The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-26
FLOWER OF NEW YORK.
His Funny Experiences and Cheerful
 Philosophy

IlillOSOpIiys
 The late Roswell P. Flower of Nev
 York used to tell some amusing stories
 of his congressional experiences.
 "rhe house of representatives is the
 only place where I ever got into where
 money didn't count" he remarked the
 last time I saw him, two months ol
 more before his death "A rich man Is
 actually handicapped there. In the first place q country member is naturally prejudiced against the representatives
 from the city, particularly those from
 New York city. They seem to think
 that New Workers are a lot of highway
 men. You find the same spirit in na-
 tional conventions and state legislatures,
 and the fact that a city delegation
 wants something is a good reason why
 a countryman should vote against it.
 The easiest way to kill a bill in con
 gress is to have the New York Chamber of Commerce send in memorial asking | it's passage. Then every countryman | will vote against it sure
 | When the city member Is rich that | makes him all the worse. During the | first session was in congress I spent 1 more than $10,000 trying to convince my l fellowmembers of the house of repre- sentatives that l was a good fellow I gave them dinners and wine and picnics and set it up for them every chance got, and, while they enjoyed it as much as anybody, it only made them suSpic- ious. They could not understand why I should spend my money entertaining them without some base motive behind it. I was a city man representing a country district. In other words I was a wolf in sheep's clothing, and they were very shy of me I didn't ask any thing of anybody, I only wanted to be popular and give the boys a good time, but the more I spent on them the worse they got"
 Towards the close of the first ses- sion" continued Mr. Flower, after ev- erybody in the house had accepted my hospitality and drank my wine and eaten my terrapin, I tried to get a bill passed-a bill giving a pension of SIP a month to a poor old woman up in my district, whose husband and son had died during the war The cost of one of my dinners would have paid for that pension all the rest of her life Some how I couldn't get that bill up for long time, and when I did get it up pretty near everybody on the democrat ic side voted against it. I went over to Joe Blackburn and I said; Joe, why in the old Harry don't you fellows vote for my bill?' and he took me over in the corner and he gave me some good ad- vice He opened my eyes to the situa- ton, but l didn't believe him. I could
 
 bers of that house were such confound- ed fools as to suspect me of trying to play them for suckers, and I said: Here, Jce; you take that bill and see if you can get it through Darned if he didn't call it up the next day during the morning hour and it passed without ob- jection, but if they had known it was my bill it wouldn't have got vote
 This feeling wore off after a while They found out that I wasn't high wayman or conspirator, but just an ordinary good fellow"
 MT. Flower was an advance agent of prosperity and an expanslonist like Me- Kiney, and it was worth a long jour- l ney to hear him talk about the glory of ! his country. A pessimist came into his office one morning and began to croak about everything, particularly about the trusts, Mir Flower listened awhile good | then he walked over to him and said
 stop making faces at the truets and | go into one. If there is any good mo- nopoly around buy some stock in it and | quit growing. l never saw a man yet | who was against good thing when he had share in it, and these fellows that are worrying about expansion and im- perialism have got the dyspepsia. Me Kinley's all right I know him. He is as square a man as ever lived He's got hard job, and he's doing the best he can, and when boat is going through dangerous rapids it doesn't do | any good for lot of blamed fools to keep yelling at the man at the wheel The Lord Is running this country, and he runs thinge right. Mckinley and Dewey and Otis and that fellow Agui- naldo are his instruments. and they are simply doing what He tells them to do. That's the kind of statesman l am. believe in the Lord, and I believe He's stuck on this country. We haven't had 3 thing happen here yet but what He ordered it for our good, and, while I cant quite figure out His reasons for letting that fellow Aguinaldo raise h--l in the Philippines, you keep your eye open and you'll seem 'enl some day. Peo- pie wonder why our liberties had to be bought with blood. I'll tell you why. The more a thing costs you the more you value it. the more it's worth; and while George Washington and the Con- mental army were freezing to death 1t Valley Forge God Almighty was eaching them that lesson. Look at France. They don't value civil liberty ,ver there because they didn't have to york for it. If those Frenchmen had o sweat and starve and freeze like our { evolutionary fathers they would esti- nate their blessings a good deal higher han they do now "The Lord was on our side during the war; and He led us into it, and He ain't