The Irish standard., 1903-08-15
Born in Ireland Fifty Years Ago and Educated
in France He Game to America
When Seventeen.
His Speech on the Wilson Bill in January
1894 not Surpassed Since Webster
Left the Arena.

,
CRY mind. Contrast his speech OH the
Wilson bill with Bryan's, made the
same legislative day, if you would see
the logician after the order of Adam
Smith and the ad captandum debater
after the order of Frederic Bastiat,
and as an orator the superiority of the
Irishman was even more apparent.
Judged by its efforts-by the en-
thusasm it created among his sup
porters and the dismay it carried into
the ranks of his opponents-Bourke
CoclSran's speech on the Wilson tariff
bill in January, 1894, was the greatest
effort it has ever been the fortune of
the writer to hear. At it's conclusion
the House was in tumult for full
quarter of an hour, and, with Ed
mund Kean, he might have exclaimed:
oh it, Mary, the pit rose to mew
AS an academic discussion of d great
political question I do not believe that
speech has been surpassed since Web
ster left the arena. He did not dis
cuss the question as Carlisle did when
he challenged Sherman, Aldrich and
Hoar in the debate Of the wool sched-
ules of the Mckinley bill, nor was the
speech much like Thomas B. Reeds
splendid effort closing the debate on
the Wilson bill. Blaine was never so
dramatic, and the rich vocabulary of
Conkling was equaled here by Il man
who was master of many tongues. The
speech fulfilled the definition of ora
tory as expressed by the greatest of
parliamentary orators-it was reason
red-hot. He was under 40. Wendell
Phillips said that Daniel O'Connell
was the first orator of modern times,
and Phillips had heard Webster 1t is
very doubtful if O'Connell was great
er orator than Cochran. But this man
was no mere dress-parade orator. In
committee Of the whole the Monday
after he made his set speech he was
the debater par excellence There is
the test-that five-minute rule in the
House of Representatives 1t is the
melee. There Thor with his hammer
strikes error to the ground. There
Occur de Lion overthrows Front de
BOeuf and Athelstane. In Texas, when
the state cooking main draws to a
conclusion, a dozen game roosters are
pitted against one another in battle
royal. That is the committee of the
whole The survivor is the cock of
the walk. Cochran was the survivor.
Tom Reed was very badly crippled. If
the brilliant Irishman had been Ed
mund Burke few days before he was
now Bagneal DAILY. 1t was Il fight for
a Stephen A. Douglas, or Thaddeus
Stevens, or James G. Blaine, or
Ben Hill, and no one could have
made it better than did Cochran
Payne dragged Reed into the melee,
and Boutelle and Dingley also partici-
pated, and all of them were discom-
fitted. Reeds sarcasm was fierce in
the extreme. 1t seemed that he was
not altogether satisfied with some of
the mannerisms of Cochran. Then he
entered upon an argument involving
different sorts of wealth. Like every
thing that came from that eXtraordin-
ary man it was a very strong plea, but
the Republicans themselves confessed
that for that occasion Cochran was
the victor, and eXcelled in sarcasm
even as much as he did in argument.
Then a very strange thing happened
or, rather, it happened sitting or two
later Of the committee of the whole
Having failed when advancing their
cohorts along the ordinary lines Of in
tellectual controversy, the Republicans
put forward champion bound by no
rules. ordinary or extravagant. Emerg-
ing from the cloakroOm was n COM
pactly built, ruddy. gray-haired. vigor-
Gus man. and in strideM tones he de-
manded. "Let me at him! Let me at
him! 1t was Joseph Henry Walker.
Now it would be just as easy to
eradicate a prolific crop of artichokes
with cambric needle as to urge
against any opinion or prejudice enter
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