The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-16
THE sTALLrNGs-HEFLIN SIDE.
 SHOW.

For some weeks past tnere nave DSSi rumors that a Hearst presidential boon was about to be exploded in this State l It has been understood that its destinies had been confided to the tender care oi Jesse F. staiiings as chief manager. Il turns out, however. that the responsi' bility has staggered even the self-reliant Jesse, and he has called in help.
 On Monday night the Hearst boomiet was formally launched in Tuscaloosa by StaliinRs, ; with the assistance of that other clown of the Alabama stump. J. Tom Hefiin, These two political Dromios. with all their skill as mimics, seem to | have been fearful of the success of their show. for they followed in the wake of the Hobson- Bankhead hippodrome with their little tent as a sort of side show. l They probably calculated on catching the | overflow in order to ensure a good crowd. They succeeded in getting out several hundred people. who began to laugh. the moment the two mimics stood up. That is what most of them went for.
 The weakness of the Hearst boom could not have been more signally em- phasized than in the choice of those two .hot-air. artists as god-parents. Either the Hearst national managers were in desper- ation as to Alabama, or else they were steered up to the blunder by designing counsellors. If all Alabama had been picked for two men to give the Hearst candidacy a lack of dignity and serious ness, no inter leaders could have been found. Neither has the ear of the bulk of the intelligent. earnest, patriotic citizen ship of this State.
 In their speeches at Tuscaloosa these two Drculios seem to have been trying to conceal their real purpose. It may have been that they were ill-at-ease on account of :he unexpected presence of The Advertisers staff correspondent on the platform, to whom they had care lessly forgotten to mention their plan to speak in Tuscaloosa, though they travelled with him from Birmingham. More probably they did not want their political fiipfaps pictured to the rest of the state so soon.
 The bulk of the two speeches was d. rected against the conservative element of the Party, its purposes and it's lead ership. Mir. Cleveland. his last admin istration and his friends in Alabama are fearful to behold, according to the Hearst boomers. Now The Advertiser has no intention of trying to prove angels to be white, simply because some stage Meph- istopholes spits at them. That would be supererrogation. It does think it timely tc point out the incongruities of the pots trying to prove that there are kettles and that they are black.
 MT. Stallings was given a backseat in Alabama politics when he dared aspire to the office of Governor. He took the hint, left the District he had represented in Congress and the county of his life residence to settle down to the practice of law in Birmingham, where his peculiar talents are said to have secured a very lucrative Income. What has tempted him to take the stump again for a Presi- dential candidate whose cause Is espoused by only four Democrats in both houses of Congress2
 There is little propriety in a back number Alabama politician presumlng to roast the only national Democratic leader who has had the stamp of approval put upon him by the whole country in forty years past. There. is even less common sense in a man of his calibre and stua- tion ridiculing his betters here in Ala bama. -s 'z- ~-. t~ ---,,
 Mir. Heflin, In his role of Stallings's twin Dromio, has failed to look In the mirror and see what man. ner of man he is. He presumes to go back to 1890 to argue that, Thomas G. Jones was fraudulently nominated. If his mission is to find spots ln the Democratic record of Alabama why should he not have criticised the flaw in his own nomination for the office he holds? And if he is such model of public virtues. going out to let his light shine. why does he spend so much time travelling over the State listening to the sonorousness of his own voice and enjoy ing his own clownishness. when he ought to be in Montgomery attending to the duties of his office? Last week, the State Board of Assessment had to adjourn over until yesterday because he was absent. and yesterday he was in Tuscaloosa play ing second fiddle to Stallings.
 In his remarks, MT. Heflin took occa- sion to dwell upon barrels In campaigns. He talked about the late MT. Hanna's big barrel. and strung out some of his pret- tiest periods in sort of transport over the beauties of the Hearst barrel Now 1t is all right for Mir. Hefin to admire barrels in political campaigns. That is a matter of taste. which he may have ac- quired in the last few years in the Fifth District. But the bulk of Alabama Dem ocrats are old-fashioned They have never dreamed of selecting a Democratic presidential nominee on account of the size of his barrel. and they are not going to be blinded into such a blunder now by MT. Heflin's periods and grimaces.
 Take 1t altogether, the Stallings -Hefiln- Hearst side-show does not bid fair to turn l Alabama upside down.
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 THEY WANT REUTST0N e.