Evening journal., 1912-05-04
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Why GresIsy'S Running
Mate Failsd to Speak
By Holland

A brigadier-general of volunteers in
the cnion Army, United States SEN
ator at thirty-seven, and eight years
later elected governor Of Missouri
Benjamin Gratz Brown reached the
height of his public fame when, in
1872, he became the tail of the Greeley
presidential ticket, nominated by the
Liberal Republican party.
When the presidential campaign OF
that year was in full swing Governor
Brown was brought on from the west
by his party managers for a campaign
tour through New England He was a
gifted speaker and it was thought
that his eloquence would have great
effect on the younger element among
the voters. One Of the places at which
he was scheduled to speak was New
Haven. Governor Brown was gradu-
ate Of Yale, class of AZ, and when he
arrived in New Haven he was greatly
delighted to be again amid the scenes
of his college days, which he had Wis
tied but once since his graduation,
and at the reception that was given
him he expressed his pleasure at the
fact that ne had been asked to deliver
q speech in the town Of his alma ma
ter.
But that speech was never deliver
ed. In the early evening there spread a
report from the hotel where Governor
Brown was stopping that he was i'll,
and soon It was being limited that his
Illness was due to the effects of too
much cordiality. 1t was a rumor that
was not confined to New Haven. It.
spread gradually all over the coun-
try, and during the campaign It was
marked about in certain quarters that
the Liberal Republican candidate for
vice-president had been indiscreet on
his visit to New Haven--so indiscreet,
in fact, that he was able neither to
deliver the speech he had been sched-
uled to make there. though a crowded
hall had assembled to hear him, nor
to continue elsewhere his New Eng
land tour
That story, and the wide circulation
that it ultimately gained, was not dis
pleasing to the Republican politicians,
yet, on the word Of the physician who
was called in to attend Governor
Brown there was not one word Of
truth in II AS soon as the rumor that
Governor Brown was i'll had reached
newspaper man Of New Haven, he
sought out this physician, and to the
young man the doctor said:
came near losing its candidate for
/ vice president today. When I called
upon him professionally at his hotel,
found him suffering acutely, and I
diagnosed the case as one Of poison.
Governor Browns friends told me that
he had been anxious to taste of soft
shell crags, delicacy that was not
known in his college days, and that
the dish had so appealed to him that
ne mad imprudently eaten three Very
lkeN one OF them was not as fresh as
II might have been; at all events he
was poisoned by the delicacy. and 81
much so that only after an hour OF
TWO OF the hardest work ! succeeded
IN relieving him and bringing him out
OF danger But | would not be sur.
prised il he felt the effects of the
"NN'o Aiihtoo AoI some time 10 come
The young correspondent hurried
away, and was about to send the true
story Of the cause of Governor
Browns illness TO the New YorL
newspaper OF which he was the local
representative, when several OF ths
New Haven Republican campaign
managers urged him as a fellow Re.
publican. 10 say nothing. giving II as
their opinion that the first story ot
the cause of Governor Browns illness
had better run its course. Their coun.
sci prevailed, and so IL never became
known that not too much cordiality
but what probably we should now cal
ptomaine poisoning was the primar,
cause Of the abrupt termination of the
New England campaign Of the Liberal
Republican candidate for vice-presi,
dent
Copyright. 1911. by E ]. Edwards
All rights reserved.)