The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-04-30
DIR. DEPEW AND HISTORY.
Prediction a. BiG slump In Bs PoPu'
IArItYa a Q HlatorieAI eeturer, and Why.

FTeulctien ~ q Bis stump ~ TVS Fopua
Iarlty ~ . Historical eeturor, ana Why.
To TIE Enron or TBE Sun Str In all
the Wild abandon OF his Ubiquitous wit, are
we never again 10 md, IN a speech By Chaun.
cey NJ Depew an indication that he had
tried 20 tell all things AZ they really wereY
He used 10 succeed in 30 doing fairly well;
but II looks u9W ~ n he had drunk Of the
foul Circean draft OF popular applause until
he feels encouraged TO the reoklessness OF all
the gods at once,
In his Montauk Club speech. April %. he
said:
A single remark By Benedict, French AmbEssa.
dor 70 Prussia, 70 King william Al the watering
place ~ Ems brought on the Prussian French
war.
Not n our Minister at Paris. Elihu B, wash
burno. knew II. In Washburne's 'Reoolleo-
TONS Vol. l.. chapter ?, he says the French
Government and people were immovably
determined upon war with Prussia before
the incident at Ems occurred. and he shows
how other incentives 70 war operated on both
sides.
OF Gen. WINFIELD Scott. who ran for Presi-
dent In 1857. Mr. DepeW says that Ibis oan-
vAss was exceedingly promising" until the
shasty plate OF soup" allusion laughed him
out Of the canvass 3d. after forty years
Of conspicuous service In the army. with high
and victorious commands in three wars, an
un1ucceo1tul htteInpt az huHlof 70 utteIy
smashed an exceedingly promising pros
pect Of election that he got only ~ electoral
votes out OF 200 Any one who knows any
thing at all OF the Scott campaign Of 1882
knows Il was the last stand. the death gtru gRle
Of the whlR party, In which SCOTS candi-
daoy was not In the least promising for a
single day. The party was smtten with
looomotor ataIla before is Presidential nom
ination was made: then the Daniel Webster
eli m and ECotN aiUulW
ried the banner OF a forlorn hope. Mr.. De-
peW's attempt 20 write the party 70 lie grave
with -hasty plate Of soup IL idle trinng
with history.
Napoleon lost bis grip AZ -.
Surely there could not have been a man or
woman At the Montauk Clubs tables who
did not wonder what the honored guest took
them for Everybody 10 the world who
knows what Napoleon was knows that his
fame making deeds continued with increased
effect during the ten years following his age
Of 80. He was 20 when his career was closed
at Waterloo.
Lord Byron. as Mr. DepeW tells II. lost
bis genius" before he was 80. He lost his life
at &C. and who knows Of his genius having
slipped away before ~
My reading Of this speech ls not from tho
newspaper reports. else II mi ht be suspected
that stenography or the type machine had put
these strange uttersnces into Dir. DepeW's
mouth. For many years he has had nearly
all his speeche - stereoty ped, the proof slips
presumably passing under his revision. The
plates are sent 20 the Republican bucolic
and seml-ur ban papers. free Of cost TO them.
a notable exposition Of the libeTallty OF Mr..
Depew's modesty. II is in these papers that
l peruse bis oratorical productions to get
his authorized version.
His failure at trying to talk veraoious his
tory was never more debilItatinE 20 those
who know what history IL like than when
he spoke az the Lake George battle monu-
ment unveilnR. Sept. q. 1908. He made the
statesmanship Of William Pitt contempora-
neous with the conditions existing in Amer
lea at the end Of the AnRlo-French wars
that preceded our Revolution. Pitt was
years old in 1893. when that warfare ended.
This amazing deformty was not corrected
even on the stereotype plates OF that speech
supplied 70 the class OF provincial papers
that would chuck into their columns the
Apocrypha entire II only Mr.. Depew sent
IL TO them in boiler iron plate, marked
Supplied without charge
when Mr. DepeW IN she Senate. Feb. IL.
1908, described with hsartbreckinG pathos
the scene Of his last interview with Horace
Greeley the Tribune promptly demonstrated
most circumstantiAIly that no such scene
could have had an existence. nor any Of the
conditions or incidents the Senator had
plCluIeu IN NouubNNlou WIN hi' NealN NhNiio'
His phantasmag orio conceptions. therefore.
having the upper hand OF his memory. how
shall we take II when he makes sketches like
these, made at an earlier Aontauk Club din
ner. April Il, 1900:
remember sitting beside Browning one evening
In London. when houu seemed minutes. SiI
hours At dinner and the opera with Gladstone are
70 me ever living memory.
The foregoing are not rare gems Of their
kind, picked out after diliRent search among
the seemingly unbroken continuity Of DepeW-
Wan vocal deliverGnce. Truly. there would
be only labor not difnculty in reproducing
from Mr. DepeW's speeches Of the last three
or four years blunders and falsltles 10 album
dance, a. tresome 10 the render Gs they are
unworthy the eloquent oratory and graceful
personality Of Senator Depew. II 10 time 10
suggest that too many OF the kind Of people
who listen 70 him possess a large amount Of
knowledge Independently Of him 10 admit
Of his imposing his deficiencies upon the
public indefinitely. A. the rate he IL going
on there will come a biz slump In HE popu-
larity a. a speaker. He IL doing the most
he can 70 hasten II. C6ndidly. think this
would be q public misfortune. II is not q
case where the excuse that everybody makes
mistakes- can be turned in. The wonder
IL, Mr.. Speaker. how the gentleman has been
able 70 accumulate such large and varied
assortment Of transformation.
ALPHA CHILD.
lMsTTRpAN. n Y, April 20.