.

Oh, you have been doing many things in this time that I have been
absent; you have done lots of things, some that are well worth
remembering, too. Now, we have fought a righteous war since I have
gone, and that is rare in history--a righteous war is so rare that it
is almost unknown in history; but by the grace of that war we set Cuba
free, and we joined her to those three or four nations that exist on
this earth; and we started out to set those poor Filipinos free, too,
and why, why, why that most righteous purpose of ours has apparently
miscarried I suppose I never shall know.

But we have made a most creditable record in China in these days--our
sound and level-headed administration has made a most creditable record
over there, and there are some of the Powers that cannot say that by any
means. The Yellow Terror is threatening this world to-day. It is looming
vast and ominous on that distant horizon. I do not know what is going to
be the result of that Yellow Terror, but our government has had no hand
in evoking it, and let's be happy in that and proud of it.

We have nursed free silver, we watched by its cradle; we have done the
best we could to raise that child, but those pestiferous Republicans
have--well, they keep giving it the measles every chance they get, and
we never shall raise that child. Well, that's no matter--there's plenty
of other things to do, and we must think of something else. Well, we
have tried a President four years, criticised him and found fault with
him the whole time, and turned around a day or two ago with votes enough
to spare to elect another. O consistency! consistency! thy name--I don't
know what thy name is--Thompson will do--any name will do--but you see
there is the fact, there is the consistency. Then we have tried for
governor an illustrious Rough Rider, and we liked him so much in that
great office that now we have made him Vice-President--not in order
that that office shall give him distinction, but that he may confer
distinction upon that office. And it's needed, too--it's needed. And
now, for a while anyway, we shall not be stammering and embarrassed when
a stranger asks us, "What is the name of the Vice-President?" This one
is known; this one is pretty well known, pretty widely known, and in
some quarters favorably. I am not accustomed to dealing in these fulsome
compliments, and I am probably overdoing it a little; but--well, my old
affectionate admiration for Governor