SAMUEL J. RANDALL.
Bloomington, Ill.
Send us a few facts in regard to ex-Speaker Randall, one of the big chiefs in the Democratic camp.
S. Moore.
Answer.—Samuel J. Randall is undoubtedly one of the leading spirits in his party. He is a shrewd, sagacious politician rather than a great statesman, but in statesmanship he is one of the prominent figures on the Democratic side of the House. He is shrewd enough to know that a Democrat of out-and-out free-trade professions would have no encouragement to aspire to any office in the gift of Pennsylvania, but besides this it is only fair to grant him credit for knowing that it would be ruinous to the enormous mining, manufacturing, and farming interests of his State for this country to practice free trade. So he has been instrumental in keeping a considerable following of Democrats who will vote with him against violent reductions in the present tariff. Mr. Randall is a Philadelphian by birth. He was born Oct. 10, 1828; received a fair academic education; was for a time engaged in mercantile business; was for four years a member of the City Council; then a member of the State Senate for a year; was elected to the Thirty-eighth Congress, and has held membership in the House ever since. In the election of 1880 he carried his district by 13,661 votes, against 9,880 for B. L. Berry, Republican, and he was re-elected last November by a still larger majority. He has sat on several of the most important committees in the House; was Speaker for the last session of the Forty-fourth Congress, for the Forty-fifth and the Forty-sixth Congresses, and has a fair prospect of being Speaker of the next Congress.
CAN A JEW BE A GERMAN?
Rock Falls, Ill.
Is it possible for a Jew to be a German, or a German a Jew? And how is it in other countries?
L. E. C. Roe.