Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-09-08
The Mythical Anglo American Alliance.


General Pat Collins of Boston, got
quite red in the face in his latest pub
lie appear nce denouncing an alleged
Anglo American alliance. The gen.
eral is a powerful warrior when it
comes to threshing a man of straw.
on such occasions he is pretty sure to
let himself loose and make the welkin
ring. 1t is noticeable that the general
did not enlighten his large and en-
thusiastic'' audience as to when and
where and by whom this mythical al
lance was consummated. Little
things like facts never trouble the
general in9pofitics when he has plenty
of room for his imagination to gambol
about in the frolicksome' abandon of
it's native exuberance. The idea of an
alliance appealed to his love of the I'M
seen and the mysterious. 1t was quite
sufficient for him that his keen
mosphere the odor of a deep-a devil
ish plot to hand our bleeding country
over to the hungry British lion, Was
this not enough to make his very blood
run kissing in his veins, and rouse his
deep, sonorous voice to tones of angry
protest? 1t was indeed; but now that
the explosion is over and the sunlight
is sitting through the smoke again, let
us locate if We can the origin of this
will-o- the -wisp known as the Anglo
American alliance. There is certainly
something distinctly menacing in the
very sound of the phrase-a faint but
powerful suggestion of the demnition
bow vows! 1t is not surprising, there
fore, that it had a distinctly madden
ing influence upon a gentleman of
General Collins explosive sensibilities:
nor can we wonder that out of the fine
frenzy thus adduced was born a fiery
a soaring eloquence that stopped little
short of Olympic heights.
But whence came this Anglo Ameri-
can alliance? General Collins would
have us understand that it is a child
of Republican birth; but in this he
errs. Truth compels us to say that it
was a founding first discovered in the
political wilderness by the Hon. Joe
Bailey of Texas, late Democratic lead
er of the national House of Represent
tatives. 1t would certainly have been
a. philanthropic thing under the cir
cumstances if Mr.. Bailey had clothed
it properly and given it the advantages
OF good home and a liberal educa-
ton; but alas, his love of oratory got
the better of his discretion. In that
clear and ringing voice-so often heard
I'M the halls of national legislatiOn-he
announced his discovery, and broadly
iritimated that the administration was
the parent of this waif 1t was soon
and conclusively shown that the adj
about it-had never heard of it. in
fact,-until public attention was called
to its existence by Mr.. Bailey. For a
time popular opinion wavered, but fin
ally settled down to the irrevokable con-
cltsion that the Anglo American alli-
ance was. in fact, Mr. Baileys own child,
and that his sensational manner of an
nouncing it's advent was due solely to
his love of the dramatic. This, so far
as we have been able to ascertain, is
the history of the Anglo American al
lance to date.
1t is true that during the war with
Spain English sympathies were with
he.United States, but we do not recall
that even General Collins objected to
that. Beyond this nothing official in the
way of an alliance has ever occurred
for we can hardly believe that the
doughty general himself would claim
that Mr.. Bailey has ever been in a
position to represent the present ad-
miniStration.