The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-07
' SOME FREAK CANDIDATES

From the Utica Observer.
 The publication lately of the photo- graph and life sketch of James P. flaw kins reminds us that this Louisville post offive clerk has had several predecessors in his freak hunt for the presidency.
 Surely no one in Utica whose memory extends through fifty years has forgot ten Gen. Daniel Pratt, P.P.P.C., Per petual Presidential Candidate, as he used to sign his communications to the Ob- server. And every old man will remem- Der the persistent push the perpetual Pratt made to gain prominence with Utica as the strategic point for his advance, and the observer for his recognized organ Those were rather exciting times polical- ly, when Roscoe Conking was serving his first tenn in Congress-we are speaking of 1860 now-and when Governor Sey- mour and Francis Herman were the demo- cratic leaders of this town. Pratt passed away after a time carrying to his grave no memory of ever having received single vote either in convention or as a stump candidate for President
 The next freak candidate was Dan Rice who left Girard, Pa., or New York city in June. 1868, big with the idea that he would capture the democratic national convention which would assemble at Tam many hall on July Fourth. Dan Rice was a circus clown, who in his earlier days had acquired wide reputation as a Jester of wt"-as Shakespeare says. AL though he never decerted the seventeen stories which lie at the basis of all hu- nor, yet he had them so pat that he could rattle them off until they sounded original. This was Dan Rices stock in trade.
 His press agent put up the following plausible argument: What made Abra- ham Lincoln the strongest man in Amer ica? How much did the people know about the man when he was first nomi- mated? He was only known as a good story teller-a line in which Dan Rice is his superior. Why not nominate Dan Rice?' Dan had just one delegate in the convention, the one from Girard. Him, however, he couldn't use, for the suf- ficient reason that the Pennsylvania delegation came together on the third of July and resolved that they would act as q unlL, ana that tnelT CndlT1ldn SHOulQ cast the vote of the whole delegation for General Winfield Scott Hancock as Penn sylvanias first, last, and only choice for President
 So Dan Rice was utterly Ignored by his one delegate and by all the others, who smiled sardonically as they read his big canvas strung across the Broadway entrance to the St. Nicholas hotel: For President Daniel Rice of Pennsylvania" "I had to pay for those three letters I had added to my name out of respect to the crowd I was consorting with said Dan Rice, speaking of the episode afterward.
 Now to the list of fretk candidates tha name of James P. Hawkins Is added. If he is a clerk in the Louisville postoffice we assume he must have had an educa- tion sufficient to stand civil service ex- animation when he first applied for his present place. But his egotsm must have grown out of all proportion to his other faculties if he lmagines now that he could be President If only he could get the nomination in place of Taft! It Is not to be, of course
 There Is an unwritten clause of the constitution which forbids the election of fool to the presidency. And the Amer jeans may be trusted to enforce that clause, even if they neglect several oth- CTS. It makes no difference whether the fools name is Pratt, Rice or Hawkins.