The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-03-21
SENATOR GORDON'S
FAREWELL SPEECH


other business directly before an eN-
ecutiye session and delivered the fol-
lowing address:
Mr. President, / am informed that
the senatorial deadlock in Mississippi
has been broken and that we shall
soon have Mr. Leroy Percy to take
my place in the Senate. As l am
about to retire from the Senate.
wish TO express my feelings and SEN
timents in regard to my brief expert
ence here. | did not expect today to
make a speech, Notwithstanding that
l found after ! got into the Senate
Chamber that some of the newspap-
,ers had stated l would do so. l wish
sou to understand that l am not
making a set speech, and l have not
written any such poetry as that as
cribed to me by the newspapers.
luaughterD
l am guilty of one little act of
poetry l published a little book,
Which ] have got hid away in the
desk here and which 1 am going to
give to the President of the Senate
when l get through here, and prob
abby he viii have a worse opinion of
me then than he had before. Laugh-
teri
Will tell you how i came TO be Il
United States Senator started
when L was five years old. 1t took me
long while to get here, and l found
it a very rugged road to travel; but
1 did get there When l was a little
chap about five years Of age-I Will
tell you a story, and YOU may tell
your children, and you old fellows may
tell your grandchildren received
as a present something like a map on
Dasteboard 1t had this great CAPT
tol as a picture at the top of it and
squares with numbers on them. Those
pictures represented all the passions
that had escaped from Pandora's box.
That map had marked on it all the
temptations that would befall a youth
growing up. 1t had a little teetotem,
as it was called in octagou shape, and
At had numbers on it up to s, on winch
to spin My mother used TO take lie
to her side.
If you should spin the teetotem and
it went over the mark and got O.. a
bad place on the square, that weld
be one of the bad passions; but ii it
escaped all those, and the teetotem
got on the great Capitol of the I'm
lted States, you would be in the I'm
tied States Senate. l saw great biz
fellow sitting up there in that stand.
wanted to know Of mother if l would
get there; ana, God helping me.
got there yesterday. UaughterJ She
told me that ii | would lead a clean
life and form no bad habits, would
be sure to get there. She never told
story in her life, and SO | knew
IL would come true. In all my life
senators, that thing has stuck to me
and every time | wanted to do wrone
1 saw one of those passions ON that
board, and that board has stood be-
lore my eyes from that day until to.
day, though l have never made Il
public until now. l thought this was
the place to do it,
Now, | wish to talk to you abou
our afaiIs in Mississippi, and Sc
forth. am peculiar sort Of a ge.
nius-not much of a genius either
hut l have got about a thimble full o
common sense that ! use occasion
ally, and | want to use it now to tht
best advantage
/ have had a varied life. was born
mUltimillionaire. very unbappilv
too, FOR ! never saw one of them tina
was happy yet, and l never was hap
Ply myself until | got rid of my mil
lions. The largest portion of then
went to feed a large number of slave
that | unfortunately inherited anc
the rest spent on my friends, like
gentleman should, and got rid Of III,
membranes CLaughterD
have been listening to speeche
here very carefully, and the more
heard of the speeches the sorrier
felt for the millonaires. Thank God
] am not one any more. Naughter)
l heard the senator from Arkansa
(Mr, Davis the other day make
speech in which he abused Rockefel
Ter. If there is a man in the limited
States ! am sorry for, it is Rockefel
Ter. O-aughterJ ! cannot help sym
pathizug with a fellow that every
body else is cursing, and ! never cuulJ
see what they "cussed" him for unless
NE had more money than anybod,
else. | don OF thing that is a fault
but 1t is a misfortune. ] am sorr!
for a man i'm his condition whom n,