The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1904-06-24
"JEFFERSONIeN SIMPLICITY"
From an Address of Robert 8. Roose-
Welt Before the Thirteen Club
Of New York City.

Of New Work City.
The days of JeffersOnian simplicity
are over. l have a sympathy with
them. Not alone in politics, but IN
temperament democrat, have pre-
ferred plain ways, the cheap coat, the
man in the cheap coat if he is a bet
ter and brighter man, than the one in
the dear coat. | like to walk on my
two Independent feet rather than be
cramped in the grand and imposing
carriage with two men on the box.
would not even care TO change my
plain Old-fashioned residence for the
most gorgeous modern palace facing
the Central park or browning the
Riverside drive.
But / am far from quarreling with
the man who thinks and feels other
wise, and sometimes | have had
doubts about the sincerity of the sim
plicity of which we have heard so
much. Was there not little too much
in the riding up to the capitol, hitch
ing the horse to a post and stepping
in to the court room to take the oath
of Office? Is there any special virtue
or superiority in wearing old clothes?
Perhaps our people have grown in
dignity; possibly this dignity may
verge on pomposity; but would our
citizens approve if the chief magis-
trate of this great and powerful ma
ton were today to so disregard the
ordinary proprieties and amenities as
to follow these examples? 1t seems
like sacrilege, but his enemies ac-
cused this great man-ThOmas Jeffer-
son-for great he was beyond ques-
tion-of being something too much of
a mere politician in setting his ways
so cOnspicuously against the elegan-
cies of Hamilton, his chief opponent,
who came over here with all the
French finicky niceities and proprie-
ties of his mothers race.
There is no reason for not giving
him credit for sincerity. The world
moves and has kept on moving.
Riches accumulate and manners
change. The lstage coach has given
way to the railroad car, the slow-go-
ing sailing ship to the palatial steam
boat, and the horse and wagon to the
automobile. And the world now
travels in the railroad car, the steam
er, the automobile whenever it can.
Our ancestors would have done so if
they could.
Simplicity in itself appeals to some
natures; for instance simple life at
home. The great leader of New
York society, Ward McAllister, the
unquestioned arbiter i'm the most diff
cult role that man can fill, that per-
tanning to fashionable life, said that adj
mission to the ranks of the sacred
Four Hundred was determined by one
fact-cOuld the applicant seat thirty
guests at dinner? Persons who are
fond of simplicity would say that
thirty people at dinner constitute a
rabble or mass meeting, or what is
known as public banquet" instead
of peaceful, sacred, perfect, private
function. But as our home palaces
grow grander and grander thirty
covers will be a trivial affair, and the
veriest simplicity of entertainment
and seating capacity of at least one
hundred required for admission to the |
holy of hOlies.
read of two French candidates for |
the position of deputy in their nation
al assembly. One went from place to |!
place in the country addressing his
and explaining the need |
which the nation had of his services,
and when he got through his address
es he turned his pockets inside out,
saying, in that striking French way,