The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1910-09-01
coMM,sERArgs UNCLE Joe.


Tom McNeal, editor of the Farm
ers Mail and Breeze, of Topeka, Kan,
who was recently defeated by a small
margin in the race for congress as
an insurgent in the first district of
his state. had not had all the milk of
human kindness squeezed out of his
soul by the reverses of political for
tune, as is attested by the following
comment on Uncle Joe Cannon and
his tickle friends, who gloried with
him in victory and now stand to de
sert him in coming defeat McNeal
feelingly says:
1t must be "A trifle tough on man
who has reached the mature age of
rs. and who, for many years. has
been regarded as the IT. the bully
boy with the glass optic, to be com
PEELED at last to do the Jonah act.
Such, however. seems 20 be the fate
of your uncle Joseph Cannon. II is
entirely evident that the aged but
virile statesman from Danville does
not relish the part that has been as
signed him. by his former adherents.
The cold, saline waters of the sea of
oblivion are not pleasing to him, but
it appears that it is Joseph to the
bosom of the cold, cold sea, just the
same.
| am curiously constituted. So long
as old Joe was snorting in the plen-
titude of his power, whom the major
lty Of the members of congress ODE
diently .shuffled their feet at his
clarion note of command | was dead
against him and wanted to see him
tossed into the ether blue. He has
been tossed, and now the fellows
who held their committee jobs by
his favor; who sneezed with gusto
when he took snuff who, at his COM
mand, trampled over the recumbent
forms of the insurgents, turn against
him in order to save their own polit-
ical hides.
The old-time buffalo hunters re-
member the pathetic sight of the
ancient bull who had for long time
lorded it over the herd. For years,
perhaps, he was the absolute mon
arch, whose bovine will was law, but
there came time when young and
ambitious he buffalo decided to dis
pute the leadership of the old one.
The fight, so say the old-time hunters
was worth going miles to see. The
~
that once down and out, there was
no comeback for him. II was fight
for his power, his prestige his life.
But youth was too much for age.
Gradually, the old leader weakened
until, finally, he was overthrown and
his conqueror reigned in his stead.
And when that time came, the old
bull found himself an outcast. For
saken by his most servile followers,
treated with disdain by the cows and
even the calves that used to follow
in his wake he was left to starve or
fall victim to the wolves that hung
about the flanks of the herd.
So, apparently, have Uncle Joe's
former followers deserted him And
now | feel certain sympathy for
the old man. 1t occurs to me that
the lean and sinewy old fighter, still
standing at bay and defying his foes,
is rather a nobler figure than the
members of congress who deserted
him in this, his hour of need.
The odd man had to pass. He is
out of harmony with the spirit of
the times. He is a Bourbon of the
Bourbons. He has his back to the
future end his face to the past.
give him credit with knowing that he
is licked, and it is back to Danville
for him, but it must be said that the
old man is a right nervy old fighter
and entitled to more credit than the
men who courted his favor so long
as 1t was to their personal advantage
and now forsake him in his hour of
political adversely.