The St. Louis Republic., 1904-01-25
HYPHENATED HARMONY

HYPHENATED HARMONY
Has Johnny got knife I'D his sleeve:r Thj.
question is slowly creeping in upon the intelligence
| OF some st. Louis Hamilton Club members Its sig
| nihcance is revealed by a cursOry review of the
| dual experience of the new dual organization
There were the humble eighty" and the proud
-Four Hundred in politics The humble eighty
| were just "the boys" They made no nro,ensions
to exalted motives. They wouldn't have re,oonized
| great Republican principle if they had ma, il
| coming down the steps of the City Hall They
| weren't up party history. Some of them doubt.
less didn't even know that Mr. Roosevelt was q Re.
publican. They didn't care who carried Maryland
and were indifferent to victory in Illinois The o
o. p. signfed nothing to them. But they could tell
You something about Republican primary: have 10
doubt on that score
why is Court of Criminal Corrections" was
no riddle to the humble eighty. Naturalization
was pregnant term. We got moon vet amt
it: was perfectly ineligible; and they knew, at
least by hearsay, the difference between a birthday
party and an American brthright. Such high
sounding things American birthrights by the
way, made them tired, and they had very little use
for people who talked about them Consequently
they held in more or less contempt the swell
gazebos' who constituted the Four Hundred These
impossible from the practical viewpoint of the gang
But the Four Hundred, oddly. did not look upon
the eighty as being without the pale. So far from
looking down upon their humber and more practical
brethren of the four-score. the Four Hundred, be-
tween games of ping pong in the parlOr, discussed
the utilitarianism Of the primary magicans and the
ethics involved in possible union with them. The
utilitariansm of the unregenerates seemed stack
UP pretty well against their own Utopian useless
ness, and union with the result -getters promised
jolly we'll for pie, which is a deucedly important
desideratum: in fact. almost sine qua ron. So
the Four Hundred cut out the ethical considera-
TONS and union finally resulted.
But what motives ask you could bring the brave
little fOurscore come into the fold of the Four
Hundred: History must be left to answer the ques-
ton in its way.
As bearing upon the probable answer, however,
certain facts may be considered among them these:
1t cropped out at a meeting of the Four Hundred
several weeks ago. when they were discussing the
contemplated union. that a sophist and pointed
to the fact that Johnny Owen, Esquire had in
remarkably short time made himself pretty much
the main squeeze in the little fourscore band.
snow continued the sophist, IF Johnny so
readily climb into the capaincy and control of those
practical politicians, what will he do to if We
tdhc uiIu anu u,om IN Win us! why, ne won 90
a thing but move around in our large and COM
modiOus organization and cinch the whole thingr'
The Solar Walkers paused with their pin-pong
rackets in midair to listen to what seemed to be a
clncher. They were about to be convinced and TO
resume the play when a grizzled and genuine old
philosopher and exclaimed. BY Cracky,
Gentlemen! If Johnny Owen is a slick enough poll
tican to corral that bunch Of eighty, he's the very
man ought to get for our Iayout-we need some
body like that There getting around this
proposition.
But the interesting fact to be noticed in consider
ing the initial question. Has Johnny got a knife up
his sleeve" is this: In the old days Johnny a
member of the st. Louis Republican Club itself, and
Johnny was rather unceremoniously fired, together
with fifteen other members of the old Republican
City Committee. 1t took Johnny just about four
minutes to start his Hamilton Club; and we have
seen that it didn't take the Hamilton Club very
long to get strong enough to he harmoniously
byphenated with the other. Does Johnny still bear
the old grudge? Has Johnny got knife up his
sleeve?