Panama City pilot. (Panama City, Washington County, Fla.) 1907-19??, 1908-03-19
Grover Cleveland's Birthday.

athletic contests there is only one
day in the year when this sleepy old
town rouses from it's lethargy and
lets itself loose. That is the 18th of
March, the birthday of Princeton's
most distinguished resident, Mr..
Grover Cleveland. On that day
everybody who is anybody in Prince
ton calls at the big white house, which
is the Cleveland family house, to pay
his respects; there is steady process
sion of messenger boys delivering
kilograms of congratulations, the
postman makes extra calls to deliver
the letters addressed to the ex-presi-
dent, and a crowd of college boys
marches over to the front lawn of the
Cleveland house singing and giving
the Princeton yell in his honor.
The noteworthy thing about this
demonstration of respect in honor of
the only living ex-president is that it
grows in volume with every recurring
anniversary. Every year the number
of visitors, kilograms and letters
grows larger and this year, when Mr..
Cleveland will be II years old, it is
expected that the observation of the
day will be more general than ever.
The Sage of Princeton, as he has
come to be called, therefore presents
the striking figure of an ex-president
who, instead of dropping into COM
parative Obsecurity after leaving
office, has steadily bulked larger and
larger in the public eye. At the
present time there is probably no man
in the country whose opinions are SO
frequently sought by the newspapers
or who receives SO many requests for
the endorsement of all sorts of re-
forms and faddist movements, not
even excepting President Roosevelt
himself.
There have been some ex-presi-
dents who have been. followed into
retirement BY the plaudits of the
country and Who were looked up to
even more after leaving Office than
before. Was ington, Jefferson, John
Quincy Adams and Grant were ex-
amples in point. There have been
others like Tyler. Fillmore and Hayes
who dropped into comparative OBJ
security as SOD as they left the White
House. Cleveland's case is unique
in that when he quilted the chief
magistracy after having been twice
elected and third time receiving a
majority of the popular vote, he was
one of the best-hated men in the
country. His own party had practi-
cally disOwned him; he had been
made the target of violent personal
abuse, and he was held responsible
for the panic of 1898, just as a great
many people are holding President
Roosevelt responsible for the panic
of 1907. Since that time, however,
the public attitude toward Mr. Cleve-
land has changed until he is now
fairly deserving of the title giyed him
last year as 1.-THE most distinguished
private citizen in the world"
A review of the fluctuations in the
popularity of Mr. Cleveland is given
in the March number of Appleton's
Magazine by John T. McCutchen,
who sums it up in the rather striking
title The Rise, Fall and Rehabilitation
of Grover Cleveland. The article
points out that Americans are often
more tickle in their treatment of
popular idols than the so-called mer-
curial Latin races, that after crowd
ing hOnorS upon man, naming CT
CARS, babies and dogs after him, and
shouting ourselves hOarse in his praise
we suddenly turn our backs on him
and leave him wondering what has
happened.
at isn't often given to man to
live through rise Napoleonic in it's
swiftness," says the Appleton's ar
ticle, ''to jump to the highest place
in the nation; then, with blighting
suddenness, to find himself shat
tered idol with few to raise friendly
voice against the storm of denuncia-
ton, and finally to see that same
nation come back to greet him in
humble friendliness. Usually state
mans vindication comes more slowly.
He dies, crushed and lonely, in some
St Helena and then, long afterward,
he becomes the idol of those who
helped to crush him. History gives