The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1902-02-07
GROVER CLEVELAND.
William Allen White has written


sketch of Grover Cleveland for
McClure's Magazine for February.
In that part of the article devoted
to Cleveland's younger days Mr..
White writes as follows:
"The best homes IN Buffalo were
open to him. but he could not be
called a social butterfly. Indeed,
if he owned a dress suit before he
went to Albany as Governor, no one
ever saw him wear it. He chose
to live a mans life. He devoted
his leisure hours to hunting and
fishing, and was 4 familiar figure OH
the Niagara River i'll his fishing
hoat. AS soOu as he could afford
1T, Cleveland left his uncle's home.
and moved his traps 10 bed room
over his law office. La those days
he was tall, hurley, hard aced,
soft-voiced, but quick-spoken fellow
hard headed, hard living, hard
working, close listed, honest. sturdy
and manly. He had the young ami
malls desire to drink and eat well
! When he loafed, he loafed with
men. in clubs and IN the resorts aud
haunts of the young bachelors of
the city. A man is said to be no
stronger than his stomach, and
| Cleveland's stomach was az hard as
his head and his face and his hands.
Whatever he put in his stomach by
night did not trouble him by day,
but he never lost an opportunity to
| make the most of himself.
s'In the law he was a plodder. He
won his cases by digging, not 10y in
spiration. AS Assistant District
Attorney he became a good trial
lawyer, but he never was an orator.
He was good talker, because he
knew his case He impressed jury
with his passionate sincerity"
Of Cleveland as Governor his BIZ
ographer says:
ale worked this way for two
years, with no sense of scenic effect.
stage business. or curtain time. Oc
casionally he did a great thing, but
he did it without any rela ion to
any thing else, and merely because il
was part of his days work. 1t was
without climax, and sometimes
passed without applause. But it
was all honest and all true aud all
brave in perfectly impersonal sort
of way, as a rock i'll fortress is
brave because it cannot realize dan
ger nor avoid it. This spectacle
was most remarkable in American
political life. Nothing like it had
ever been seen before. For two
years, as Governor of New York,
Grover Cleveland stood as the one
strong, looming figure in the ma
ton"
Cleveland as President appears in
this aspect to Mr.. White: .'Cleve-
land as a statesman will be remem-
bered as the man who stopped
things. He checked abuses; he
prevented bad men from accom-
plishing their schemes; he warded
off impending calamity; he reduced
revenues and saved taxes; he stayed
the ebbing tide Of public credit; he
throttied anarchy; he stopped for
eign ACKNOWLEDGEMENT On the Amerl-
can continent. Always be was the
safety valve. He brought 10 new
doctrine to the people; he had no
theory of government merely All
ideal of duty for the hour. lie
founded no institutions; in the polit-
ical life of his time he constructed
nothing. AS statesman he will be
remem bered as ore who every hour
of the working day did what he
thought was exactly right, and who
never attempted to guide the cur
rent of the public business, but al
ways to see that the business was
honestly and wisely done. He was
a modest, industrious pub ic servant,
who lived SO closely to the motto
"A public Office is public trust,
that people came to believe that be
invented (which he did not. He
must remain to posterity a disem-
b ,died spirit, an ideal of houests
bearing a mans name the symbol
of a national inspiration tow ards
public virtue.
"Time has mellowed Cleveland,
and experience has taught him a
kind philosophy. There is tinct-
ure of humor on his outer face now,
and strong and placid light of hap
piness glowing from his heart. He
fills in his days with writing, read
ing aud recreation. When duty
prompts him to say a thing, he says
it in few words and i'll good taste
Youth still tempts him out fishing
aud hunting, and he loves the fields
and woods and waters as he loved |
them when ruddy checked boy.
He has lived to see his enemies put
to rout, and much that he advocated,
vindicated by events and justified
by the ballots of his cOuntrymen
Nature has checked in his face the
lines that followed the days and
nights of hard living and hard work
ing in the years of his youth. But
behind those lines there is another
face "a serene, exalted face-which
shines out of strong, uncouquera-
BILE soul-a righteous, rock anchored
soul"