The daily sentinel., 1910-02-23

Tomorrow night Grand Junction
| people will have an opportunity to
hear one Of the most entertaining,
original and unique characters in
American public life. Adam Bede,
"the wit of the house
Below The Sentinel reproduces a
portion of his famous and witty lee
ture on "Side-Stepping the Vice Pres
! idency." Mr.. Bede comes as the sew
enth attraction on the lecture course.
For those not holding season tickets
there will be single-night admission
tickets available.
Here are some of the paragraphs
from the famous lecture:
What's the matter with the vice
presidency? Everybody laughs at it;
statesmen run from 1t; nobody seeks
ii. Even the constitutional conyen-
tion almost overlooked it, and the
provision for 1t was not inserted un-
til the final draft of our Magma
Charta Just before the adjournment
of that illustrious body in September.
1887. Earlier in the proceedings it
had been provided that the president
of the senate should hold the second
mortgage on the White House. and
SO, when the vice presidency was ere
ated as a sort of afterthought, the
man-in-waiting who also ran-too
honorable to hope and too dignified
for hilarity-was quickly assigned
the slumbersome duty of listening to
the senate: and the convention.
weary of much wrangling, dissolved
itself and the delegates hastened
fastened along the homeward trail.
~. l..
removed by the succession of such
men as Clinton, Gerry, Calhoun, Van
Buren,. Colfax. Wilson. Hendricks
and Roosevelt. The election of Mr..
Roosevelt to the presidency will add
dignity and distinction to the office
which was originally forced upon
him because certain New York poll
ticians preferred that sort of burial
to an attempt at cremation. But
even such success might be looked
upon as accidental rather than as
establishing precedent for prefer
ment in either party"
THE vice president is the only Of
fetal nonentity in our system of gov
ernment. He is elected for four years
to loaf around the throne and won
der what is going to happen. Incl
dentally he presides over the senate
when in session. II he feels like 1t,
but is not member OF that body and
has no speaking acquaintance with
any subject before it, The senate
makes its own rules and construes
them, and the vice president is pre-
sumed to commit this fact to mem
ory. He has no patronage, no voice
in public affairs. no seat at the coun-
N,l Oh.
in the scheme of government--but Is
like second husband agreed on in
advance and held in suspense and sus-
picion. who as matter of taste must
not obtrude himself upon the mar
riage feast nor the bridal tour. His
business is to keen still. He Is the
great American clam, and Is held In
escrow pending conditions which 1t
Is hoped will never occur to make him
shuck himself and come out in the
open. Though he be a man of parts,
his political position is a triumph of
nonentity
while his joys are few, his sor-
rows are many; for how oppressive
1t must be to him, in the light of re-
cent events, to look the senators full
and fair in the face and wonder as
the roll is called whether they will
answer present or mot guilty 1t
can no longer be truthfully said that
the senate Is legislative body with
out convictions, and we may we'll in
quire whether such environment
would not prove actually hurtful to
sensitive natures like those of Charles
Warren Fairbanks and Henry CASA
way Davis, whose whole lives have
been given up to dealing with civil
.l..., tl1 r.. - lxztl 4.
of them have been in the senate. and
to be forewarned is to be forearmed,
so that neither one II elected need be
like the man who saw prairie fire
coming and was burned to death be
cause he didn't have a match.
Suppose the case of some inno-
cent man unaccustomed to evil as
sociations who has been ruthlessl,
thrust into the vice presidency-ant
the uncertainties of politics max
such thing possible-what woulL