So members experiment o short
speeches.
oAOC hCokN AAoA HAOoSA "AS 49,"
a good deal more about theology than
about grammar. So after reading a
verse ne closed the Bible and said,
Brethren and sisters, the whole gospel
is all squz up in that one little text.
By practice members have acquired
such skill that a great deal of sense is
"all squz up" in a five minutes speech.
A Potntad Addresa.
No adequate time was allowed to de-
bate the ''war revenue bill" so called
but it was during that debate that
Judge Cooney delivered one Of the most
pointed five minute speeches I ever
heard. Here it is in full, and I am will
ing to have any critic say whether he
hit the bullseye:
"Let us lay up no Spanish war debt
against this government. We are unani-
nous in the prosecution and support Of
this war. Let us pay as we go. There
sre many other methods of raising the
GOLD RESERVE GROWING.