Torrington Telegram

A LITTLE KEROSINE

About twenty years ago a senator from Texas by the name of Joseph Weldon Bailey was the idol of the south. He represented every ideal and sentiment of the southland. He was a state's rights advocate of the truest blue. Joe Bailey was destined to become the Democratic nominee for President, alternating perhaps with William Jennings Bryan. But one foul day somebody smeared a little Standard Oil on Joe's coat. It wasn't much more than a coarse grade of kerosine, but what an odor it had! That little drop of oil spread like a malignant attack of leprosy, and Joseph's Presidential garments were ruined. That magnetic orator, that stalwart statesman, that marvelous type of southern Democracy on whose words thousands had hung in breathless suspense around many a campaign platform; that bullmoose whose clarion call brought all the boys out of the sticks and the forks of the creek one hundred per cent, lost his leadership in a night, all because of a little smudge of oil. It might be that times have changed, that McAdoo can whitewash the oil spots and come back again. But just like Albert Fall he might better take his medicine now and gracefully retire.