The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-11-03

been suppfessed any tina between 1861 and 1885 for treason. Pat Donan was its favorite contributor over the name "R. E. Bell"--for rebel--and he coun- seled trying 1t over again; but no one of his writings in that publication was of the slightest akin to the Duluth speech, and if Pat Donan wrote the Duluth speech he also wrote the Penn- sylvania avenue speech. Mir. Curtis Is wrong in saying that Knott never made denial of Donan's claim to the author ship of the Duluth speech. Not great while before he died Donan was in Kentucky, and the question of the au- thorship arose. and Knott delivered himself of some language for publica- tion that showed that he could be as emphatic as he ever was humorous After that nobody ever pretended to put in any claim for Donan, so for as I know, until Mr. Dexter Marshall and MT. w. sE Curtis dug it up.
 The Duluth speech was the child of accident One morning, the winter of 1871, Knott was sitting alone and not very cheerfui in a committee room of the House of Representatives. He had been beaten for the nomination for Congress the summer before, because he had not mastered the provident and thrifty art of handshaking, and be- cause his successful competitor was as tall as Generi Scott and had q voice like Stanton--beaten by a diminutive fraction of a vote. He was out of Congress two terms-Forty- second and Forty-third. Sitting in his room chewing the cud Of fancy he was approached by a Mulberry Sellers with map of the Byfieid and St. Croix Railroad. The fellow opened on Knott with an exuberance of talk and pre- dictton of the future opulence of Du- "a nlr fax fx.- terested and saw the opportunity for an ocean of harmless satire. He kept the map, and 1t played big part in making the speech a success. When Knott is most humorous he Is most solemn, and he held that map up and pointed out places of industrial, finan- cial and commercial strategy on 1t, his very demeanor was provocative of laughter. No wonder when the "ham- mer fell' one enthusiastic member ex- claimed; "Oh, d--n 1t, stop the clockr
 have always regarded the following as the finest thing in the Duluth
 sir, the great conflict. now raging in the Old World has presented a phenomenon in military science un- precedented in the annals of mankind. phenomenon that has reversed all the traditions of the past, as. it has disappointed all the expectations of the present A great and warlike people. renowned alike for their skill and valor, have been swept away before the triumphant advance of an inferior foe like autumn stubble before hurri- cane of fire. For aught know, the next flash of electric fire that shisn- mers along the ocean cable may tell us that Paris, with every fiber quiver- ing with the agony of impotent des- pair. writhes beneath the conauerinR nW other moon shall wax and wane, the brightest star in the galaxy of nations may fall from the zenith of her glory never to rise again. Ere the modest violets of early spring shall ope their beauteous eyes, the genius of civiiiza- tion may chant the wailing requiem of the proudest nationality the world yhas ever seen. as she scatters her with cred and tear-moistened leaves OCT the bloody tomb of butechered France"
 And to, my mind. the most exquisite humor of the Duluth speech is the closing paragraph. He had given some then exclaimed:
 "Ah sir. you have no conception of the poignancy of my anguish that am deprived of that privilege. There are two tnseparable obstacles in the way. Tn the first place. my constituents for
  interest In this road than they have In the great question of culinary taste now perhaps agitating the public mind of Santo Domingo as to whether the illustrious commissioners, who recently left this capitol for that free an en- frightened republic would be better fri- casseed, boiled. or roasted, and fin the second place, these lands. which I am asked to give away, alas, are not minel to bestoY! My relation to them is simply that, of the trustee of an ex- press trust. And shall I ever betray that trust? Never, sir Rather perish Duluth! Perish the paragon of citiesi Rather let the freezing cyclones of the bleak Northwest bury it forever be- meath the eddying sands of the raging St. Croix!"
 The exquisite humor of that passage IS in the reference to our commis- sioners to Santo Domingo, sent by President Grant to provide a way for annexing that republic The commits sion consisted of old Ben Wade Morrf- son R, Waite. afterward Chief Justice and President White, of Cornell. The entourase embraced Fred Douglas and Boss Shepherds brother Arthur A convocation of cannibals would debate a long time as to the best stew that could be made of such layout.
 One of the greatest legal arguments Knott ever delivered was his speeches on the bill to restrict the removal of causes from State courts to Federal courts. In the middle of it he resorted to humor. It was at the period when Bog Ingersoll was delivering his lec- ture on the Mistakes of Moses" Knott undertook to imagine what A