The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-21

have laughed. Behind the laughter,
he would nave thought: IF these
things should come to me, 1 would
be happy"
They came. Platt has been mas
ter. He has ruled with an iron hand
and a cunning brain. His power has
not yet waned. He is yet a dictator.
He controls the political and legisla-
tive machinery. not only of the State
of New York but he has the second
greatest hive of humanity practically
at the end of his finger. Platts life
has been in many ways and almost
constantly a personal triumph. He
has been fighter. He has numbered
his enemies by the thousands. slain
them, trampled them, crushed them,
down or out-witted them when they
ventured in the open against his will.
His life has been in some ways a
romance. 1t has been an appealing
experience that he has had. The man
does not live VINO does not enjoy the
many and the frequent times that
| Boss Plat has been buried" His
grave has been dug time and time
again by political foes and the fact
has been stated in the big type that
| Plat was defeated at last. Always
| Plat has come up smiling, stronger,
lsurer, more resourceful and more Wig
orous than before. He has been the
| ideal of the man whose fetch is sue
cess: he has charmed thinkers, stu
dents and poets by the glamour of
his accomplishments. If selfshness
was ever enobled, it is in the person
of the grizzled Senator from the great
est State in the Union. The very
manner in which he took the Sena-
| torship with his hands, the very unan-
nifty of outrage at his election must
have gratified his vanity.
They don't want me, eh?" We can
| imagine Plat saying at the turmoil.
We'll, they'll see that when 1 and
| they want different things, that l gen
orally win
Outside of any prejudice. beyond
any conviction as to the character Of
the man himself, there is something
fine about the quality of T. C. Platt's
success. something that appeals to the
Imagination like the sight of big
man, or the smell of a grand fight. He
is one of those whom we admire for
what he has done-however he may
have done it. We feel that here is a
man who has had his way. AS most
men live on compromise, we do not
understand, and We romance over the
brute will that wins its way quite as
much as We are inclined to defy the
brute body that will not be afraid, and
that hammers opposition into a pulp.
The two qualities are in some sort the
same in their appeal and their fascina-
ton To have either the mental or the
physical championship is dream that
bites at the appetite of the average
man.
Yet here is T. C. Platt giving utter
ance to a sentiment such as comes
from the disappointment of first
love. He is world-weary and tired.
Mistakes loom up before his mind. his
memory is haunted. Old as the world
itself the man who has ruled men
makes the old cry. "Oh, for another
chance" Surely ii seems that We are
all the same. Success does not count,
unless there be peace. Victories are
barren things. Hope is ever on the
wing, realization is a will-o-the-wisp.
Thomas Collier Plat was over ten
thousand years behind the times, sim
cere as the expression of chagrin and
disappointment of his old age may
have been. Doubtless he has read the
Book of Ecclesiastes. Had he not
forgotten, he would not have ventured
his emotion in a phrase. He would
have made a quotation, the grandest
climax of despair after effort that the
literature of the world has known:
Vanity of vanities. saith the preacher.
verify all is vanity"
PIatts experience is that of the
comman man. His life has intensified
it. his pre-eminence made it of inter-
est Peculiarly does it show that pol
tiles is the road of sorrows and re-
grets. In a less hackneyed and a
term has come lately to mean, the
simple life is the thing less open to
the ghosts of the past. To work. TO
feel. to hope, to believe! That il IL
which gives. the greatest prospect.
which nourishes the finer ambition
To do to dare to win is the ever more
accustomed play-more often tragedy
OF life. IT is well that the impulse