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Show f THE COMMONER EXPLAINS. , Hji "TrT is interesting to read Colonel Bryan's version of that Toronto H JL affair, as printed in the latest issue of THE COMMONER. Un- B der the caption, "Many Thanks," in commenting on his unpleasant ex- m perience in the Canadian city, he observes that "It is hard to find any- Hj thing wholly bad the cloud generally has a 'silver lining.' Even a B ' premature death notice has its advantages it generally brings out m kind words that have been unspoken during life. So the Toronto in- M cident has unloosed a flood of friendly comment, which I greatly ap- H predate." M What a wonderful philosophy, this, that always permits one to B pat his own shoulders and smugly say "All's Well !" In addition to his B own signed statement concerning the episode, the colonel devotes h two pages of his paper to the publication of carefully selected press H' comments, all complimentary to himself, of course, and giving him Hjj' the best of the argument. In these well censored versions of the af- H? fair, he is made to assume heroic poise and all his virtues-are enlarged B upon in extravagant fashion. And so we are assured that, had it not H been for Colonel Bryan's rare presence of mind and extreme patience, fr' a riot could not possibly have been avoided. In place of being howled Bf down himself, we are to believe that he actually had the hecklers at H his mercy. It would seem that the big crowd was ready to administer HI some rough treatment to those men in uniform, but that The Com- H moner managed to save their hides, although he thereby spoiled a Hi good speech. Thus, while his editorial defenders admit that he won no H such victory over a hostile audience as did Henry Ward Beecher in Hi'' the days of the Civil War, he nevertheless acquitted himself admir- K, ably, making the best of an awkward situation. By virtue of which, Bi we are assured, the colonel has no reason to feel ashamed of the in-: cident. This is most agreeable news. We had feared that our distinguished distin-guished fellow countryman had in one manner or another managed to make a supreme ass of himself before that Toronto audience. How- g ever, after reading THE COMMONER, we now note that this priv- ilege was reserved for his fool friends on this side the border. Their desperate attempts to turn the inglorious incident to his own advantage, advant-age, he himself assisting in the foolhardy enterprise, has but served to heap additional ridicule upon the colonel. It is, indeed, a silly self defense de-fense that they have manufactured. l |