The age-herald., 1900-04-15
Cummings as a Fisherman

Some two or three years ago Amos Cum mings, one of the strongest men on the democratic side of the house, went to Ala bama to fish. He was near Mobile one day sitting on a dock and clad in overalls and an old coat and hat when a young man approached him and asked about the fishing. Seeing that he was a novice, Mir. Cummings, out of the goodness of his heart, caught some bait for him, baited his hook, cast the line and when he got bite handed 1t to the stranger and told him to pull it in This was repeated ssev- eral times, much to Cummings amuse- ment When the embryo fisherman had had enough of the sport of watching Cum mings catch the fish and of pulling them out of the water himself ne got up and handed Cummings two cigars and a quarter and walked off. The congressman did not protest but thanked his compan- ion for the tip and proceeded to do a little fishing for himself.
 The Eulogies on Bland
 In the services in the senate on Monday in memory of Richard Parks RiaIali. "Sil- yer Dick" who was one of the most ardent and untiring advocates of free silver and perhaps the greatest of the silver leaders Senator Vest of Missouri paid beautiful tribute to his memory, his high-minded- ness, public works and domestic life. In the course of that speech the Missouri senator spoke of pioneers blazing the path and others reaping the rewards, and said:
 MT. President, Richard Parks Bland should have been the nominee of the demo- cratic party naturally and logically at the great national convention of 1896, held at Chicago. I know personally that he did not desire the nomination. I know that he, above all others. knew his precarious health, that the icy finger of death might touch him at any moment I know from his own lips that he dreaded the 1abors and responsibilities of the presidential can vass and of. the great office for which he was named He was defeated, as all lead CTS of great popular movements who have borne the, heat and burthen of the day and excited the bitter antagonism of opponents have always been defeated in all ages and countries when success was about to crown their efforts. Political parties are actuated not by gratitude but by the hopn of success It has always been so,. and will be so to the end of time. The regicdes of England who beheaded Charles I before his palace at Whitehall did not long retain the power they had grasped, but surren- dered in a short time to Cromwell and his associates.
 "Verniaud and the other great leaders of the Girondists, who inaugurated the French Revolution and dragged the King and Queen of France to the guillotine. fol- lowed in few short months over the same gloomy road.
 "In our own political history, Henry Clay, the great leader of the old whig, par- ty, the father of the American system which now dominates this country,r the most magnetic orator who ever spoke in the senate of the United tates, was showed aside in 1S4S to make room for Zachary Taylor, whose political opinions were al- most unknown to the convention that nomination. William H. Seward and Chas. Sumner sat by the cradle of the republican party and-defended its childhood against the vitriolic eloquence of the southern leaders, but both were superseded in 1856 by John c. Fremont, the pathfinder. and William H. Seward was defeated in 1860 by Abraham Lincoln, who but two years be- fore was unknown outside of the limits of his own state.
 "So in 1896, Richard Parks Bland, the veteran leader of bimetallism, who had stood by it's banner when others faltered