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Show Fua-Loving Democrats SHOULD you wish to attend one of the four years' master performances perform-ances of a major political party, I would suggest, regardless of your political preference, that you pick the Democratic show. I am sure it will provide you more entertainment. more unexpected innovations, in-novations, more thrills, than will be found in the more decorous Republican performance. There are no two of the Democratic shows that are alike. At the Democratic performance put on at Houston, Tex., where Al Smith was named as the party's standard bearer, there was included an act that probably will never be repeated. Smith, for whose benefit the act was played, is gone, and it is not probable there ever will be another to take his place in the affection of the performers. The role was played by Tammany, recognized nationally as democracy's democ-racy's bad boy. Tammany was determined de-termined to make that Houston performance per-formance an Al Smith show, and the braves were present in large numbers, num-bers, but not in their customary Bad Boy role. The Tammany braves, several hundred of them, traveled from New York to Texas by boat. I was at the dock when the boat landed at Galveston Galves-ton and saw them disembark. As they sedately marched down the gangplank I realized it was not the Tammany of Broadway, of the East Side, of Brooklyn or the Bronx. Each brave was arrayed in striped trousers, trou-sers, a Prince Albert coat, white collar col-lar and a silk hat. It was the Bad Boy gone visiting and on good behavior. be-havior. There was little hilarity, barely so much as a smile. When they poured out of the trolley cars at Houston and marched to their hotel there again was no evidence of the rough stuff that had been expected of Tammany. Tam-many. There was not even a slight hurrah for Texas and no intimation that the braves were interested In Al Smith. They would do nothing noth-ing that might be misconstrued by the delegates, especially those from the southern states. In the convention that unusual role continued. Massachusetts started an Al Smith demonstration but the Bad Boy took no part in it. The braves sat quietly in their seats near the New York state delegation. Then-silent Then-silent composure continued even through the uproar that greeted the Smith name when he was presented as New York's candidate for the nomination. It was not until the roll call of the states had been completed, the votes of the delegates recorded and officially offi-cially announced that Tammany became be-came the Tammany known in New York City. At that moment, led by the Tammany braves, bedlam was let loose in that convention hall. The women who had been aboard that boat the wives, relatives and friends of the braves flocked into the big hall at the hoped-for moment mo-ment and were as hilariously wild and unruly as their menfolks. Wilted collars were torn from suffering necks. Discarded and tramped upon Prince Albert coats relieved suffering suffer-ing backs. The Bad Boy's pent-up hopes of his days of good behavior let loose with all the fury of a Texas tornado. Nothing could stop it, and nothing did throughout the day and night in the hotels and streets of Houston. The Bad Boy had worn his company com-pany manners so long as it was essentialuntil the votes of the delegates dele-gates were counted. He had preserved pre-served the dignity of democracy so long as dignity was needed and then came his time to howl, and howl he did. That wild outburst came too late to have any effect on the vote of the convention delegates. Whether it had any after-effect on the vote in November, I do not know. Certainly many a southern Democrat turned thumbs down on the man who inspired in-spired the outburst of the Tammany braves at Houston. A day after the closing of that Houston convention it was a hat-less, hat-less, and largely coatless, crowd that found Its way back, singly or in small groups, to the boat at Galveston. The convention and the celebration had been a success. Should you attend the Democratic performance at Philadelphia you will not witness a repetition of the act put on by the Tammany Bad Boy at Houston. But there will be some other. There always is. The Democratic Demo-cratic show is the spectacular one of the two political performances. I sit in the sunshine of an autumn day fishing in the stream of memories. mem-ories. Many incidents, cf varying sizes, rise to my lure, bjt the names associated with those incidents do not strike, do not even nibble at my bait. I wonder if mine is an exceptional ex-ceptional case or if there are many who fail to attract names from the stream of memories during autumn days. It may take more than a booggy man to frighten Stalin. |