The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-09-25
IDOLS OF THE PEOPLE
Great poo,,lar Leaasrs = america and Elsewhere.
Parts Played Dy Heredity.

I giya him the credit IN believe nat he
never read that speech and never
heard Of he regency bill.
He went up and down TIE cath
preaching that t1e stamp OF the COZ
made the dollar. md II :
NOT possible that any other statesman
Of our entire history ever unloaded 81
much false logic, If We can associate
fallacy with the word logic, as VIII
liam ]. Bryan did in 1896: but he Is
going TO eclipse il now with his I'm
POSSIBLE government ownership 7 he
trunk lines and his absurd state owner
ship of local lines
II the republicans could have chosen
2 committee 20 write the railroad
clause or Bryan's Madison SQUARE Gar
den speech il could not have been c~H-
structed more 10 the advantage OF tie
republican party than Bryan made u
himself. Unless the democratic party
is ready 10 go TO the slaughter on this
impossibility. rs they went 10 i on
the 16-tO-1 absurdity, that party must
Get a lantern and q searching far i
democrat 10 nominate IN l9uS.
James IL blltAit = SA1hNSoH' 49,
of the name. is a clerk in a New
York bank and gnawing his chains
even as would his grandSirs had that
great man accep ed the department,
clerkship in Washington when. a PEN
niless young adventurer. 1t was o'-
ferei him. OF this Blaine Of the
third generation il is remarked: lie
would rather be United States seA"tcr
than corner the markets Of the wofId.
It is possible that his grand dad would
! have suffered q long hiatus-mayhap
a perpetual absence-in his service III
the senate 10 corner the markets o!
New York for fOrtv-aight hours. me
elder Blaine was a born man or al
fairs. and on Wall street Che woulo
have been a Midas of the frs magnl-
tude.
Hereiity is 4 thing we may s12cu-
late upon. 1t is more apparent among
horses and dogs. sheep and chickens,
than it is among human beings. There
is the myth that Marcus BrutuS was
the son of Julius Caesar; there IS the
scandal that Annie Boleyn was The
daughter of Henry VIII; there IS the
absurdity that Francis Bacon was the
son of Queen EliZabeth-theSe con-
coctions Of the fancy for the cTedu-
lOus.
Let us take the family of Plantag-
enet and 90 back no farther, the Black
Prince, a splendid hero
Poistiers and Crecy tell the victory
was the son of one of the greatest
kings who ever wore the English pur-
pie. and the father of one of the
weakest kings of English history.
What a glorious story is that of Henry
N-ShakesDeare's Prince Hal. His
Queen was that Kate # France who
was the ancestress Of the house OF
Tudor. a grand-dame of Queen Ress,
and yet the son of England that she
and Hal gave the English throne
was that hapless weakling, Henry VI,
who, though his Queen was the heroic
Margaret of Anjou. persisted miserably
before the arms of the White Rose
William the Silent was the first
statesman of a grand epoch, and his
son, Maurice of Nassau. was the most
accomplished soldier OF a generation
that produced Spinola. What an H.
l%uStriOus family it was-that house Of
Orange. William III OF hat line,
whom Macaulay considered the great
est man of his time. had coursing
his veins the blOOds of Orange, BOur-
bon, Plantagenet, Stuart. Tudor, Lor-
raina. There is no finer-bred man in
profane history, few greater statesmen,
and no stOuter soldier. MarlborOugh's
son died early, but Berwick was his
nephew, the marshal of Louis XIV,
who was more like Bayard than any
other, and none of US can read the his
tory of his defense of France from The
attack from the direction of Savoy
without reminder Of Robert f. Lee. A
difference is that Lee failed and Ber-
wick succeeded. Whit a different
story history would tell Of Berwick had
not been barred from the English
throne by the bar-sinister? If Arabella
Churchill. instead OF Ann Hyde. had
been the welded spouse of James ii,
IN all probability the Stuart dynasty
would now be ma in the British
empire. Charles Edward hero of battle,
and Prince Charley of song, was Ber-
WickS nephew, and a direct lineal de-
scendant If hat Duke of Guiee who
restored Calais 70 France by one OF the
most heroic feats in the annals Of
war.
Another striking example Of her .d:.v
is that Of the two William Pitts, n
these we may supplement with Hester
Stanhope, of the third generation.
granddaughter Of the great Chatham.
II would be hard % tell who was he
greater man or greater orator, the first
or second Pitt. Both ruled England
when England could only be ruled by
eIoquence. Their great rival. Henry
Fox, and the more eminent Charles
James. father and son, also present a
marvellous example of heredity. We
are told hat the younger Fox was
the greatest parliamentary deba'er who
erer SPOKE our tongue, and We can
readily believe it after reading MS
crushing reply to Pitt in the debate
on fhp breach of tho ,rea%r .-fr,-