The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-11

Gen. RufuS N. RnodeS, eoltor or tne Birmingham News in the fair State of Alabama, is not a sweet and shrinking violet, writes James Hay Jr, in the Washington Times.
 Rather figures as royal Jac- queminot rose in the flower garden of Southern eloQuence. a delight to the eyes of every beholder. The poet who CTS born to blush unseen, had not cast his inspired eye down the corridors of posterity to encounter the person of Rhodes.
 inc above statement Is a necessary preface to a description of the manner in which William Howard Taft. the President elect Is spending his Sun Vine services at Ali Souls Unitarian Church this morning, and this after noon he will have three callers. Sen ator Hopkins of nSdls and ste phen B. White of Brooklyn. the lat- ter the moving spirit in having cree ted the Martyrs Monument, which MT. Taft helped to dedicate in Brooklyn several months ago.
 The Grand Echo.
 As a. matter of fact. however. MT. dsy Tstt h has sine sSse Ro get o of the cataract of conversation 1sa which he has Pssssssd Pssss dVrnE WonE is necessary before: he can undertake the duties of the Presidency with clear and unpreJudiced mind. Most or this talk was passed to him In the South, and above all the echo of 1t. the dominant note. the commanding chorus Is still the voice of General
 A calm and impartial review of the time the President-elect spent in the South--a period when loyal Democrats eyes toward the banner of Republi- canism-must end in the conclusion that the most important. the most spectacular feat was the performance
 Nothing like 1t Ina had se,s ever been ss sfH@n d04a and set it by, the ears. ,sr.orn oncs rwiceWnay. three times-he stood be; publicity and invited the notice of his n pronounced by him in Augusta. Ga, went bounding through the Southern press and returned to him unsolicited. full of javelins and other instruments This little gem was as follows: A BenedictiOn.
 and 11se tSs head ai' of II the men of the south and particularly of Birmingham. you would know that they regard the re- srt tdm of the od ss Amshtg h to the | people of the South over their own | protest"
 It was great moment; bachSu oy | his unsuspecting associates, stricken | to his knees by the force of his. own fell to his knees before the leader of | the party he had fought In the col umns of his own newspaper. Ee did it well, accompanying the prostration with gestures acquired by long ana 1 titudes of Washington in peace, Ma poieon in war. and a gladiator in l death. .s openine tn oee of mouth, he had swept away the months of constant toll he had endured in trying to persuade the people of Birmingham that William liam Sleedins Hee gGure ureepuSiic, the drifting repub- lie. the. Republican republic; o,,or sitting in his. sanctum and dipping his pen in the founts of flowery praise and the well of discreet inyective. Is spoke as if he knew that. But, in d i brief space, he showed by his remarks 1 that he entertained, either for the for the worth of consistency. a pro found and a sublime contempt. Makes Apology.
 Since that speech the general has apologized for it. He has explained | that he did not speak from the heart, and that. in doing up the south In a MT Taft pafSsaEs went than he had intended. He has said. | in earnestness and sadness, that he Is a man of impulse, and that impulse got the best of him.
 He had not prepared his speech, he declared. and the extemporaneous sentiments were accountable for his preparation for the event, he had pre- | ferred to offer himself a derelict be- fore the breeze of inspiration, to bt waited at will on the sunny seas of dreamy phrases, pumping idly against slaGds Of fioTnFs fe DTeserXeT WaeRg neither
 Hardly had there come pause in the storm of abuse with which the Southern press welcomed the general g | speech when he once more appeared at Atlanta when Mir Taft was a gues in that city. There, however. the doughty general made no speech, 6ut he was on the job with conversation ance was at New Orleans when Taft returned from Panama. Again the general made no speech until late al night when the Taft train arrived al Birmingham. the native city of Rhodes
 A Vivid Flow.
 But, altogether. there came from the general such a vivid flow of language such an inspiring grouping of words that today he Is the dominant note ir the cars of the President elect. Gov ernor Noel, of Mississippi on one oc; nearly a whole day, but his perform Ance was as nothing to that of Rhodes The armored cruisers fired salutes tt Mir Taft but their martial bark wat as q whisper to the pronouncement' | VI sa long as history shall last there