The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-09

delegate in fifty will have an oppor- tuhity to express and to record his individual preference for any candi- date other than the candidate selected by some one else and for whom, by order from on high. he will obediently cast his vote. He is here to sit in the show window with the rest of the wax works. He is not expected to do any think on his own personal account.
 To permit him individually to in- dulge in any miscellaneous and in- dependent thinking would be danger ous to the plans of the hidden powers and might entail a perilous strain on his mentality. The thinking Is in the hands of competent experts and does not concern him. I inscribe these words on the subject of the republican national convention. With ~~equal truth I may pen them three weeks hereafter with regard to the demo- cratic national convention
 DRAMATIC ASPECTS Let us take the dramatic aspects of
 
 and rehearsed theatricalism which the spectator beholds spread before his vision in a convention city is merely a standard device of the concealed stage managers. planned beforehand to furnish a popular. spectacle.
 Any national convention run on busi- | ness principles could do it's work and name it's ticket and barring unfore- seen and unlikely contingencies could | adjourn In eighteen hours. The real drama is put on behind the scenes II 1 is going on now behind the scenes where Uncle Murray Crane, the most noiseless thing that has come out of New England since the maxim silencer was invented is conferring with Sem ator Reed Shoot, who taught the tabby cats of Utah how to stalk mice and
 where, over the long distance tele- 1 phone wires the cautious voice of
 Senator Boise Penrose is at intervals 1 saying Flush, hush, hush"
 l So far as the public ear is concerned the audible effect of these invisible
 and unpicturesque councilings is about
 as noisy as the sound produced by a streak of moonlight falling upon the surface of cup of custard and yet
 therefore, sooner or later the actual
 fruitage of the convention will alm os,
 inevitably issue.
 I SOME NOTES OF HUMOR I Take the scene when a convention
 gets under way for it's opening session
 Pursuing my right of choice. I shal
 take the scene presented today at the
 Coliseum. There was comedy aplenty ,but 1t was of the unconscious variety
 To some 1t may have appeared tha
 the humor started when the solo cor , netist of the official brass band strucl such sour note that four bars O America. the Gem of the Ocean" clab oercd as solid as smearkase. Some , may think that the funniest spectacl, was unwittingly offered by long lin
 of suff ladies who stood on the sum, side or hot street patiently cookinl
 their complexions to, rich golden oal tone. But to my way of speaking, MT
 William Jennings Bryan's little boy' : hat struck the first and foremost not,
 of hilarity. MT Bryan must have been passing place where they were advertising a GU sale of seasonable wearing apparel fo /: the tiny tots and having an eye ever fc l a bargain he dropped in and picked him {; self out rollo lid that had been le, over from last season. Perhaps he was trying to recall tn
 happy days when he was the boy oratc /; of the Platte or was it the boy prof. !. gate? Otherwise his costume as GU. z tomary with him was chastely that of
 prosperous peasant. Constant wearing ( [. a halo has worn his back hair ava : somewhat, otherwise he looks just a z he did four years ago when I last sa him sitting in the same press row whe, f today he sat
 f BRYAN BEST AS REPORTER MT. Bryan as you know goes to a n national conventions He goes to republ ' can conventions as a reporter and democratic conventions as a candidat It is believed by his friends that , may eventually succeed at one of the j. 1.-two professions. But if I were him e should drop eandidating as calling al
 between Chautauqua seasons go in e
 tirely for reportorial work. Somehow
 seems to have better luck in that fife
 than in the other.
 ..I When the New York outfit appeare Boss Bill Barnes. who weighs 2iO
 the scales and nearly 200 when he
 l>telling you what his weight is. w n closely followed by Sam koenig. t
 half portion leader of Manhattan. su | gesting the famous wild life pictu y Mother Hippo With Young l. It was noted that the cotored del n gate acquires merit by wearing a wh a vest. If in addition to white vest d has on gold trimmed spectacles and cs ..s ~;a~ oaAa ;< on,,rfaA htxx. e~o-