The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-30
How Judge Undertake
Nominated Fairbanks"
COULDN'T GET FLOOR
1t Seems That the Judge Having Pre-.
pared Siep-Iadder to q Seat on
Prospective andWagOn
ReCkOned Without His
Host.

The saddening habit which the fair
est roses of the fall have of tumbling
with torn petals from the parent bush,
is not comparable in pathos to the
style in which the rude blasts of par
ticular knowledge have shorn from
the budding vine of the Greensboro
banquet its most lucious fruits and
fragrant blossoms.
IN all the turmoil created by the
spleen of Mr.. Dixon, the arrogance of
Mr.. Yer-kes, amid all the CONSERVATION
caused by the stabbing quality of
Judge Bynum's references to the thar
mOny' which existed in the ranks in
which there were a plethora Of gen.
erals and a paUcity of enlisted men,
there remained two things of joy which
We're done by North CarOlinians, one
the perennial bloom of the Settle
brand of oratory-and the other the
impassiOned speech of eX-Judge e. w.
Undertake in which he got on band
wagon four years anead of time,
plucked the eagle till in squealed and,
to the chorus OF clinking glasses and
the enthusiasm of gusty toasts. pas
siOnately proposed the nomination of
Fairbanks for President and put the
country into an advanced state OF re-
frigeration so that the boom" would
be sure to keep
The State will remember how the
accounts of the banquet in nearly every
newspaper spoke feelingly of this incl
dent, of how from the seat of honor
at the board the vice-president smiled
a cold and modest appreciation of
the compliment with a look of reward
towards it's author, and OF the general
instinct that in the nomination as
made the banquet had fixed at the
end into the proper finale Of it's pur-
pose.
True, there came the next days dash
to the poetry of this incident when it
was norated that at the time he was
placed in nomination, the vice-presi-
dent had retired, but it was felt by
Judge Undertakes friends that he
would read the reports in the papers
and to that extent the egg had at least
been laid.
But now it is stated that the speech
was spoken in the newspapers and no
where else, unless before the mirror
and in the privacy of the Judges own
room. Certainly ii was not spoken at
Greensboro. Why, remains a mystery.
The speech was prepared and the
Judge was ready to say it from all ac-
counts. He even had reached to that
degree of confidence that he had furn-
ished the reporters present with type
purposes of getting in the copy early
the enterpriTing gentlemen of the press
forwarded their reports of the ban
quet in large part before the soup and
away ahead of the fish and sauterne.
Secure in the success of the banquet
in the compliment awaiting the guest
of honor, the reporters blinked at one
another over the strange glasses of
yellow fluid with the bubbles i'm it and
waited for the denoument with the
prophetic pride of those accustomed
to condolences of an oratorical nature.
Statesman after statesman arose
tucked an impassioned hand in the
region of the vermiform appendix and
bombarded the shrinking Democratic
contingent with grenades of speech
that exploded among the infantry fire
of the corks like the scream of
shrapnel in q trench. And in his seat
sat Judge Timberlake, the amber Ii
quor trimming his untouched glass,
moistening his lips as each of his pre-
decessors went into the air with both
hands and his napkin after his perora-
ton with the administration of a
careful tongue wetted only with White
Rock water; waiting for the word
with his nomination speech pat in his
head and the text even then glaring
under big head lines on the damp pa
per of far away first editions!
Still the banquet went on, and still
the master of ceremonies called here
and called there for remarks, but
Judge with the step-ladder to the
ers disappeared down cheering