Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1912-05-24

awaits the man who can coin the
word or phrase, or reveal the lore or
logic, that shall account for the in
fence of Theo dore Roosevelt. Vino is
he and what is he that he should not
be judged and measured by the ordi-
nary standards by which we take the
measures of other men? This question
is not asked flippantly, but in all
seriousness; for the personality of
Roosevelt is at this time of more i'm
portance than the discussion or solu-
ton of any economic problem. If he
is nominated for the presidency by
the Chicago convention, or if he
should run as an independent, as now
seems probable, (though he has said
he will not bolt the convention his
personality will be the permanent
question in the next campaign.
That the source of his influence is
hidden in the heart of mystery and
that his whole public career defies
analysis, find practical illustration
in the fact that he has fattened and
prospered, that he has grown in the
esteem and favor of his admirers,
many of whom are men of discern
ment and sincerity, on an outflow of
billingsgate, inconsistency, pettish-
ness and pettiness, egotistic buster.
cunning evasion, meddling and crimi-
nation, canting and recanting, that
would have made any other man a
social and political mpossibility.
By way of illustration, can you
imagine Beverage or Fairbanks,
minus the indefinable Roosevelt ego
and halo, as having through the past
twelve years pranked before the
American public in the Roughrider
role--branding scores of reputable
men with the iron of falsehood; vo-
ciferously preaching n square deal
and dealing from the bottom of the
deck; denouncing man as danger
Gus dreamer after having fiched his
policies with the audacity of a polit;-
cal ape secretly soliciting Harriman's
money for the purpose of practical
politics. and publicly inveigling
against such practice with the whin.
ing insistence of a petulant anchor
lite; insisting that big business was
against Taft in 1908 because he stood
for him, and is supporting him now
because he is opposing him; declar
ing, in the face of clear, unmis-
taxable written statement to the con
trary, that he did not say he would
not accept third nomination for the
presldency--can you, by any stretch
of the imagination conceive of n
Beveridge or Fairbanks, or any
other man, strutting up and down the
earth clothed in this leopard skin and
at the same time making n credulous
public believe that it is as clean as
"Aaron's spotless robe appeared to
Aaron when he laid it down to die ?"
The Hartman letter was published
IN facsimile, yet the Roosevelt ad
mirers Insist that he is the incarna-
tion of truth and patriotism. 1t must
therefore be assumed that the denial
as it whistled between the Roosevelt
ian teeth was miraculously changed
In substance and Issued from his lips
stamped with the sanctity of truth,
though not exactly in accord with
the facts. This is, of course, mira Gu
lous, but one is not expected to ac-
count for Roosevelt in a practical
way.
There are many who believe this
man to be the greatest man in our
history; there are some who believe
he is the greatest man in the history
of mankind, that he has "veiled the
earth with his shadow; - there are
millions who stand ready to make
their necks his footstool. The people
are drunk with frenzied enthusiasm.
but when they have learned, as we
believe they will, the true character
OF this Michiavallain "honey fugler. ,"
they will vomit adherence and de-
testation