Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1894 — ANOTHER’S BRAINS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ANOTHER’S BRAINS.

HOW THE'PRESIDENT COMPILES HIS SPEECHES. ‘ “ "Treason Like a Deadly Blight’’' Descends Upon His Own Head —Toni Moore’s I’oem Used to Slaughter the Democratic Leaders-. [From New York Sun,. Aug. 29.] The usefulness of a good working library to a President of the United States was magnificently illustrated in the mentor able days' wh en' the “American Cyclopaedia” furnished Mr. 5 Cleveland with speech after speech for delivery to the mayors anil citizens of son th western towns. Mr. Cleveland is not regarded as a scholarly man, but his library methods are still those of the patient toiler ih the alcove. Having on band during the past ten days the job of composing a letter to Mr. Catchings, and desiring to put to Catchings the infamy of treason in as strong and striking language as possible, the President goes to his book-

shelves. He does not take down the Cyclopaediaas before, for he seldom consults-that once familiar work now except under stress of absolute necessity He reaches instead for his copy of John Bartlett’s “Familiar Quotations.” Turning to “Treason” in the index, he finds first: “Treason can but peep, 112. ” That will not answer. “Treason can but peep” is too undignified for a semi-official executive communication. It suggests chickens. The next indication is this: ‘ Corporations can not commit treason, 24.” . That is manifestly unavailable. It is too favorable to the trusts. Next: “Treason doth never prosper, 39.” But it does prosper, and its prosperity is what Mr. Cleveland wants to complain of to Catchings. So he turns to the next line: “Treason flourished over us, bloody, 114.” That might do, but a reference to page 114 shows Mr. Cleveland that bloody treason is mixed up with the fall of Great Caesar, an unpleasant idea to contemplate. “Treason has clone his worst, 121,” The same objection applies. Treason has done his worst and Bun can is in his grave; malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing can touch him further. “If this be treason, make the most of it, 429.” The same trouble again in the quotation from Patrick Henry's.speech in the convention: “Caesar had his Brutus; Charles I. his* Cromwell,” and so forth. Bnt the seventh indication is a find. “Treason, like a deadly blight, 526.” That’s the sort of treason he wants to impress on Catchings’ mind. Going swiftly to page 526 he scans with the satisfaction of a discoverer these lines from “Lalla Rookh:” “O for a tongue to curse the slave Whose treason, like a deadly blight, Comes o’er the councils of the' brave. And blasts them in their.hour of might!” Just the thing for Catchings. And so with patient, laborious care our President rounds out his period thus: “I take my place with the rahlFand file of the democratic party, who believe in tariff reform and know what it is, who refuse to accept the results embodied in this bill as the end of the' war, who are not blinded to the fact that the livery of democratic tariff reform has been stolen and worn in the service of republican protection, and

who have marked the places where the deadly blight of treason has blasted the counsels of the brave in their hour of might.” It is true that the figures of speech ! are somewhat mixed, and that the ‘ patch line between Hon .JJrover Cleveland’s rhetoric and Tom Moore’s is rather too obvious; but that doesn’t matter much. It is a precious privilege to get this glimpse of the actual workings of a massive mind in fall and effective operation.

Where is Democratic Harmony?

The Lumberman’s Fix.