Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1898-08-12

Big Guns ut Pittsburg and to BE
Full OF Speech Making.
Special Correspondence)
Philadelphia, Aug. 81 suppose
will have to plead guilty to originating
one expression in the political Ian
guage OF the country, although I don't
give utterance to IT," said the Republi-
can candidate for governor the other
day. Colonel Stone is temporarily So
iourning at Atlantic City, but comes
up to town frequently. While the cam
paign will not be formally opened un-
III the second week of September, when
the State League of Republican clubs
meet at Pittsburg, the party enthusl-
asm has declined to await on formal
tiles this year, and the calls for Colonel
Stone have been so frequent that he
viii have but little time outside Of his
own state between now and the cleo
tion.
He has ALWAYS been a good cam
palgner 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 orlgi-
nal offensive partisan. He happened to
be United states district attorney for
the western district of Pennsylvania
when the state campaign of 1886 came
on, and in pursuance of President
Cleveland's attempt to emasculate as
many leading Republicans as possible,
received an intlmation that II he did
n H.. 1. -.
which is to say IL 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 a man in his place
whose partisanship being Democratic
was presumably innocuous.
If the president had wanted a va
cancy in that office he could not have
devised a better way to get It, 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 dlsposi-
tlon, with New England blood on the
one side of his ancestry, and Pennsyl-
vanla German on the other. His father,
although only 80 acre farmer, a poor
man all his life, was the general trust
officer of the neighborhood, and for 20
years before his death nobody In the
township thought of making a will
without getting him to write 1t, and APP
pointing him executor of the estate. He
was naturally, of course, a 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 Is,
went after the cows one night, and
didn't come back, but followed his two
older brothers to the army instead the
old gentleman promptly went after him
and got him discharged But he shortly
discovered what President Cleveland
found out in 1886, that whether it was
his country or his party that he
thought needed his services, his son
couldn't be held back. It was only q
short time till he ran away and en-
listed again, and this time his father
concluded he might as well let him go
He showed the same independent
spirit in the matter of his first nomina-
tion for congress. The delegates had
been elected in the interest of the ther
sitting member, Colonel Thomas M
Bayne. but at the last moment he
astonished everybody by declining q
denomination, and turned it over tc
Colonel Stone, who had not previously
been mentioned as a candidate There
had been no contest, and the district
was so overwhelmingly Republican thai
any dissatisfaction which might have
arisen from this unusual circumstance
would have had no effect on the re-
suit, but Colonel Stone promptly de
clined to receive a nomination on any
body else's credit, and went into new
primaries and won out on his owl
strength.
One of the best descriptions OF how h,
impresses people as a campaigner, b.
the way, appeared In the Scranton Tri
bune last week, as follows:
Colonel Stone, the Republican nom
inee for governor, is not a popinjay
nor a poseur, as those who met hin
yesterday can attest. He is a modest
straightforward and unassuming man
who without any fourishes 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 name
will depart from his presence with
feeling of skepticism as to his integ
rity or his moral courage. The clear
, 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
go to hear him during the ensuing
campaign with the expectation Of hear
ing a thrilling exercise in word juggler
will be disappointed because he is no
that kind of man. In speech he ofte
becomes eloquent. but 1t is the rugge
> eloquence Of honest earnestness, with
, out a suggestion Of stage play or max
believe. His meeting with the peopl
is hand TO hand and face to face, en-
r tirely candid and unaffected. He in
. dulges in no theatric attempts to wi
applause or capture popular favor. Fl
says his say With homely directnes
) and his hearers are then left to Judg
2 Of It for themselves.
1T is evident that Colonel Stone
brief visit to this region-which
Z merely preliminary-that the Republ
I can candidate for governor will gro'
steadily upon the public respect an
confidence the more he meets the pee
pie Of the commonwealth. In his pres