The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1903-10-30
EARLY a Y
Former Iowa Man Tells of HomeIy
Virtues, of Former President.

$50. teuSS VI EoIIIlSF ETOSlQSnI.
Judge Yeomans, a member of the
interstate commerce commission, at
Washington, is a life long friend of
Ex-President Cleveland. Few men un-
derstand Mr.. Cleveland better or are
on more intimate term with him. AL
though Judge Yeomans was appointed
to office from Iowa, he is q native Of
Buffalo. N. Y, and was closely iden-
titled with the early political struggles
of Mr.. Cleveland. He tells two stories
illustrative Of the rugged honesty of
the ex-president.
Judge Yeomans was a member of a
committee that waited or Mr.. Cleve-
land to ask him to enter the race for
the democratic nomination for of
Buffalo. The proposition was agree
oil to Mr.. Cleveland until he learned
to nominate on the ticket with him for
city comptroller an ex-Buffalo office
holder who had failed to account for a
considerable part of the public funds
he had handled. Mr.. Cleveland and
the others believed that this man had
embezzled the funds and that his
friends, to save him from disgrace, had
made good the shortage before it be-
came known, and thus prevented pub
lie scandal that would have injured
their party.
Il shall not accept your nomination.
- yOo 1uIeLu 10 put CnaC man on the
ticket with me-" declared Mr.. Cleveland
to his callers. II suspect too strongly
that he is a rascal to permit my name.
to be associated with his. If you want
me to become your candidate you must
crop consideration of this name for a,
place on the ticket, and, moreover, I
make as a condition Of my Acceptance Of
your nomination for mayor that in your
convention your reverse the order of
nominations and lame the mayoralty.
candidate last, SO that If the man OBJ
Ject1onable to me hould develop
strength enough to secure the nomina-
ton for comptroller over my quiet pro-
test, my name shall not be presented to
the convention"
we realized that Mr. Cleveland was
the only man we could elect" said
Judge Yoemans, 'and, Of course, we
did as he demanded. Not half a dozen
persons in Buffalo Knew that the man
slated for comptroller had been helped
u Of a bad scrape by his friends, and
1 am certain his nomination would not
have hurt the ticket. Even Mr.. Cleve-
land, or 'Cleve,' as we called him in
those days, acknowledged this, but ne
refused ~stnhhccnly to be associated in
n way with a man in whose integrity
he had no confidence. I state what I
know to be g, fact when I tell you that
Mr.. Cleveland did not then have any
political ambition, SO that his refusal to
81 Ou The tlCkeL WIN q man whose
character was not what it should be
was due wholly to his own ideas Of self
respect and honor."
The other instance given by Judge
Yeomans is even more typical of this
trait in Mr.. Cleveland's character than
the one just cited. In Mr.. Cleyeland's
absence from Buffalo, his law firm ac-
cepted at a large fee the case of a
wealthy contractor whose methods in
getting Jobs through the municipal
legislature were characteristic of his
class of man. When his partners in
formed him Of what they had done in
his absence, Judge Yeomans says Mr..
roared out his disapproval IL
language h a can be reduced to print
only in dashes for the most part. IT
would rather prosecute that scoundrel
than help conduct a case for him in
Volving a suit for money that he has
earned by corruption" exclaimed Mr..
Cleveland. Tell him we would not take
his case If his fee We're twenty times as
big as he has offered"
both Of these are actual occurrences
that came directly under my OBSERVE
tion," said Judge Yeomans. IT relate
them only to show hat the dominant
and strongest element in Grover Cleve-
character is a rigid and old-fash-
Toned sense Of honor that makes it i'm
possible for him to excuse the lack Of
it in others"