Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-21
DEATHS HEAD AT A FEAST. ,,
Henry Watterson's View of Cleveland
at Tilden Club.

dispatch from Louisville last night
says: Under the caption "a Deaths Head
at the Feast Mr.. Watterson will have the
following to say in Saturdays Courier
Journal regarding Mr.. Cleveland's harmony
speech at the Tilden Clubs banquet:
The democratic party is not SO rich
| either Membership or in position of STRAIT
| egic advantage that it can afford to re-
| ject good counsels from any quarter, but
| surely 1t has the right to draw the line
on Grover Cleveland
| ITO Mr.. C1eveland's insufficiency, to use
no harsher term 1t owes its undoing The
| claim that he is the one man who has
| led 1t to national victory in forty years
| falls to the ground when it is recalled that
| in 1884 he won the election by a doubtful
margin in the state of New York, which he
had carried the year before by a majority
of nearly 100000; that in 1888 he lost the
election through his fatuous vanity and
selfconfidence, and that in 1892, the Home
stead riots, which transferred the vote of
the labor unions bodily from the republic
| cans to the democrats, made the defeat
of the democratic ticket impossible.
Those who know him will not deny to
Mr.. Cleveland a personality all his own
He is man of great force of will and
dominancy Of character. Democrats have
a superstition in favor of what Is called
'Jacksonian f1rmnesS.' Courage, indeed, is
a popular attribute with all classes of the
people. Mr.. Cleveland has gained largely
in popular favor by reason of the ascrip-
ton of sturdiness and integrity which his
panegyrists have assiduously cultivated.
Neither his honesty nor his hardihood
need be gainsaid in order to prove his de-
ficiency as a party leader, though both
have been most violently assailed.
at Is enough to declare that he found
the party, what Mr.. Tilden had made it,
moral unit; great, compact body or
fighting men; and that, having twice be-
rod will ha-
trayed it-for his own selfish ends, he left
It, leaderless and divided, to the mercy of
the winds and waves of factionalism. called
into being by his own lack OF generosity
and foresight
Even down to the Chicago convention
of 1896 Mr.. Cleveland stood in the middle
of the road blocking the way alike Of
friend and foe who might desire. or seek.
the nomination Of that convention. He
could not be induced to efface himself.
Whilst he was from day to day pretend
ing that he would issue a farewell ADDRESS
to his PARTY, taking himself from out the
range of possible nominees, member of
his cabinet without rebuke. was permitted
earnestly to urge him for a fourth time
upon the party.
t.EJe literally held Carlisle whilst Carlisle's
enemies skinned him. But later along when
a sacriicial nomination was In issue he was
prompt, even vociferous. in his refusal to
candidate for a fourth nomination; he
thought the fractional troubles in the party
would bring this about
ut seems a kind of irony that it should
be a Tilden Club to welcome Mr.. Cleve-
lands baleful re-entry to political activities.
Mr.. Tilden died with words of scorn and
contempt upon his lips for Grover Cleve-
land He understood perfectly the coarse
texture Of Mr. Clevelands physical and
mental makeup, his obtuse selfshness. his
ignorant obstinacy. his vulgar seaf-asser-
ton, his indefatigabie duplicHy.
'.That Mr.. Cleveland should put himself
forward as conjecturable party leader is a
proof Of self-confidence which would be
| sublime If it were not sinister. because
leadership with him means Office and moth
| ing but Office. From the day he was one
| and twenty till now, he has been an Office
seeker He never drew a disinterested res
| pira ton in all his life.
1--WE are not permitted therefore to see
| in this artfully timed and ostentafious re-
appearance upon the scene from which he
Withdrew into the conspicuous shade of a
great university anything except the organ
| ization of presidential boom, as 1t is
called. mr..
/ 1--WE rather think the party will agree
without much division that 1t has had its