The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-06-09
OLD PEP
MISSING
IN HALL.
Republican National Conven
tion is So Tame That Salt
Solution May be
Tried.
LACKS OLD ENTHUSIASM
In State Of Coma at Opening Session
With Now and Then Weak
Burst Of Ap-
, plause.
LACKS OLD ENTHUSIASM
LBy Lowell Mellett, Written For The
United Press by Special Ar
rangement With Golfers

Weekly.]
CHICAGO, June 9-They might
do it by bringing Boies Penrose to
Chicago on a special train and carry
ing him into the convention hall on
a stretcher; they might do 1t by es-
corting William Howard Taft to the
platform and asking him to smile;
they might do it by presenting
Charles Evans Hughes suddenly to
the apathetic delegates. They've got
to do it somehow, They've got to in
ject a salt solution into the veins of
soul go fluttering into the beyond at
an unripe age.
The convention lapsed into state
of coma within an hour after Chair
man Hayes called it to order yester.
day, and all the red and green feath-
ers that the Wood adherents wear
had not succeeded in tickling it back
toe consciousness today
Once or twice the convention has
opened it's eyes, but those at the bed
side agree that it showed no signs
of recognizing anyone.
If not a salt solution, then a medi-
cine dance Perhaps Hiram Johns on,
with the devastating speech which he
is said to be containing only by he
roic effort; perhaps Henry J. Allen,
whose admirers hint he is going to
duplicate Bryan's feat of 1896, except
that his speech may read:
You shall not press down upon
the brow of capital this crown Of
thorns," etc.
II Johnson provides this, the medf
cine dance by his enthusiastic fol-
lowers is assured. If A1len-then it
depends on the merit of the incanta-
ton. 49,
The delegates miss all the old IA
miliar features. They're in a mood
to welcome the temperance of the
old steam roller itself. and if the
remnant of the old guard could get
that remorselesS chariot to hitting
on more than one cylinder, they'd be
justified in rolling It out.
We'll, after Wood, who are you
for?" an Arizona delegate was asked.
"Oh, I don't know. l guess-that
Coolidge is as good as any"
There you are. The best that the
average delegate has to say for al
most any of the delegates is that he
is as good as anybody else. And
some Of them express it profanely,
because there is little of downright
mixed with their indif-
ference.
Is Losing Its Punch.
[By Bruce Barton, Written for the
United Press.I ..r
CHICAGO, June 9.-Chauncey NJ
DePew and l have attended republ:
cir La,
alton from, college. He bega in
1860 and l in 1908. 70. -e,
Chauncey thinks that this is the
last one which he may ever see: and
[ have an idea that unless the show
Is changed considerably someone else
may have my seat at the next per
formance, too.
For the good old program that's
drawn the crowds 50 long seems to
me to be losing its punch. The acts
are shop-worn, the scenery is frayed
and the folks don't respond as they
lid
The session yesterday was the
.amest have ever seen There was
hardly any cheering as the leaders
came in one by one.
In the hone of pumping some
oxygen into the 1istless crowd. a
specialist in leading cheers had been
from the east. He led three
.heers for Senator Lodge and then
hurried to pass handful Of MS
cards down into the press section 50
hat we might tell the world that his
name is Albert Edmund Brown
eader of community singing Per
laps he, too is one Of those VINO
igures himself dark horse.
Senator Lodge read for an hour AMI
, half using all of the tried and true
stuff. And nobody cared enough to