The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1899-11-30
Admiral Dewey.

Admiral Dewey.
Shortly after it was announced
that Admiral Dewey would return
from Manila, Perry s. Heath and a
few more of Dewey enthusiasts al
lowed their enthusiasm to blossom
into idiocy, and went about with
paper and pencil to secure SUBJ
scription money sufficient to pur-
chase the Admiral a $4,000 home
in Washington city and present it
to him on his arrival to that city
There were enough hero-worshipers
in the country to respond to the
scheme to furnish the stuff, and the
home was purchased. Dewey
came back to his native land with
the glory Of victor, and the gift
home as a token of the bended
knees of wild-eyed excitable Amer
leans was presented to him.
Dewey could not do other than ac-
cept it, but being widower with
no family except young man son.
he had no immediate use for the
gift. Ere long by preconceived ar
rangement the Admiral was mar
ried to the widow of General Haz-
en-, sister of John r. Mclean. He
escorted his new bride to his mag
nificent gift-home, and thought
nothing more gracious to her and
to the people, than TO present his
wife with that home, 80 that she
would feel that she was not living
in tenement, token property of the
people, ,and incidently make the gift
home more secure TO his own use
in case he should become involved
by the often slumps of affairs, or
the signing of a friends paper.
But this was the "blow that killed
father" with the people. They had
given that home to Dewey and not
to his wife-as If she is not his "bet-
ter half" The ladies of the land
most especially tore their hair with
jealously and the republican papers
moved into him heavyset, and his
name mentioned in theatres was
Missed, all of which was phase of
the idiocy of the American people.
For the first Dewey walked to the
fact that that gift-home had a
string tied to it, and that the donors
wished to dictate to him it's destiny.
He was compelled to write letter
stating his position and a few
family affairs, to subdue the howl
of the generous givers, and he said
if he had known the token of sup
posed appreciation had "string to
1t" he sho ould not have accepted it
under any consideration.
But now that the crazy impulse
of American smart-alex has settled
down pace, we ask what is the
undercurrent of this out cry and
what does it amount to, anyway.
That the excess OF hero worship
in his case should be followed by
undue criticism Of his first indis-
cretion, was natural. The glass
that magnif1es virtues, also magni-
fies blemishes. But that Dewey's
act in placing his home In the me
of his wife, or his buying his wife a
new corset, should Obliterate or
even dim the memory of his last
ing services to his country, is SIM
ply preposterous. The return of
the entire public to normal and
sane appreciation OF Dewey's
worth, is upon us and but matter
of a few days. The point that will
not be forgotten SO easily, Is the
evident fact that there has been an
effort on the part OF certain politi.
cal champions of the present ad-
ministration to make use OF the in
cident to obliterate any possible
presidential prospect for Dewey.
Some of President McKinley's
friends seem to have reasoned that
Dewey, as the most popular man
in the country, was an active
menace TO the political well-being
OF the President. They, therefore,
have under taken to get him out OF
the way, not by simple and strait
forward methods, but by affecting
to be In expreseibly saddened and