The Savannah morning news., 1904-08-21

behalf in a presidential campaign, but
he made a great series of short
speeches one year, when on tour over
the country, that showed him to be
master of the short popular address.
In the first Mckinley campaign he
made a small number of longer adj
dresses, which carried his audience
away in a whirlwind of enthusiasm.
"A popularity of HarIisons cam
paign speaking was the fact that he
never failed to disappoint his audiences
twice. first by his small stature and
apparent lack of voice and general inn
pressiveness. and later by his solid
merit as a speaker, his real impress
siveness and his convincing earnest
ness" said a man who heard Harri-
son in Carnegie Hall that year.
when the eX-President came out
upon the stage he looked like nothing
so much as a fullgrown, middle-aged
brownie. He was much stouter than
a man of his rather low stature should
be, his legs were too short and his
head was too large. All these personal
peculiaritieS were emphasized by his
evening costume. I had never seen him
before. and 1 was rather Crestfallen
over the figure he cut. At first his
voice, thin and reedy, and hardly audi
BILE in the rear of the house. added to
the generally unfavorably impression.
But, as he continued, his voice rounded
and strengthened, and gradually be-
came clearer until it reached every
nook and Granny of the place. Mean
while the audience, at first unrespon-
sive, warmed up and began to cheer.
Long before the speaker had finished
he was swaying the big audience be-
fore him, as the wind sways a field of
wheat"
COnkling's Campaign In so.
Roscoe Conkling was one of the
greatest campaigners of his time, and
his most noteworthy stumping tour
was made in 1880, in company with
Gen. Grant. on behalf of Garfield.
There had been a great deal of doubt
whether the Senator with the Hyperion
curl and the victorious general of the
Civil War would fight before the vot-
ers for the election of Garfield. owing
to the bitterness engendered at the
nominating convention that year. They
finally consented, though, and the
tour was a memorable one, though
nothing like so extended as McKinley's
in 1894, or Bryan's in 1896 and 1900.
Conkling had not the sort of magnet
ism possessed by Bryan, or the heart
to-heart way of putting up a simple
talk that made McKinley's common
sense stump speeches so effective, but
he carried his audiences with him by
sheer force of brilliant, intellectual,
convincing oratory.
4 FRstidiOus Orator.
The most fastidious of men in his
dress. he yet used to speak in a bust
ness suit, with a sack coat, generally
| checked and rather loud, and he some
times wore a red necktie. He never
resented an interruption, but always
turned it in his favor Cleverly. and gem
orally without trying to make a joke.
Once, when the police tried to remove
! humorously drunken man who per-
sisted in making his way to the plat
! form, where he sprawled all over the
| steps, the Senator stopped the officers
/ Let him stay if he is quiet" he said
| He does no HARM"
! This tolerance on the part of the
campaigner did almost as much to
capture the audience as did the most
fervid, most brilliant periods of the
address which followed.
Barring Bourke Cochran, and per-
haps Mr. Bryan, neither Mr.. Taggart
nor Mr.. Cortelyou will have at his
command this year any campaign
speakers known to be as effective be-
fore the people as were the half dozen
great campaigners of other days men
toned in this article.
Copyright, 1904, by P. E. Eastment)