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Show CLARK'S DECLINATION. The announcement that Senator W. A. Clark v, ill not be a candidate to succeed himself ought not to be a surprise. lie has immense business interests. inter-ests. Moreover, he is one of the most, tireless of active ac-tive men and his friends havea thousand times wondered won-dered how as restless a soul as Ins could bear the monotony of alife in. the Senate, which also involves in-volves the looking after the interests of an often unreasonable un-reasonable constituency. We. say the monotony of the Senate we v mean for a mind like Senator Clark's, for nil his life he has fought his way in a different school. , - . '.. lie can apply himself to any business matter that may come up; with his order of mind and business busi-ness habits he would not require more than three hours to come to a conclusion. But then comes in the partisan aspects "of the case, then the legal aspeets'and finally the constitutional bearings, and he has to sit weeks and weeks and hear the .matter debated, feeling all the time that he could with a good stenographer ina back room, 8 by. JO, fix the business in forty minutes so - that there would be neither a partisan, legal or constitutional objec- j lion to it. ' . , . ' There is more to the business. The Senator is wonderfully .Informed, considering the manner of his life," but in the Senate the strong men are grounded in many things of which he has only a veneer, and .with them he is sometimes as much lost as those Senators around him would be were he to take them to Butte, go down with them in a mine and ask them, judging by the formation, whether they would advise more sinking or drifting or cross-cutting to make sure of striking the ore body. Of course they could laugh the matter off by explaining that they are not miners; but that will not'do in the Senate, because a Senator is supposed to know. The result, sometimes is that when the heavy -guns -of the Senate, all engaged, are firing' broadsides, Mr. Clark is in much the same fix that the great correspondent Russell was, when, for the London Times, he went over to Dublin to report a .' great speech to be delivered by the immortal O'Con-nell. O'Con-nell. iWhen the time for the speech came, Russell had his papers all spread out to begin when the great Liberator turned to him and said: "Are yon all teady, Mr. Russell?" Russell said he was. "You -are quite sure you are all ready?" said O'Connell. Russell nodded, whereuon O'Connell, with all his flret began and delivered his speech in Irish. The truth is that to be a successful Senator a man must either be. .trained for the place or must be a natural leader of men, like the late Mark Hanna. But then, speaking of Senator Clark, should he develop into a candidate for Vice-President in 1908 it would hot be a matter of great surprise to those who knpw him, for the Senator is like Julius Caesar, at. least ia one respect; he is ambitious and would v not, if offered him, decline a "kingly crown." |