The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-05-09
By r. NJ. Larner.


Washington. May 7.-Cleveland and
Francis is the Democratic ticket, sug-
gested by the recent festivities at st.
Louis.
The demonstration bestowed upon
Grover Cleveland far exceeded the ova-
ton given President Roosevelt or any
of the other distinguished visitors at
the dedicatory ceremonies at the
Worlds Fair. Those of us who were
present could not help being impressed
with the strong Cleveland sentiment
prevailing at every function at which
the former President appeared. In ev-
cry direction he was introduced and
greeted las the most distinguished prl-
vate citizen in the world" Some of
those officials who introduced him
presented him "as the most distinguish
ed private citizen in the United States"
but former Senator Carter, who presid-
ed over the dedication ceremonies, in
troduced him as the most distinguish
ed private citizen in the world" Here
after. that title will be linked to Mr..
Cleveland, whether he returns to the
White House again or remains at
Princeton, where he says Il am happy
here, and contented."
The people of St. Louis however, will
not accept the Cleveland Francis slate
as fixture. Their local pride asserts
itself and when they can get hearing
they insist that the ticket shall be
Francis first and Cleveland, or any
other Democrat in the United states,
for second place on the ticket.
Those who knew Grover Cleveland as
intimately as was possible during the
eight years he occupied the White
House found a remarkable change. in
his manner and his methods when they
met him at St. Louis last week. There
was an absence of. that cold. repellent
and indifferent manner in which ne
greeted his political acquaintance, and
instead he eVinced a disposition to min
gle with the boys, swap stories and
show congenial nature which had
never before been attributed to him. In
other words, he seems to have under
gone an entire change of nature and is
disposd to be broad minded, generous
and even humorous at times in dealing
with public questions.
He confessed to a personal friend
while in ST. Louis that while in pub
lie life he feared that he lacked tact
on various occasions which enabled GER
tain persons to form erroneous impress
sions of him and of his principles. Ex7
perience has given him a new light on
subjects which have heretofore been
dark. and in a general way he con-
fessed that he had misunderstood many
worthy people, and in turn had also
been misunderstood by persons whom
he supposed were his friends.
He showed no lack of tact, however,
in deftly parrying or evading every dl-
rect question as to his political future.
The most insistent and persistent m
ouiries along that line failed to lrrl-
tate him in the least. He simply
smiled good naturally and gave jok-
ing or an evasive reply which left the
interrogation totally in the dark as to
his intentions, but at the same time,
left an impression that "Barkis is will
in"
What MIR. Cleveland did and said In
st. Louis over-shadowed all the great
preparations for the dedication of what
promises to be the greatest exposition
the world has ever beheld. 1t Is the
intention. of the promoters of the st.
Louis enterprise to have it excel the
Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia,
the Worlds Fair at Chicago, the Pan
American Exposition at Buffalo, and
the Charleston West India Exposition.
GOV. Francis ana MS army oL assn
ciates have started out on most
elaborate scale, and there is no good
reason why their efforts should not be
crowned with success.
It is true there was some little con-
fusion attending the dedicatory cere-
monies, and perhaps some of the in
vited guests did not receive all the
honors and attentions they had antici-
pated. In justice to the managers OF
the exposition, it must be said that
they were called upon to receive, at
the same time, the President of the
United States, "the most distinguish
ed private citizen in the world the
Governors of seventeen sovereign
states, with their respective staffs'
and the national guard and regular
troops, numbering thousands. Besides
there was an unusually large represen-
tation of the diplomatic corps and rep
resentatives from nearly all the sec
lions of the globe. Under the circum-
stances, it might be reasonably ex-
pected that there would be some lit
tie hitch in the programme or that
there might be some inefficiency on