The National tribune., 1904-07-14
wAsHMGT9N THURSDAY H. 1904
U. S. TREASURY RECEIPTS.

bring order, for the House was simply
bowling itself black in the face in its mer-
riment and gIee. If the gentleman from
it that way-"if the gentleman from Ala
banner is lost in the mazes of his own ora
tory, how can he expect the Speaker of the
House, who belongs to the Crime of 13
party to he able to extricate him? The
Speaker of this House is not sign post
for the Democratic party" An then the
House went crazy again.
Washington is the Secretary of Agriculture,
the tag end but one. Secretary Wilson
had planned delightful Summer vacation,
but the sudden death of Col. Brigham. As
sistant Secretary of Agriculture. leaves him
stranded. as there is now nobody with pow
er to act in his absence. 1t is not prob
able that there will be any appointment
till Fall.
5" 'Tis the last Rose of Summer, left bloom
ing alone,
All its lovely companions are faded and
gone.
I'll not leave thee. thou lone one, to pine
on the stem,
Since the lovely are sleeping. go sleep
thou with them"
Dedicated to William Jennings Bryan,
the ''Cheerless one" who comes out of the
Convention of st. Louis weak
er than Sampson when shorn of his power,
because Sampson knew that that power
might come again. Bryan's never will.
1t may be that there are not many ex-
cept those who sat in the House that Win
ter day decade ago, who remember the
Nebraskan, boy Billee" he was called
then. and the fervid oratory with which
III, H. ,,1,, ckaI
through the painted glass ceiling. Oh, it
was a great speech 1t certainly was. 1t
was Bryan's very first,-and his last, for
he never was able to write another. He
rang the changes on that silver speech from
the campaign of 1890 until he got his in
nngs on the floor of the House when Crisp
was Speaker and Tom Reed, whose rules
pie LAY" member, shorn of his giant power
by hostile Democratic House.
Bryan's speech had grown threadbare
and had to be linked heavily at many of the
seams by the time he got chance to battle
the House of Representatives in the music
of his eloquence, but he patched it up-the
speech. there was never anything the mat
ter with the siren voice of Boy Billee-
and at the end of 1.-THE speech, for there
has been no end to the voice until now
Mr.. Bryan pointed to the big man from
Maine, who was one of the very very few
who survived the silver shock
in that disastrous campaign and came back
to Congress. and addressed the remainder
of his remarks to him..
Tom Reed sat back in his chair, which
was propped sidewise in the space, his arms
spread out on the desk at his back and
front. his face white as his shirt front,
but set and stern as he glowered across the
IL Al .A- ne
desks at the black-haired boy who was, in
the exuberance of youth and fictitious pow
er. trying to hammer the Titan into powder
to scatter to the four winds of heaven in
the campaign then coming on. In pur-
suance of this idea. Bryan began to quote
1.-The Last Rose of Summer" The au-
dacity of the action stilled the House, alb
solutely. The clear, pathetically pitched
tones OF the boy orators voice reached to
the distant corners of the big hall. 1t was
a Democratic House.
One whole verse OF PATHS great song
had been rehearsed, before those listening
to it caught the humor Of Bryan's use of
it. Then a mighty roar went up. The
went wild in their glee. Finally Bryan
got chance to proceed with his recita-
tiOn-he was an elocutionist before he
came to Congress-and when he got to the
words:
"Irl not leave thee: thou lone one to pine
on the stem,"
the enthusiasm burst all bounds, and as
he finished with
"Since the lovely are sleeping. go sleep
thou with them"
members crowded in on him and boosting
him to their shoulders carried him into the
cloak-room, while the House rang with
cheers. shouts and songs and indescribable
confusion reigned for = minutes.
Did the lovely sleep? Well they just
did. Bryan, the Boy Orator of the Platte,
was elected to stay at home good and hard.
Tom Reed and his friends came back into
power with the beastiest majority ever
held by political party in the House.
He was elected Speaker. And Bryan! The
world knows the rest. That sibilant silver
voice led its party on the rocks at Chicago,
and its siren sweetness kept the frail bark
floating in those same waters until after
the Kansas City Convention four years
later, and now? This man, once
A king among kings
finds none SO poor as to do him reverence" ;"
:" 'Tis the last rose of Summer" indeed,
a faded, frazzled. -out-of-date rose, which,
needless of the warning that too late and
too persistent blooming would invite chill
ing frosts, butted into the ice wagon at ST.
Louis.
Representative Bowie (Ala.) is a visitor
in the National Capital, and seems to be
getting whole lot of fun out of sticking
his prototype under the ribs of the Repub-
lican party. He says, don't you know, that
this is Democratic year. He says, too,
that beside electing a Democratic Presi-
dent there will be elected a Democratic
Congress. Mr.. Bowie, who up to
now has had no fame outside of hay
ing been elected to the House from a dead
sure Democratic district in Alabama, pro-
phesies and protests too much. When he is
older in politics he will talk less-and
know more.
The game Of politics has the Daughters
OF the American Revolution guessing. That
way-up aristocratic organization has az
hard time settling the question Of its
Presidency az either Of the great political
parties. A few years ago the Daughters
had President whom they did not like vet
seemed not to be able to get rid Of peace
ably under their Constitution. So they set
about changing the Constitution of the Ma
tiOnal body, and the service of the said
President-General was cut short by the
statute Of limitation" under the new rules.
Then Mrs. Charles w. Fairbanks was elect
ed President General.
Mrs. Fairbanks, be it known, is Just
about as cute politician as there is In the
whole bunch. She knows things, and she
A1s