The San Francisco call., 1904-03-25
POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY.

ton candidates and candidates. and never
before has there been just such candidate as Mr. Will
liam Randolph Hearst just such peculiar features as
make up his campaign for the nomination Therefore,
let us marvel his candidacy has reached the bio
graphical stage nearly four months before the nominal
ing convention meets
We have been favored with copy of his biography,
perhaps autobiography the exact term since the
work those intimate and personal revelations
which only originate with himself The title page is
ornamented with picture OF the American eagle, who
be making desperate effort to sit UP and look
pleasant. Under the bird is picture OF Mr. Hearst,
with turndown collar, neckte and air of nscrutabiy,
and the tte guarantees that the pamphlet contains "a
sketch of his life describing his personality, his busi-
ness capacity and his Democracy"
perusa of the ensuing pages convinces that the
gentlemen who declamed against him, at the recent
meeting of the Democratic State Committee, had not
read the little book, nasmuch their descriptions diff
fered radically from the disclosures it makes He is
described his oreth year. tall of stature broad of
shoulder and deep of chest How overlook
these qualifications for the Presidency! In descent he
comes the paterna side from South Carolina, and
the maternal from the Randophs of Virginia. This
ries him back to Pocahontas and makes him OF royal
blood for his King Powhattan, and
the old feud between that royal person and the
Smith family
Then occurs gap between Powhattan and pilgrimage
Harvard College for the biography states that che
went to Harvard College" There structural
defect for nothing said about what he did when he
went" that he back. The imagination is
left leap and play in this break and the tale jumps
religious statement to the effect that he follows the
faith of his fathers and baptized in the Episcopal
church. The writer seems to have regarded this
needul of further evidence and another leap is taken
from baptism matrmony and it is boldly proclaimed
that he was married at Grace Church, New York, by
Bishop Potter
1t seems, thcn have occurred to the writer that
there must be logically either for hav
ing the ceremony in such arisocratic surroundings
for its performance by the Bishop and explanatory
clause nterpolated the effect that the Bishop has
been his friend from boyhood." All that being happily
disposed Of his career publisher of aggressive
newspapers pleaded and his "uninchng perve force
is weighed and measured. His virtues are circumnavi-
gated and it is forgotten magnify them by the
that they have been subjected to and fire.
quent temptation
That they resisted is made plain, for powerful uhu-
ences failed to him." The reader is then led by
uneasy stages the information that he rsked his yacht
his life the firing line Santiago and 'n the
thick of BATTLE with his hands captured a dozen
prisoners, and magnanimously turned them the
United States, instead of keeping them for his
Then the story declines to placid level, and de-
care that since his of battle and of blood he has
never owned yacht stable, and "has
owned horse since those his father gave him soon after
he left college sold" This is excessively ambigu-
donee of several horses If the other hand rely
the verb he received only horse We regret
uncertainty. The main thing the people want to know
about Presidential candidate is, not merely whether he
is now induging in the immortality of owning horse
but whether he refused be corrupted by horses
resisted the Establishments of only horse 1t
be remembered that all these things have be thrashed
in the campaign. Mr. Hearst puts his virtue on trial
by horsepower and the people will want to know
whether it refused to bulge when pulled by
single horse
While the subject of yachts horses and means Of
getting the land and water the biography partially
exhausts it by laudng the skill of the candidate as A
chauffeur He enjoys automobling "as diversion but
has taken part in speed considers
dangerous foolish Here appears another of those
clare himself the bicycle we'll as the automobile
disclosing his views the bicycle. No friend of the
plain people can sit inside of himself on that issue
After declaring with commendabe postveness that he
demands that automobiles shall be sold cheap so that
they be enjoyed by the poor the narrative proceeds
Intellectual attempt describe his charms of man
In speech he is quiet and convincing and avoids a
waste of words His concentration is affirmed to be
marvellous. He considers only thing at time and
shoves of his mind all things and padocks the
gate of thought until he has dgested that one subject
1t is then released and the close another From
his intellectual Bastle nothing escapes until its bones
are picked In his public speeches he not dealer "n
the flowers of poesy" and refrains from appealing to
prejudice and passion 1t intmaed however that if
he chose he could the very stones to mutiny and
rage.
He admits that his energy stupendous" and takes
the risk OF informing his left hand of the conduct of the
bv admitting that na-so,