WITH SPEAKER CANNON THROUGH THE TROPICS A DESCRIPTIVE STORY OF A VOYAGE TO THE WEST INDIES, VENEZUELA AND PANAMA Containing Views of the Speaker upon AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY AND GUIDE BOOK FOR STATESMEN, TRAVELERS AND STUDENTS, WITH CONCLUSIONS BY THE AUTHOR BY J. HAMPTON MOORE THE BOOK PRINT, PHILADELPHIA NOVEMBER, 1907 INTRODUCTORY. HAT fine quality of veneration which the American TH people bestow upon Uncle Sam as a national type is shared in large part by his sturdy prototype, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. In quaintness of manner, ruggedness of personality and keenness of intellect, it is questionable how far our national idol has the advantage of Mr. Cannon. Indeed, there are so many points of analogy between Uncle Sam in metaphor and Uncle Joe in propria persona, that we may readily account for the application to the Speaker of that endearing soubriquet which has become a household word in the United States. It was not intended by Mr. McKinley, our host, nor by any of his distinguished associates upon the voyage described in this book, that anything should be written about it. Nor have they sanctioned this publication. We were all in search of rest and recreation; but it is inconceivable that the wanderings of so typical and influential an American as Mr. Cannon, through our colonial and insular possessions, and under foreign flags, should not result in comments worth recording. From scant notes (not having first intended so to do) I have undertaken to tell the story of this unusual trip. I have taken some liberties with the confi |