The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-03-21

unnecessary thing to say. The words
were spoken on impulse, and it is
likely that Rogers has regretted their
utterance many times since.
That remark cost Standard Oil mil
lions of dollars. 1t chopped off Roger s
head. It put Archbold at the head of
Standard Oil. 1t forced John D. Rock.
efeller to return to active life. And it
made Hadley governor of Missouri
Why don t they eat cake?' asked
Marie Antoinette.
1t was before the French revolution.
The multitude, starving, was rioting in
the streets and crying: "Give us
bread!'
The question thoughtlessly, causually
put, "Why dom they eat eakeR"
showed the gigantic gulf between the
people and their rulers.
And Marie Anfoinette died on the
guillotine.
Louis XIV. was entirely honest when
he expressed his astonishment to man
who asked him about the state, by re-
plying:
''The state? I am the state''
That casual remark is in history.
William H. Vanderbilt thought the
people of no importance whatever. He
had millions. part of it inherited, part
acquired. He had fallen into the habit
of regarding himself as of a privileged
class. Therefore, to his mind there
was nothing radical in his now famous
casual remark:
"The public be damned
~ have this Congress on my hands,
complained President Grover Cleveland.
He spoke of Congress as one might
speak of mosquito, small annoying
pest, to be brushed aside. Casually
made, it was one of Cleveland S most
Illuminating utterances.
"What are we here for, if not for
officese" asked Webster Flanagan.
Flanagan might never have known
fame but for this ingenious casual re-
mark at a national convention. His
enemies made the most of it, but it
was honestly intended from the Elan
nagan point of view.
NNot yet,'' said f. H. Hartman.
This most significant of casual utter
ances came from the lips of Hartman
when he was a witness at New York
and had been asked if Thomas f. Ryan
had in fact appropriated to his own
use the $600,000,000 resources of the
Equitable His answer, Not yet,
implied that the sentence might pos
sibly be completed by adding, "but
soon.
"You and / are practical men,
wrote Theodore Roosevelt to E. Fl. Har-
riman.
Casually penned, Roosevelt never
said a truer thing. Miles apart IN
temperament, pursuits and ideals, 1t IS
emphatically true that both Roosevelt
and Hartman are practical men.
"My own pocket all the time.
This Crokeresque remark was made
by the Tammany boss in strict obedl-
ence to his oath to tell the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Asked what he was working for as
boss of Tammany Hall, Croker replied:
Nv own pocket all the time. -
ssBurn this letter. cost james e.
Blaine the presidency fully as much as
did Rev. Dr. Durchard's iil-timed and
unwise Rum, Romanism and Rebel
| Hon.
eff anyone attempts to haul down
| the American flag, shoot him on the
spot.
John A. Dix telegraphed the above
| message to the Pensacola hayward
without giving it a second Thought
And he straightway jumped into fame
In the correspondence for the surren-
der of Fort Donelson, General Grant,
then unknown, stated that the only
terms he would except were "Uneon-
ditional surrender. -
1t didn t. occur to Grant at the time
he was too busy and, perhaps, too
excited to think of making history
that his initials were U. S. But he won
instant fame, and the world spoke of
him thereafter as Unconditional Sur
render Grant.
"The blacks have no right which a
white man is bound to respect, sand
Chief Justice fancy in the bred Scott
decision.
It was an incidental statement, and
the public misconstrued it. but it made
Tanev famous. The chief justice IN
tended to state fact in history: he did
not intend to elucidate a legal prln-
ciple.
ssBv divine right of capital, said
Coal Baron Baer. 1t was a casual re-
mark. and no more outrageous than the
one made by II. s. Priest, counsel for
the Standard Oil Company of Missouri,
who said:
"Bribery is a conventional crime. .
Whatever one may think of such
mental gymnastics, it is quite certain
that both men were honest in the opln'
ions TINS casually expressed
"Genius is hard work, said Thomas
4. Edison.
ssWho made the stars?' asked Ma
poleon.
"What's the matter with Kansas
asked William Allen White in an ed
itoriaI in his country paper, and an