Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/375



Somebody called for a standing vote and every delegate arose to his feet, although many of them were of independent proclivities, and voted in favor of the resolution. To Pennsylvania was accorded the opportunity to make one of the nominating speeches. It is the broadest field in America upon which a man may address his fellow men, and in these conventions is determined who shall guide the destinies of the nation for a period of four years. Penrose came to me and generously asked me to make the speech. I told him he was called upon, as the leader of the party in the state, to do it himself, but he insisted, and the truth is, I was not disinclined to make the effort. The convention was held in the wigwam with an audience of 30,000 people sitting, as in an amphitheater, with tiers rising one above another until they reached the rear and the top. A board and carpeted passage-way ran out from the platform toward the center so as to enable the speaker to approach as near as possible his hearers. "Uncle Joe" Cannon presided, and in his Western breezy way he presented those who were to speak. He adopted all kinds of antics to secure attention and maintain silence. On one occasion he lay flat and pounded on the boards of the Rh