The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-11-11
TOM FITCH THE SILVER
TONGUED IN SAN FRANCISCO
In Speech for Taft he Recalls that Forty-Eight
Years Before He Made Speech for Lincoln
in the Same City.

The Chronicle of October 20 has the
following;
Tom Fitch, the original silver
| tongued orator. of the West, addressed
a well attended and enthusiastic meet
ing of Republicans last evening IN the
| Mission Theater on Sixteenth street.
The assembly was called to order short
| ly after s o clock by E. w. Brace, who,
/ in few words, introduced the speaker
of the evening
The eloquent orator appeared before
| his audience arrayed in conventional
| frock suit of black and white necktie
and linen in snowy contrast with the
| somber hue of the outer garments. The
| gray hair was thinned about the fore
| head and temples and steel gray and
| closely cropped mustaehe adorned an
! otherwise smoothly shaver face
As he proceeded with his address it
| was APPARENT that the keen sense of
humor, the once mighty weapon of this
great orator, was still at his command
and he applied it with an appropriate
| ness that was most attractive
The audience was sympathetic and
generous of its applause in showing APP
probation of the orators grace of die
ton and the fantasies of a pleasing
humor, as he made his oratorical forces
felt
The speaker himself was noticeably !
affected by the ovation rendered him |
and expressed himself feelingly in his |
Introductory words, which were as fol |
lows:
Spoke of the Past.
1t is eight and forty years since, in /
this city of San Francisco, made in
behalf of the election of Abraham Lin
coin the first public speech of my life.
81 am now a great grandfather The |
ambitions and the hopes of my lost /
youth are behind me. The roar of the /
ultimate river is daily growing more
distinct in my ears. The friends and /
companions of my youth have journeyed
on. Yet before l join themin the land
of the hereafter let me pause for a
while and offer an old man s counsel to
the bright, brave boys who are climb
ing the uplands of life. with the sun
light still in their faces and who will
possess the glorIes and the achieve
ments of this young century after [
shall have climbed to my palace among
the stars.
Lord Maeaulay, in writing of Eng
fish politics, said: Parties often sur
vive long after the issues which called
them into existence have been deter
mined
'tOur own history illustrates the
truth of this aphorism, for there is not
a single political question which pre-
eeded, which accompanies or which sue
ceeded the Civil War that is now an
issue before the American people ex-
cept the tariff question:
Platforms Compared.
Comparing the platforms of the Re-
publican and Democratic parties, Orator !.
Fitch said:
''The Republican national platform
promises continuance of the wise and
loyal record which that party has made,
while the Democratic platform is a
medley and a middle, and contains lit
tie by which a Democrat could pick out
his party on a dark night.
If, in the Christening dispensations
Of Providence, our opponents should
succeed at tne coming election, the
country would have to rely upon the
application of the haekneyed Jest, that
Democratic platforms are like rail
road ear platforms. they are made not
to stand upon but to get in upon
The Denver platform appears to
have been formulated as a Spanish !
cook prepares an ola podrida He puts
into it everything within reach, from
chicken heads to sauerkraut, and when
the mess is prepared the guests are ex-
peeted TO eat it with composure, if not
with enthusiasm. and for exemption
from evil consequences to rely upon a
mixture of Infinite Mercy with carbon
ate of soda
At the Denver convention Denoc-
-aey Endorsed the previous record of
he Democratic party, and in so doing
t Endorsed all the fantasies in finance,
Ill the megrimes in philosophy, and all
he phrases of fool politics with which
[ has afflicted the country for the last
fifty years.
A Curious Compilation.
fEfThe Denver nIatfOrm is a eurious