Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-19

HT ASHINGTON, Jan. 18.-A sensa-
w tionaI and bitter attack on
President Roosevelt was made
in the house today by Mr.. Willett of
New York.
His remarks, which were delivered
under the license of general debate on
the pension appropriation bill, were cut
short by vote of the house.
Mr.. Willett characterized the presl-
dent as a "gargoyle, tyrant, pigmy
descendant of Dutch trades people,
hay tedder, fountain of Billingsgate a
jocularity, imitation of king and
bogus hero
Characterizing President Roosevelt as q gar
goyle and as this pigmy descendant OF Dutch
tradespeope'' and charging him with having
established a court in the White House
which would have delighted the heart OF Alex
anoer Hamilton" Mr. Willett made one OF the
most bitter attacks on the chief executive ever
heard in that body.
of Roosevelt" and in a speech of great
length dealt with numerous of the president $
acts since he came into Office ana scalhIn6y
denounced them.
After declaring that in the face of all sorts
of conditions, Americans were possessed OF d
universal sense of humor Mr.. Wfuett SAID 70
such people it must be confessed tnat a chleL
MAGISTRATE who has himself no sense OF humor
moving like a hay tedder over the hayheId OF
American activities; stirring up every drying
blade of once green grass, TO let IL ran orler
tlan before: ouarreling one day with the
practical politicians, then with the part-your-
hair-in-the-middle reformers; then with the 80
ciaIists: then with the great industrial cor
porations; wrestling in agony over the spirit
Of Noah Webster, and with our glorious Eng
Iish tongue; taking fall out of nature takers;
exhorting our women to avoid race sulclde
cannot but be unrnixed nuisance.
Tyrant Who Fears Ticker
s.He plays the tyrant, to be sure. but he is
tyrant who fears the carnival ticker. He
sees things that have a bad smell, but the
fresh breeze of Capitol Hill does not let the
odor lnger.
HE tries our patience but he is always good
To laugh at Thank heaven for the things
that make us laugh. Without them we might
easily become raw untamed Anglo -odAohs'
making much of magma charta; beIloWlng
about an effete bill of rights, or even ready to
fight for freedom of thought, freedom or speech
and freedom of the press as dld our unciEi, uH !,
lized ancestors at Lexington and Bunker Hill.
Mr. Wilhett gave brief biography OF Mr..
Roosevelt beginning with his experiences as
cowboy, down to the present time, ana ac-
cUsed him. in his early manhood of having had
nrenosterous notions Of having KNITTED" Secre-
tary Long, of being warrior alone IN Cupa'
of having won the governorship OF New YORK
by a fluke, when a false halo OF San
Juan hill was above his head. He called MIN
the beneficiary of assassins, and last ana
crowning piece of luck the nominee for presl-
dent when all the aggressive elements OF pas
feated This mammoth jocularity,' he SAID,
has got to laugh with every appearance; the
gargoyle has been funny from the hour it left
its native quarry.
Continuing, Mr. Willett said;
WiIIett's Caustic Definition
..And Mr. Chairman, should the gentlemen
who view this curious figure with 1elgheo aQ-
rniration ask me how any son OF Adam can pe
an the same time hay tedder, a Jocularlty
and gargoye, can only answer tnat tnte rs
1prot ic q
all rules a solecism sui gener1s; mixed
metaphor vivant; an impossibility; a comet
that roves at will regardless of the limitations
of the order and law which apply 10 earlh anu
moon and stars and planets.
ss4e boasts of Irish blood, but no historic
Irishman would have treated an ally as he
.sHe exuits in a strain of the old Huguenot.
hut the French gentleman does not fly into a
passion and lash the horse OF tlmld young
girl whose only offense IS inadvertently pass
ing the royal party in a public highway
''Even Louis XI was not the stort OF ty-
rant and Henry w. Henry OF Navarro, tne
great Huguenot king, wore the white plume OF
noblesse oblige.
.sHe tells Us that southern aristocracy were
among his polyglot ancestors, put can INFORM @ ~
tim that if the wife of a Robert Toombs or OF
a Jefferson Davis had been treated by him as
Mrs Miner Morris was treated he would nave
been called out or branded as a cowards II he
had been a ten times president.
Ns.He is proud to insist that the family whose
name he bears comes from Holland; but his
ready surrender to the politicians of his own
party makes it clear enough that TAT Durgnefs
who put up their shutters at the first beat OF
the war drum must have been his progenitors.
He beats the Dutch however, as even
his severest critics must confess.
Says He Justifes 1t
sAre YOU shocked that a chief magistrate
should justify such characterization? am
.Do YOU say that the place he holds should
make us all dumb before him?
Hear what this fountain of Billingsgate
has said of his predecessors in that high Of
fee and then that no mans tongue
should be stiled by such q. consideration"
He quoted President Roosevelt's books in
which the president is alleged to have at
tackled Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Jack
son, Tyler, Pierce and others, and said that
the president had federation for the Adamses,
who stood for federalist aristocracy, and admi-
ration for Alexander Hamilton, the defeated
champion of a limited monarchy"
ssOf course" said Mr.. Wilett, these con-
demnations roar as gently as any cooling dove
when compared with his denunciation of John
Paul Jones as a pirate; of Napoleon the
Great as utterly unscrupulous'; of New Eng
lands idolized Wendell Phillips as 'eithe1
mischievous or ridiculous, and usually both
Of Thomas Paine, the first champion of Amer
lean liberty as a filthy little atheist; ot
Misunderstanding Roman Catholics per
sons of arrested mental development; oi
Quakers as quite as undesirable citizens as
duelists.'
But he has been frank enough in abusing
other presidents to shut the lips of these de.
tenders OF the dignity of the presidential Of
nce.''
Throws Jewels to the Swine
Mr. Willett declared that Consistency is q
Jewel which the gargoyle is always throwing
to the swine
mo king he said, 'in any limited mon.
archy was ever half so exigent or ever half Sc
implacable.
For precedent" he added ''you must gc
back to Napoleon the Great, the oldest mem.
ber of the Gargoyles Ananias club who usec
to ask the wives of his thrifty favorites wheth.
er they could only afford gown a year
who said once to the wife of one of his fight.
ing marshals: Your dress is dirty and who
insisted on doing all the match making in hi.
official circles. +"
The democracy of Lincoln, he said, the bluff
americanism of Grant and Cleveland, tn,
equally American suavity of Arthur and Nc
Einley had passed into history ''along with th,
fcnntinned Pare ThreAl