leader was when the treaty of Paris was being fiercely debated at
Washington; the sentiment of his party and the best men of the
country were against the purchase of the Philippines; but this
cross-roads politician, who could not see beyond the tip of his
nose, hastened to Washington, played into the hands of the jingoes
by persuading the wiser men of his own party--men who should not
have listened to him--to withdraw their opposition.
Bryan had two opportunities to exhibit qualities of statesmanship
in the beginning of the war with Spain, and in the discussion of
the treaty of Paris; he missed both. So far as the war was
concerned, he never had an idea beyond a little cheap renown as a
paper colonel of volunteers; so far as the treaty was concerned,
he made the unpardonable blunder of playing into the hands of his
opponents, and leaving the sound and conservative sentiment of the
country without adequate leadership in Washington.
While we were curiously looking at the Tilden homestead, an old
man came walking slowly down the road, a rake over his shoulder,
one leg of his patched trousers stuck in a boot-top, a suspender
missing, his old straw hat minus a goodly portion of its crown. He
stopped, leaned upon his rake, and looked at us inquisitively,
then remarked in drawling tone,--
"I know'd Sam Tilden."
"Indeed!"
"Yes, I know'd him; he was a great man."
"You are a Democrat?"
"I wuz, but ain't now," pensively.
"Why ar'n't you?"
"Well, you see, I wuz allus a rock-ribbed Jacksonian fr'm a boy;
seed the ole gen'ral onc't, an' I voted for Douglas an' Seymore. I
skipped Greeley, fur he warn't no Dem'crat; an' I voted fur Tilden
an' Hancock an' Cleveland; but when it come to votin' fur a
cyclone fr'm N'braska,--jest wind an' nothin' more,--I kicked over
the traces."
"Then you don't believe in the divine ratio of sixteen to one?"
"Young man, silver an' gold come out'r the ground, jes' lik' corn
an' wheat. When you kin make two bush'ls corn wu'th a bush'l wheat
by law an' keep 'em there, you can fix the rasho 'twixt silver an'
gold, an' not before," and the old man shouldered his rake and
wandered on up the road.
Before leaving the birthplace of Tilden, it is worth noting that
for forty years every candidate favored by Tammany has been
ignominiously defeated; the two candidates bitterly opposed by the
New York machine were successful. It is to the credit of the party
Here's a piece of wisdom on driving or cute car quote to study:
Road sense is the offspring of courtesy and the parent of safety. ~Australian Traffic Rule, quoted in Quotations for Special Occasions by Maud van Buren
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