PART II

SOLILOQUY

From the Third Act of the Lost Play.

PYRAMUS AND THISBY

Written by SYLVESTER BAXTER when he was a young man. Court scene before the Duke and his Retinue by Prof. WILLIAM C. CRAWFORD.

PART II- Continued

"A Night in Scotland, or The Double-Bedded Room,” in one act, by Harry Lauder, in Several Tableaux.

PART III

THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE DU PROGRAMME

The Managers take great pleasure in presenting "Under the Lid of the Golden Egg," By John Cutler and George B. Gliddon. Only performance. A beautiful tragedy of Fashion and Feeling.

Characters: Chief of Treasury Secret Service (quite a gentleman), Samuel F. Hubbard; Deputy Treasury Secret Service (almost as much of a gentleman), Daniel J. Kiley; Another of the Same, Adolphus B. Beeching (his real name); Still Another, Edward G. Graves; Agent De Books De Lookz (an adventurer), Dr. David D. Snedden; Judge Harris (an eminent hosier and old gentleman), Robert O. Harris (his real name); Detective (no gentleman), Carroll J. Swan; Anna Held (a snuggler!!!), W. Fred'k Berry.

Nobles, Ladies in Waiting, Pages, Guards, Spirits of Air, Wizards, etc., etc., The Scene is not laid in Mexico.

Wonderful Scenery on several thousand feet of canvas, painted by CHARLES L. BURRILL and FRANK L. LOCKE.

Stage Manager, Walter H. Dugan. Properties by Melancthon W. Burlen. Costumes by Horace Bacon.

Assistant Artists: Dr. Francis D. Donoghue; Hon. W. T. A. Fitzgerald; Hon. J. Mitchel Galvin.

GRAND FINALE

At great expense the Management has imported direct from the Berlin Opera House their chief artists who will present in Full Costume, as originally given,

OH DU SCHÖNE SHNITZEL BANK

Other than that the Audience may rise up in a mess and go home.

MUSIC BY THE BOSTON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

William F. Dodge, Conductor; Carl W. Dodge, 'Cellist; A. H. Handley, Cornet; Ernest W. Harrison, Pianist; H. C. Seller, Clarinet, E. D. Hassan, Drums.

REVIEW OF RECENT EVENTS

Thursday Evening, April 9

SOME THINGS ABOUT WASHINGTON, D. C.

At the dinner preceding the lecture by Hon. Louis A. Coolidge on "Some Things About Washington," Secretary Winship, in introducing Hon. George L. Barnes as toastmaster, called attention to the fact that the lecturer was an official as well as member of the Club, and that thus home talent was being recognized. Mr. Barnes summoned as speakers, Hon. James M. Swift, Hon. Frank P. Bennett, Hon. J. Mitchel Galvin, Hon. Edward C. Mansfield, and Mr. Robert L. O'Brien, each of whom mingled wit and friendly comments on the guest of honor with serious comment on contemporary happenings and past politics.

Over the meeting in the Auditorium Mr. Barnes also presided. Attention was called to the record of Mr. Coolidge as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, to his long term of service as a Washington correspondent, and to his qualities that make him a man with many friends.

Mr. Coolidge, after replying to some of the personal references to himself, said:

"I have often been asked since I came back to Massachusetts whether I did not hate to give up Washington. Of course I did. If not, the twenty years I lived there would have been wasted. If the friends I found there and the groups of which I formed a part were to be lightly left behind, I might as well have never had their memory.

"I shall always look back lovingly on Washington; as we look back upon the springtime when the autumn leaves begin to fall; yet in the short time which has fled since I gave up my habitation there, changes have been so swift with those whom I knew best, and public life has undergone so great a transformation that I confess a daily deadening in the feeling of regret; for, after all, life at the best in Washington is like a pageant a procession, never pausing, of those who, coming on the stage of national politics with high hope, pass on into political oblivion, that others pushing to the front with equal expectation may find room.

"I went to Washington in 1888. I was then employed on the Springfield Republican, and one night at my desk a despatch came in asking if I would take the place of Secretary to Mr. Lodge, then serving his first term as a Member of the House. The thing looked good to me, and, without thinking much of wages or conditions, I wired back that I would come. I had never spoken to Mr. Lodge and had never set eyes on him but once, and, of course, he knew hardly anything about me; but he was one of my youthful idols as he has been a never-failing friend in later years. We took each other on faith. I hope that he has had as little reason for regret as I. (Applause.)

"The late eighties and early nineties marked a time of transition in national affairs. We were approaching the close of a memorable political period and entering on one which in its own way was to be equally memorable. The men whose rivalries had given zest to the years of re

construction and readjustment following the Civil War were either gone or passing. Conkling, Garfield, Morton, Logan, and Grant were dead. Blaine, chastened by defeat, was nearing his tragic end. John Sherman was still a towering figure in the Senate, but not to be there long. New England was dominant with Hoar and Dawes, Hale and Frye, Chandler, Edmunds, Morrill, Aldrich, Hawley, and Platt. Edmunds was leader of the Senate. Cleveland was President; Carlisle was Speaker; Sam Randall, Chairman of Appropriations; Mills, of Ways and Means. Reed, Dingley, Cannon, and McKinley were just becoming nationally known. Taft was a fledgling judge in Cincinnati; Roosevelt was quarantined on his Dakota ranch; and Sam McCall was earning a precarious livelihood by writing for the Boston Advertiser. A new generation were coming to the front who in their turn have nearly all passed on, or else are being elbowed off the stage by the progressive spirits of the time because they block the way of actors with nimbler legs and tongues. There is no survivor in the Senate of those who sat there when I went to Washington; none in the House of Representatives. Six who are now Senators were then Members of the House-Gallinger of New Hampshire; Lodge of Massachusetts; Goff of West Virginia; Stone of Missouri; LaFollette of Wisconsin; and Nelson of Minnesota.

"Most of the men whom I have named, I knew. A few of them I looked upon as friends; and so it was with those who followed them and have passed on in turn. When I see those who push ahead to take the places which they filled, I wonder who is gaining by the change. But that is the way of politics. We begrudge to those who live and strive, the credit freely given to those no longer standing in the way. And victims of political detraction must find such consolation as they can in laying to their hearts Tom Reed's philosophy, when he defined a statesman as 'A successful politician-who is dead.' (Laughter.)

"If I were asked what scenes stand out most clearly as the years pass in review, I think I should name first the picture of Tom Reed, by sheer supremacy of intellect holding a turbulent House in check on that memorable day in the Fifty-first Congress when he first counted a quorum. Sure of his ground, he braved the storm of vituperation and partisan fury; and with unswerving purpose forced his opponents to accept the rules by which the House became at last a potent legislative body-rules which through all vicissitudes of party to this very day have stood the test of practical necessity, no matter whether Reed or Crisp, or Henderson, or Cannon, or Champ Clark was in the chair.

"Then I should name the swearing in of Roosevelt as President, surrounded by the group which filled the library of Ansley Wilcox's house in Buffalo, a few hours following McKinley's tragic death; and the solemn journey with McKinley's body from Buffalo to Washington and Canton.

"And then my eye would turn to National Conventions-those imposing gatherings of the chosen representatives of the two great parties— which for nearly a hundred years have offered the one effective means for ascertaining the political sentiment of the hour, and which in my

humble judgment under such conditions as they determine for themselves, must so continue as long as party government endures.

"I should see again the Democratic wigwam at Chicago, in 1892, packed with a restless mob of twenty thousand, cheering for Grover Cleveland, howling down speaker after speaker till far beyond the middle of the night, while a storm raged outside and rain poured through the roof; and Bourke Cochran taking the platform then, the weary spokesman of the beaten cause of Tammany, stilling the hostile crowd and holding them in silence for an hour, chained by the magic of his eloquence, but unconvinced.

"I should see the boy orator of the Platte leaping from his seat at the reporters' table in the chaotic gathering of 1896, and from the platform phrasing in silvery speech the hoarse and inarticulate cry of anarchy, holding aloft the cross of gold and crown of thorns, and carried from the hall the chosen leader of his party-chosen to lead them to defeat.

"Finally I should see the graceful figure of Elihu Root facing the tumult at Chicago only two years ago, and hear his reedlike voice threading the storms of passion as he determined disputed questions with a fairness and precision that compelled the tribute of respect even from those who felt the sting of his rebuke.

"I had seen Root in action many times before, though not till then on so spectacular a stage. I remembered how, after the Spanish War while he was still untried in national affairs, he reorganized the army from top to bottom, wiping out an antiquated system which had cost us countless lives; how he created a successful government in the Philippines, without a single precedent to guide him, and how he made a nation in Cuba. I recalled how during the Boxer outbreaks in China, while still Secretary of War, he was in effect the Government of the United States, with Congress in recess, the President resting in Canton, and John Hay ill at his summer home; how he, unaided and alone, directed the negotiations of the powers, opened communication with Pekin, pierced the belt of silence which encircled the legations, and organized the International Expedition of Relief.

"I recalled how after John Hay's death he gained new eminence as Secretary of State, excelling even Hay as an administrator, and equaling him in diplomatic dignity and skill. When he was at its head our State Department led the world. (Applause.) (Applause.) American diplomacy was not then a byword or a jest. I cannot name a public man in fifty years to whom Root need yield mastery in the affairs of State, or who has rendered greater service to his country or mankind. If you call that reaction, tell me what progress is. (Applause.)

"Of all the public men whom I have known, I think John Hay possessed the greatest charm. He was a wit, a scholar and a gentleman, a poet, a linguist, and a diplomat. He had a marvelous acquaintance with interesting people of many nationalities and all degrees, dating from Lincoln's day. No one could ask a more delightful privilege than to listen to his rippling comment on the ever-changing business which came

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before him day by day, or to his whimsical delineation of those who tickled his fancy or tried his patience.

"Frederick W. Holls was a well-meaning person who had a way of posing as a sort of unofficial envoy between the State Department and various foreign offices and meddling with all sorts of things. 'He seems to regard himself,' said Hay, 'as the vicegerent of the Almighty in all international affairs.'

"Hay was as loving as a woman and as sensitive, and sometimes seemed to revel in his own distress. Toward the last, especially after the death of his oldest boy, whom he adored, he frequently gave way to melancholy. He hated loneliness and dreaded the approach of age. Yet he never failed in gentleness or thoughtfulness for others, and his wit sparkled to the very end.

"The most skilful politician of his time was Matthew Stanley Quay. He was the graduate of an old and well-equipped political academy. Ever since Franklin's day the State of Pennsylvania has been training politicians of a peculiar type, and no party there, without regard to principles, has been too scrupulous about the methods it employed to hold supremacy or win success. Men and fashions change, and there were things which Franklin did, without objection, which even Pennsylvania would not tolerate to-day; but there has never been a time when organization was not recognized as of the very first importance; and in the Camerons and Quay, organization found its perfect flower. When Boies Penrose, who succeeded Quay as leader, was merely a lieutenant running for Mayor of Philadelphia, some of his friends complained to him that he was losing votes because he was a bachelor, while his opponent led an exemplary domestic life. Whereupon Penrose volunteered to marry any woman whom the organization would select. (Laughter.)

"Quay had just been chosen to the Senate when I went to Washington. Prior to 1887 he had confined himself to Pennsylvania. Don Cameron, a cold and clammy person, was Senator, and the Republican leader in the State. He had inherited both jobs from his father, Simon Cameron, and had the arrogance which may well go with such a legacy. Quay came to Washington to get instructions from his chief. The two strolled through the Capitol, to the Senate door. Quay started to go in, but Cameron held him back. 'I'll have to leave you outside, Matt,' he said, 'no one but Senators can go in here.' 'All right,' said Quay, 'I'll go in the next time I come to Washington.' And he did. Thereafter Cameron took his lead from Quay.

"A few months later Quay had a great deal to do with nominating Harrison, by swinging the Pennsylvania delegation at the proper time, and Harrison made him Chairman of the National Committee to manage his campaign. It is not often that one man can be said to settle an election, but Quay really did it in 1888 by strategy in pivotal States.

"Once safe in the White House, Harrison had no further use for him. Soon after inauguration, Quay asked the President to recognize a man who had taken an important part in the campaign. He met with