The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1902-04-16
Washington
Day by Day


of Congress-; and It continues to be warm
| ly discussed.
| The petulant, ill-natured, ill-bred out
break of the enfeebled old mans temper
is held to mark vital stage in the pass
| ing of the chief buffoon of this genera
tion and therefore 1t Is not without its
| pathetic side.
| One of the most noticeable signs of the
day is the utter neglect of Mr.. Depew dis
played by his old friends the space-killers
| of the metropolitan newspapers. For
thirty years previous to the beginning OF
the current year he had been constantly
used to kill space, being relied upon day
by day to tell Joke" or grant an in
terview upon any and every possible sub
! ject; but he has been for the past few
months so entirely ignored fF the press
as to almost suggest kind of conspiracy
| against him formed by able city EDITORS
| and ADLER reporters. He has felt this very
| keenly, II Is said, and smarting under the
sting of lost notoriety he essayed his new
Senatorial role of snarling at the South
for the manifest purpose of again getting
himself talked about. His act was all
the more silly and reprehensible because
1t came at the very moment when the
whole country was ringing with Presi-
dent Roosevelt's great reception in the
| South and his extraordinary praise OF
| the Southerners.
Mr. Depew's recent theatrical ma'rf
monial performances are held mere 10
have been the immediate cause Oh MS
downfall from popular favor. Ine over
| whe,rnine mass of the American people,
more especially the toiers, hold the mar
rage relation to be sacred, and they re-
cent any and every attempt to make d
mere show of it, whether by oni.eo
states Senator for the Vanderbilts OF by
! the Vanderbilts in the divorce court
For months before Mr.. Depew's oio-
aee marriage the yellow journals siop-
harod and slobbered and slobbered over
the brilliant" thing, and great many
Journals not yellow gave up much space
! 10 the subject, which in the circumstance
was not happy to contemplate. his poi-
trait was published in a hundred diner
ont attitudes a thousand times, and the
same was true of what purported TO De
the portrait of the young woman VIM
was to wed him. OF course ne was re-
peatedly interviewed, and the Oldest OIL
bis "iokes'' were revised and publlsheo
as said Yesterday" The public got SICK
| ~ ~ and sicker still when the old man
of seventy gave his costly stag dinner IN
washington, "his farewell to single piess-
| edness," as the yellow journals called IT,
| stag" dinner in farewell 10 single
| blessedness'' given by venerable WIDOW
err of seventy who was about TO weo
/ girl young enough to be his granddaugn-
| ter was too much for the public stomach
And all that scandalous folderol about
the actual marriage in France!
Well. II proved the final undoing OF Mr..
Depew. He has aged greatly these four
months and has grown sour and ill-condi-
toned. That expansive and ancient cigar
box smile has departed never to RETURN
and he now shows those familiar big teeth
not at all except in ill-humor, such as he
SO suddenly manifested against the south
the other day. His days upon the eartn
are numbered as he seems to be aware.
It Is a pity that he should spend these
| last of his days in disappointment ana
bitterness. He who used never to abuse
ANYTHING or anybody except Englishmen
who had entertained him as their guest,
has come in the sunset of life to cast
slurs upon a third of the American peo-
| pie.
washington is a great leveler of men,
Perhaps the capital of no other country
is so great in that particular. No man is
a hero here. All great men and all men
who have assumed greatness since Grants
time have realized this.
| Washington has no respect for hum
bug and is Indifferent to genius. The
chief source of its merriment Is the POM
posity of the self-important, for WASH
ington is the most democratic town In
America or out of 1t. Demos reigns here
and he is mildly tolerant of the great
elected. An army of leading citizens
| from 1.-THE provinces discovered this be-
| fore It was found out by Mr.. Chauncey
Depew. Senator, or DR.. Talmage. preach
| err
When 1t Is said no man is hero here,
it is not meant that Washington doesn't
have its favorites, though they are very
few. Nowadays the town has two favor
ties, and their names serve to display the
broad democracy of the capital-Schley
and Hanna. Washington is emphatical-
ly and intensely partisan in its attach
ment to Admiral Schley; 1t will turn out
anv time to shout for him. And so with
Senator Hanna. If Mr.. Hanna were the
Republican nominee for President and
washington could vote, it would vote
| three or four to one against him, for In
the party sense, as in the broader sig
nffcance. washington is Democratic. Yet
II demonstrates the most cordial and dis
| interested friendship for Mr.. Hanna per-
sonally. Thus in the personal sense the
| town was devoted to Mr. Mckinley; but
It had little sympathy with Mr.. Harri-
son or Mr.. Cleveland, and no sympathy
at all with Mr.. Arthur or Mr.. Garfield.
With Mr.. Roosevelt the town does not In
the least concern itself; a condition of the
local public mind that is scarcely under
standable, for one would assume that the
| familiar reasons for the personal nom
popularity of Mr. Harrison and Mr.. Cleve-
make Mr.. Roosevelt popular But Mr..
Roosevelt was handicapped at the outset
by succeeding the President who was
better loved by Washington than any
other one who has occupied the White
House; and, then, the people here al
ways believed Mr.. Roosevelt was against
| Schley. until that belief was proved to
| be true AS for the cabinet officers,
| Washington Is friendly to Secretary Hay