Baltimore Evening Sun (16 July 1912): 6.

The following cablegrams, received this morning, explain themselves:

Prepaid. Bremen, July 16.
Mencken, Sun, Baltimore:
Will colonel hook land bremen en route munich if so desire to give public reception trust will spend several days our beautiful city regards herr consul luitpoid.
Himmelheber, burgomaster.

Collect $3.60. Munich. July 16.
Mencken. Sunpaper, Baltimore:
Kindly convey official invitation to colonel hook letter follows committees appointed and plans under way cable exact hour of arrival soon as possible.
Kraus, burgomaster.

McCAY-McCOY. This is a Democratic organization administration. People might as well know it * * * If a man has not the backing of the organization he can’t get a job.—The Hon. McCAY-McCOY.

The Hon. the super-Mahon, turning aside temporarily from the benign business of helping the Hon. Honest “Bob” Padgett, prints the following interesting note in the current issue of his weekly paper:

We are surprised to see an effort on the part of certain newspapers and certain persons to belittle the candidacy of the Honorable James H. Preston for Vice-President of the United States, and there have been stories told about the reception of his nomination in the convention that have been absolutely untrue, and the writers of these stories knew that they were untrue, There were some unpleasant demonstrations that time, but they were due to a cause that need not be mentioned, and not to any want of devotion on the part of the great masses.

A straightforward statement, and one deserving respectful consideration. But, unluckily enough, it stops short of specifications. While the hon. gent. speaks of “certain newspapers” and “certain persons,” to just what newspapers and persons does he refer? Does he include among the former, the New York Sun, Times and World, or the Chicago Tribune, or the Philadelphia Record, or the Boston Herald, or the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, all of which treated the incident of the night somewhat copiously? Or does he mean the Sunpaper, that licentious ancient? Let us all hope that he will at once proceed to nominate the culprit or culprits, and specify the “absolutely untrue” stories that they have told. It is highly important that the inaccuracies of the public press be rebuked. Here, now, is an opportunity to rebuke them, giving names and dates. And if the space available in the Democratic Telegram is insufficient to print the whole indictment, I shall be glad to get it into The Evening Sun.

The Hon. the super-Mahon, it is apparent, is perfectly sincere in his charges, for he complains only of felonious exaggerations and does not deny that there were “unpleasant demonstrations” on that night of horrors. But what does he mean by “a cause that need not be mentioned”? A cause? What cause? Does he accuse any definite person or persons? If so, who? Let us inquire into this serious matter. Let us summon a coroner’s jury and hold an orderly and impartial inquest. The corpse has gone unburied too long.

When them paving contractors falls out and begins blabbin’, then a body ought to hear somethin’ worth hearin’.

Let every good citizen go to Back River next Sunday and help to bust the Blue Laws. Let there be an overwhelming, an awful outpouring of the common people. Those who do not like rice beer have no excuse for staying away. It is the solemn duty of every decent man to go down and swallow his bottle, however much it disgusts and poisons him. Personal tastes must yield to patriotism. It is more important that Maryland should be a free and civilized republic, unbossed by professional moralists, than that you and I should escape biliousness.

Last Sunday the storm kept thousands away. Next Sunday let them all go early. There is room within half a mile of Back River bridge for 100,000 visitors, and hordes of gentlemanly waiters, white and black, await their orders. Let the day see such a stupendous rally of the plain people that the virtuosi of virtue will be forever refuted, counterblasted and flabbergasted. If you can’t go yourself, send your brother. And if your brother fails you, send your father-in-law. Every Baltimorean who is against oppression and tryanny and the curse of Puritanism should do his darndest to make the demonstration a staggering success.

If the gentlemen who are now betting 2 to 1 on Wilson’s election care to take the advice of a broken-down and embittered sport, they will hedge before it is too late. On the day following the convention the New Jersey pundit was elected by between 7,000,000 and 8,000,000 majority. A week later that majority had shrunk to 2,500,000. Today it is little more than 1,500,000. By the Tuesday following the first Monday in November it may get down to 1,000 or 2,000, or even to -1,000 or -2,000.

Not that the Hon. Mr. Wilson is less worthy than he was, but simply that his followers are too confident. For one thing, they grossly underestimate the strength of the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt. To hear them talk, one would fancy that Theodore wes already dead and embalmed. As a matter of fact he was never in better form. What is more, the business before him, to a man of his talents, is considerably less difficult than the business he achieved in April and May. Once he gets upon the stump that fact will begin too grow evident.

But the chief danger confronting the Hon. Mr. Wilson is that of assuming that the professional politicians of his own party are all heartily with him. As a matter of fact very few of then are. If you don’t believe it, just go among the frail-heads of the local ward clubs. First let them tell you that they are hot for Wilson. Then discreetly cross-examine them.

Medical freedom, that priceless boon, seems to be making progress in Pocomoke City. Three or four weeks ago the estiniable Ledger-Enterprise of that fair town threw over its columns to the press matter of a League for Medical Freedom, Maryland Branch. Already the populace has been so educated and mellowed that the Ledger-Enterprise is able to announce (in its current issue) that hydropbobia is caused by the Dog Star. Thus the new learning permeates and illuminates the folk of Pocomoke, and the fallacies of the scoundrels of allopathy are disposed of.

Col. Jacobus Hook has just leased 8,000 hectares of land in the Vuelta Abajo district of Cuba for the growing of his 1913 crop of perfectos and panatellas.—Adv.