The age-herald., 1900-06-19
But the Rough Rider Respect
 fully Declines.
MANY CONFERENCES WERE HELD
Hanna Seems Satisfied With the Situa- tion-If Roosevelt Insists On His Refusal Long May Be
 the Nominee.

Philadelphia, June 13-Tomorrow, on the forty-sixth anniversary of the day on which General John C.. Fremont was nomi- mated by the first Republican convention held at the Musical Fund Hall, in this city. the National Republican Convention will assemble in the great Export Exposition building In West Philadelphia. Here, amid the swelling memories of half century, and in the presence of men who saw the blood-stained clouds lie across the sunrise of the party, the Republicans will meet in the high tide of their glory to name their national candidates and write the plat form for the coming campaign.
 The cymbals of a conquering army never clashed with more vigor than they do here tonight. Amid the thousands of warriors there is but one choice for leader. His face is engraved upon banners and but tons; it Is framed in flowers and in ivy on the walls; it adorns the. windows of the shops, and looks down upon the swarming crowds from every conspicuous place. Me Kinley again will lead in the November battle. Banners are dipped before his DOT trait, and the mention of his name arouses enthusiasm. When Senator Foraker con- cludes his peroration in the convention on Wednesday storm wild and tempestuous will shake the great hall
 But that outburst of enthusiasm will only be the forerunner of the pandemonium that will reign if Roosevelt should be named to stand beside him in the coming battle. The stampede in his favor that started yesterday threw the town into de- lirium. It swept through the delegations who had come here with favorite sons to present like a prairie fire.
 The Other Rooms Collapsed
 The booms of the other candidates col lopsed like egg shells when it struck them. The secret was not hard to find. Not Platt and Quay, whose object was to humiliate Hanna, could claim the victory. They might congratulate themselves that it was their work, but they wielded no magician's wand. The secret lay deep down in the hearts of the Republicans Of the country Roosevelt's name, unlike that of any other candidate, instantly struck a responsive chord in the popular breast. It captured the heart of the convention. It mattered nothing to the rank and file that Hanna and Allison and Grosyenor and Thurston and others felt chagrined and strained every nerve to stamp out the fire It mat tered not that even Roosevelt and his friends poured water upon it. Their efforts were as futile hand grenades against conhagration. The people would hear to no one else. They wore his pictures; they shouted his name They considered him to- day as already nominated. The town was Roosevelt-mad.
 The Governor himself was sincely anxious to avoid the nomination. Some of the friends of other candidates embittered by the havoc his increased with the prospects of their favorites, where harsh enough to s,t 10 hot hn had haa Hirfnp the situation from the first But his closest friends knew that honestly he want ed none of it. He appealed to them to stem the tide and they did what they could, reinforced at every point by Hanna and his lieutenants. General Greene, in his own be- half, even called upon delegations and in his name asked them not to support him. But the temper of the convention was un- deniable.
 Roosevelt Makes Statement
 Human nature has its limits, so at 4 o'clock this afternoon after day or ter rible pressure from both sides Roosevelt issued d statement. Though 1t thrusts aside the crownng words, 1t is regarded as a virtual surrender to the will of the con yention.
 The inside history of the struggle which preceded Roosevelts announcement, the secret conference of Hanna and his friends the joint conferences with Roose- VelI, tHe dppedlS, SiieiO1eiSo and even threats that were said to have been used will make a chapter forever memorable in convention annals.
 Every sort of story was afoat- It was said that Hanna served notice that Roose- velt's candidacy, although it would have been eminently acceptable at first, put forward as it was by the enemies of the administration, did not meet now with ap- proval and that the fight would be carried to the last ditch. Roosevelt was said to have been told by his friends that to yield would be to stand in his own light as a candidate for President four years hence; the Vice Presidency was the political graveyard from which he could not be resurrected. His place, they urged was at the head of the ticket in New York again this fall In the last proposition Roose- welt coneurped On the other hand 1t was said Platt emissaries argued that to turn his back on the manifest wish of the Re publicans of the country would be to for felt his right to the future support of the New York organization, and the Republi- cans of that state might look elsewhere for a candidate for Governor. Of course, there are those who are always uncharita- ble enough to attribute sinister motives to Platt.
 Platrs Object
 They intimated that he desired to kill two birds with one stone-eliminate Roosevelt from New York politics and humiliate hanna for his uncomplimentary criticism of Woodruff. Gossip among New Workers