_Speech at Girard, Kas., May 23, 1908_
[NOTE.—Girard, Kansas, is a quiet little city built about a
capacious plaza or square. This plaza is carpeted with Nature’s
emerald and roofed with the protecting branches of the catalpa and
the elm tree. When the news came that Debs had again been chosen as
the candidate of the Socialists for that station in our public
affairs of most comprehensive service to the people, the citizens,
without reference to political faiths, gathered upon this green out
of compliment to their fellow-townsman who had been thus honored for
the third time by such signal confidence on the part of so many
earnest people of the nation at large. These good people of Girard
had seen bevies of children following this arch “undesirable
citizen” to and from his work, and about the town in his resting
hours, for almost the entire period of his residence here, and now
it had come to pass that he was loved by every man, woman and child
here. They sent for him. Eli Richardson, the “Hot Cinders”
Socialist, affectionately known for so long a time as “Baldy,”
explained in a few dramatic words the occasion of the gathering, and
presented Debs with the remark, “You can pin your faith to a man
loved by children.” The address which follows, wholly impromptu, is
perhaps the most remarkable ever delivered, and came hot from the
foundry of his mighty genius and fresh from the loom of his kindly,
loyal, loving soul.]
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen: When I made inquiry a few moments ago as
to the cause of this assembling I was told that it was the beginning of
another street fair. I am quite surprised, and agreeably so, to find
myself the central attraction. Allow me in the very beginning to express
my heartiest appreciation of the more than kind and generous words which
have been spoken here for me this afternoon. There are times when
words—mere words—no matter how fitly chosen or well expressed—are almost
meaningless. As the rosebud under the influence of sunshine and shower
opens, so does my heart receive your benediction this afternoon.
I am a new resident of Girard; have been here but a comparatively short
time, and yet I feel myself as completely at home among you, most of
whom disagree with me upon very vital questions, as I do in the town in
which I was born and reared and have lived all the days of my life.
Since the day I first came here I have been treated with uniform
kindness. I could not have been treated more hospitably anywhere. I have
met practically all of your people, and all of them have taken me by the
hand and treated me as cordially as if I had been neighbor and friend
with them; and to say that I appreciate this is to express myself in
hackneyed and unsatisfactory terms.