The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-08-03
GREAT SCENES
At CONVENTION
CONTINUED from Page ONE,

| As much should be said about what
Denver did in all other convention ar
rangements and entertainments. More
beautiful decorations by day and by
night were hardly ever seen in an
American city. There were clever
schemes for hanging out the flags and
| banners. They depended in splendid
alignment for miles and miles of the
city's streets, high over the sidewalks.
| BY the time the sun went down and
F, its last rays had died away on the
peaks of the adjacent Rockies, the cleo
/ tric switches were lifted and miles on
miles of the streets glowed under a
striking red, white and blue electric
| street lighting system. Looking at
| these displays one seemed facing long
arcades, trimmed with globules of light.
| Some of these arcades stretched as far
as the eye could see.
| When the convention was in full
swing the streets were as gay as a
wonderland Beautifully Lighted cars
were kept going the rounds of the
principal streets, bearing bandsmen as
passengers. They footed all the airs in
| the repertoire of the best bands and,
| be it said, there were few poor bands
in the city during convention week.
The visitors probably numbered forty
| or fifty thousand. BY no means all of.
them ever got inside the spacious audi
torium, but they came to Denver for
good time and they found it. There
was little excessive drinking. No ma
| tional convention was freer of that
criticism. The visitors wanted fun,
| and they had many high old time after
the convention had adjourned. They
I IL IL. 1z1-1
| The bands invaded those precincts
Marching clubs, ditto, bearing banners
and headed by orators. In fact, it was
a mighty week for orators. Democrats
/ do love to talk So do Republicans.
But the hotel lobby orator was never
before so prolific as he has been here
for ten days. Readers may think they
were Southern orators chiefly, for the
South is the beloved land of the hot
/ air" artists. Not so. They were
/ largely Western orators, and they es-
! tablished the hotel lobby speeches as a
national convention feature. My, my,
| how they did spout, especially in the
| evenings. Tt was as much fun as a
| barrel of monkeys There was also a
serious phase about it, for most of the
orators were championing ideas and
they wanted to get those ideas into
the heads of the assembled multitudes.
OKLAHOMA LOoMED UP.
Oklahoma, probably, led in these
demonstrations. Of course, Oklahoma
is cfassed as Southern State, but in
reality it is more Western than South |
ern. They are real Democrats, so they
themselves claim, down in that neck |
of the woods. Aggressive as they were
in getting to the front, let no one /
think that Oklahoma made anything |
but a very ereditable showing at Den !
yer. Even '.Alfalfa Bill, = who is or I
was an Oklahoma delegate, and who |
his the easiest and best natured spell |
binder that ever held an audience of |
fun-loving delegates and spectators |
banked hundreds deep in hotel lobby !
till after midnight, while the drums
beat ruffie or the trumpeters blew a
blast whenever he scored a point, was !
no exception to this Oklahoma rule |
Oklahoma doomed very sconspicuously /
through all the convention. Two or |
three men from the newest State were
among the foremost convention leaders !
and did their work excellently. There
was Governor Charles n Haskell. who !
fought his way up against tremendous !
cavil and criticism. He is a favorite |
with Bryan, who undoubtedly was re-
sponsible for Governor Haskell being |
made chairman of the resolutions com I
mittee that drew the Denver platform (
The Governor was likewise floor |
| leader, who led in the big fight in |
which Colonel ''Jim'' Guffey of Penn |
sylvania was endorsed and, as a re- |
suit, cast out of the national commit |
tee. He did other stunts and did them |
always acceptably. The country is
likely to hear more of him.
Then there was the blind orator of /
Oklahoma, Senator Thomas Pryor Gore, !
who was introduced here as "the ,
greatest blind man in the world -
Probably he is He made two notable
convention speeches. One was exceed /
ingly tiresome-the second of his nota- !
bic efforts. His attendant led him I,
down to the front of the platform
along about two clock in the morn
ing to make a seconding speech for |
Bryan. The galleries, which were ex-
eeptionally well behaved, but which |
had become very unruly during that |
all-night session, and which had be. |
come tremendously wearied with the |
long drawn-out speechifying about |
Bryan, listened to him patiently. |
Cries of "Time, time, - 'FGet the |
hook and so ON had greeted the ora
tors. Seconding speeches under the |
rule were limited to five minutes, but
Gore occupied half an hour with com
monplace platitudes and the conven- |
ton did not have the nerve to call !
him. Oh, how tired and jaded every
body was waiting for the roll-eall that |
would make Bryan third time the |
party's presidential nominee.
Senator Gore s other notable speech |
was different. 1t was a very bright |
and pithy speech. He had been called |
to the platform to address the multi |
tude while the convention waited for |
| the resolutions committee to complete |
| its exhaustive labors OF course. he |
/ talked about Oklahoma, but he did it
: neatly, and he got around to say some /
| thing about the new and much-abused !
and also the much-misrepresented Ok |
4 Lob