Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1894 — HARRISON VS. M’KINLEY [ARTICLE]

HARRISON VS. M’KINLEY

The Ohioan Makes the ex-President Decidedly Nervous. The presidential contest of 1896 got all mixed up with the recent McKinley demonstration in Indianapolis. At fint,’ it will be remembered, Harrison announced that “an important law case in New York” would prevent his attendance at the meeting. This raised all manner of a rumpus in the camp of the faithful. The McKinley people who, hy the way, are very strong in Indiana, raised an awful row. They declared in a way that made perfectly clear the fact that they meant it, that if Harrison attempted thus to snub his great rival and throw cold water on the demonstration in his honor they would immediately proceed to lay for the scalp of the aforesaid Ben Harrison. Party leaders labored with the ex-pr isident to induce him to alter his determination. but to little avail. Finally Dan Ransdell, the old head of the “Slick Six,” took the matter in hand; Nobody

ever gets very close to Ben Harrison, but Ransdell gets closer than anybody else. Riuisdell helped Dudley always in managing Indiana campaigns, according to approved Dudley and “Slick Six” methods, and Harrison has great confidence in him. Ransdoll used arguments that the other mediators hadn’t thought of. Mr. Harrison was told very plainly that unless he appeared at the meeting McKinley would bo given a great boom for the Indiana delegation to the next national convention; that if he (Harrison) consented to preside at the McKinley meeting, he instead of McKinley would get the demonstration and MoKinley, seeing this, would cease his attempt to capture the Indiana vote in the next convention. This tickled Harrison’s vanity and the * ‘importance” suddenly evaporated from that New York law case. And Harrison presided. But a bitter disappointment awaited him. The applause which greeted him when he took the chair was brief and formal. He spoke only a few minutes, but his audience was restless and cold; it smiled half-heartedly at his alleged jokes and passed by unnoticed what he meant for his telling points. There was a little applause at the close of the ex-president’s speech, but it had the earmarks of being merely an expression of relief that the speech was done and that the real treat of the day was at hand. But when McKinley stepped forward the audience went wild with enthusiasm. The ex-president nestled nervously in his chair and his ashen face grew paler as if he were suffering from a colic. It was the first time that his intense egotism had permitted him to realize the fact that he was no longer the idol of the Republicans of Indiana. When Ransdell saw the miscarriage of his plans he quietly sneaked out the back door and has studiously avoided a meeting with Harrison ever since. Harrison is sulky and morose, and an air of general discomfort has characterized the Republican committeeroomsall week.