Download Advances In Information And Computer Security 16Th International Workshop On Security Iwsec 2021 Virtual Event September 8 10 2021 Proceedings 1St Edition Toru Nakanishi online ebook texxtbook full chapter pdf
Download Advances In Information And Computer Security 16Th International Workshop On Security Iwsec 2021 Virtual Event September 8 10 2021 Proceedings 1St Edition Toru Nakanishi online ebook texxtbook full chapter pdf
Download Advances In Information And Computer Security 16Th International Workshop On Security Iwsec 2021 Virtual Event September 8 10 2021 Proceedings 1St Edition Toru Nakanishi online ebook texxtbook full chapter pdf
https://ebookmeta.com/product/computer-vision-systems-13th-
international-conference-icvs-2021-virtual-event-
september-22-24-2021-proceedings-1st-edition-markus-vincze/
Editorial Board
Elisa Bertino
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
Wen Gao
Peking University, Beijing, China
Bernhard Steffen
TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany
Gerhard Woeginger
RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany
Moti Yung
Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Founding Editors
Gerhard Goos
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Juris Hartmanis
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
More information about this subseries athttp://www.springer.com/
series/7410
Editors
Toru Nakanishi and Ryo Nojima
Ryo Nojima
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology,
Tokyo, Japan
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the
advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate
at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
General Co-chairs
Tetsuya Izu Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., Japan
Yuji Suga Internet Initiative Japan Inc., Japan
Program Co-chairs
Toru Nakanishi Hiroshima University, Japan
Ryo Nojima NICT, Japan
Poster Chair
Mitsuaki Akiyama NTT, Japan
Publication Chair
Chen-Mou Cheng Kanazawa University, Japan
Program Committee
Track A: Cryptography Track
Chen-Mou Cheng Kanazawa University, Japan
Sherman S.M. Chow The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Geoffroy Couteau CNRS, IRIF, Université de Paris, France
Bernardo David IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Antonio Faonio EURECOM, France
Akinori Hosoyamada NTT, Japan
Yuichi Komano Toshiba Corporation, Japan
Florian Mendel Infineon Technologies, Germany
Kazuhiko Minematsu NEC, Japan
Khoa Nguyen Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Koji Nuida Kyushu University, Japan
Jae Hong Seo Hanyang University, Republic of Korea
Yannick Seurin Agence Nationale de la Securite des Systemes
d'Information, France
Daniel Slamanig AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria
Willy Susilo University of Wollongong, Australia
Katsuyuki Takashima Waseda University, Japan
Atsushi Takayasu NICT, Japan
Mehdi Tibouchi NTT, Japan
Damien Vergnaud Sorbonne Université/Institut Universitaire de
France, France
Yuyu Wang University of Electronic Science and Technology of China,
China
Yohei Watanabe The University of Electro-Communications, Japan
Bo-Yin Yang Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Kazuki Yoneyama Ibaraki University, Japan
Yasuhiko Ikematsu
Email: ikematsu@imi.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Satoshi Nakamura
Email: satoshi.nakamura.xn@hco.ntt.co.jp
Abstract
The learning with errors (LWE) problem is one of the hard problems
supporting the security of modern lattice-based cryptography. Ring-
LWE is the analog of LWE over the ring of integers of a cyclotomic field,
and it has provided efficient cryptosystems. In this paper, we give
cryptanalysis against ring-LWE using the trace map over the ring of
integers of a cyclotomic field, without using any reduction to other
structured lattice problems. Since it maps to a ring of a smaller degree,
a trace map attack is expected to be able to decrease the hardness of
ring-LWE. However, the trace map does not necessarily transform ring-
LWE samples to samples over the smaller ring with a common secret.
We give a sufficient and necessary condition on a pair of ring-LWE
samples for which the trace map attack is applicable. We call such a pair
of samples special. We demonstrate how efficiently the trace map attack
can solve ring-LWE when a special pair of samples is given. Specifically,
we compare blocksizes of the Blockwise Korkine-Zolotarev (BKZ)
algorithm required for solving ring-LWE in the trace map attack and a
standard attack. Moreover, we discuss the (in)feasibility of the trace
map attack for random ring-LWE samples to evaluate how the trace
map attack can give a threat against ring-LWE-based cryptosystems on
a practical side.
1 Introduction
Recently, lattice-based cryptography has been studied to construct
various cryptosystems, including post-quantum cryptography (PQC)
and high-functional encryption such as fully homomorphic encryption.
In particular, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
has proceeded with a PQC standardization since 2015 [33]. At the
second-round submission in 2019, 26 proposals were accepted,
including 12 lattice-based cryptosystems. In July 2020, NIST selected
15 of the second-round candidates to move onto the third round of the
standardization process [27]. Of 15 advancing candidates, 7 proposals
have been selected as finalists, and 8 as alternate candidates. Regarding
lattice-based cryptosystems, 5 proposals are included in finalists, and 2
in alternate candidates. The security of the lattice-based proposals
relies on the hardness of either LWE or NTRU problem (e.g., see [3] for
details). Precisely, 3 module-LWE and 2 NTRU proposals have been
selected as finalists. (Module-LWE [11, 21] is the analog of LWE over a
module lattice that addresses shortcomings in both LWE and ring-
LWE.) Module-LWE and NTRU are both structured lattice problems,
and they are a central target of algebraic cryptanalysis in lattice-based
cryptography.
The NTRU problem is the hard problem underlying the NTRU
cryptosystem [18]. NTRU and FALCON are the NTRU-based finalists in
NIST’s PQC standardization process. The problem can be reduced to the
shortest vector problem (SVP) in the NTRU lattice, associated with an
ideal of the ring for two integers n and q. Lattice basis
reduction such as LLL [22] and BKZ [32] is a strong tool to solve lattice
problems, and its hybrid with the meet-in-the-middle, proposed in [19],
is the best-known attack to solve the NTRU problem in practice. For a 2-
power integer n, let denote the ring of integers of
the 2n-th cyclotomic field . The overstretched NTRU
problem is a variant of NTRU that uses the quotient ring
with a large modulus q, and it is available to construct fully
homomorphic encryption [23]. In algebraic cryptanalysis, Cheon et al.
in [15] made use of the trace map to reduce the overstretched NTRU
problem to lattice problems in smaller dimensions. Albrecht et al. in [2]
proposed a subfield attack by using the norm map to break the
overstretched NTRU problem with a huge modulus q. The LWE problem
is the hard problem proposed by Regev [31] that asks to find a solution
from a system of linear equations over with errors for a modulus q.
The ring-LWE problem is the ring-based analog of LWE [24] that uses
the same base ring R as in the overstretched NTRU. Informally, given
ring-LWE samples with , it asks to find its
modules are respectively equal to n and , we expect that the trace map
could decrease the degree of ring-LWE. However, unlike the case of
NTRU, it has difficulty to use the trace map for solving ring-LWE due to
that the trace map is linear but not multiplicative over R. Precisely,
given a ring-LWE sample over with , a ring-
LWE relation does not hold over ,
except for the case where the secret . In this paper, we give a
sufficient and necessary condition on a pair of ring-LWE samples for
which a trace map attack is applicable. We call such a typical sufficient
condition special. We also demonstrate how efficiently the trace map
attack can solve ring-LWE when a special pair of samples is given.
Specifically, we compare blocksizes of BKZ required in both the trace
map and the standard attack for success to recover the secret of ring-
LWE. (Here the standard attack means the canonical reduction of ring-
LWE to standard LWE by coefficient representation. The success
probability and the complexity of both the trace map and the standard
attacks depend on blocksizes of BKZ.) Moreover, we discuss the
(in)feasibility of the trace map attack for randomly chosen ring-LWE
samples. Specifically, we estimate the probability that a special pair of
ring-LWE samples is included among randomly chosen samples, to
evaluate the practical impact of the trace map attack.
Notation. The symbols , , , and denote the ring of integers,
the field of rational numbers, the field of real numbers, and the field of
complex numbers, respectively. For an odd prime q, let denote a set
of representatives of integers modulo q as . We
-vector space as
Main Lattice Problems. Here we introduce main computational
problems for lattices. The most famous lattice problem is the shortest
vector problem (SVP); “Given a basis of a lattice L, find a
shortest non-zero vector in L, that is, a vector such that
.” Ajtai [1] proved that SVP is NP-hard under randomized
reductions. It can be relaxed by an approximate factor; “Given a basis of
a lattice L and an approximation factor , find a non-zero vector
in L such that .” Approximate-SVP is exactly SVP when
. For a lattice L of dimension d and a measurable set C in , the
(1)
(2)
(Recall that is the volume of the -dimensional unit ball.) There are
experimental evidences supporting this prediction for . More
precisely, in a simple form based on the Gaussian Heuristic, the Gram-
Schmidt norms of a -BKZ-reduced basis of volume 1 is
predicted as
(3)
(4)
where ’s are uniformly chosen at random from and ’s are
sampled from . Then two questions are asked; (i) Decision-LWE is to
distinguish whether a given vector is obtained
(5)
denote a q-ary lattice of dimension d. (See [26] for q-ary lattices.) The
rows of the matrix
(6)
Set . Its dimension is and volume is equal to
for almost . Then the lattice includes a very
(7)
It has been investigated in [5, 6] by experiments that the constant lies
in between 0.3 and 0.4 in using BKZ. In most cases, an optimal number
of samples d is around 2n or 3n to maximize the right-hand side in (7).
(See also [26].) On the other hand, Search-LWE becomes harder as d
approaches n.
2016 Estimate. It is another estimate discussed in [8], in which the
evolution of the Gram-Schmidt lengths is investigated in processing of
BKZ. More precisely, it compares the expected length of the projected
shortest vector with the Gram-Schmidt lengths simulation (3) of
BKZ. A recent comparison [9] showed that this improves the 2008
estimate for high LWE dimensions such as .
The Ring-LWE Problem. It is parametrized by a ring R over of
degree n, a prime modulus q defining the quotient ring ,
and an error distribution over R outputting “small” ring elements.
The ring R is often taken as the ring of integers in the cyclotomic field
of 2-power degree n where denotes a primitive 2n-th
root of unity (that is., ), and some kind of
discretized Gaussian distribution in the canonical embedding
, mapping each element to the vector for odd
(8)
Then two questions are asked like standard LWE; decision and search
versions. We only introduce the search version; “Given independent
samples from for a uniformly random , find the secret
s(x).”
LWE samples .
We consider multiple ring-LWE samples. For example, let
and be two ring-LWE samples with
for . As above, we obtain LWE
condition from each . By combining them,
we get the condition
This condition implies that we have 2n LWE samples from two ring-
LWE samples. To solve ring-LWE, we basically reduce multiple ring-
LWE samples to (standard) LWE samples, from which we recover the
coefficient vector of the secret. (In general, it is hard to solve ring-
LWE from only one sample by lattice attacks.)
Recent Works on Cryptanalysis of Ring-LWE. There are a number of
recent works on reductions among ring-LWE and other structured LWE
problems. In 2017, Albrecht and Deo [4] gave a reduction from module-
LWE of rank d with modulus q to ring-LWE with modulus over a 2-
(10)
with for , where s(x) is a secret and
an error polynomial. We now apply the trace map for these
samples to obtain
(11)
(12)
The element must be public to publish the pair as a
ring-LWE sample over associated with the secret ,
which is common with the basic sample . For example, if
the condition is satisfied for some , then it
satisfies
(13)
define a map from the ring to the set of matrices with entries
in as
Then we reduce two ring-LWE samples (14) over to 2m LWE
samples of dimension m associated with the secret , which
satisfies
(15)
Step 2. We next take an integer i with to consider a new pair
of ring-LWE samples and , which
the first step to this pair in order to recover the error polynomials
for . (Note that the norm of the coefficient vector
satisfies
Remark 2 As mentioned in Sect. 1, both the trace and the norm maps
have been considered in cryptanalysis against the NTRU problem. Since
the norm map is multiplicative but not additive, it is not
straightforward to apply it to ring-LWE. Specifically, a ring-LWE relation
does not hold in general for any ring-LWE sample (a(x), b(x)) with
, where ‘ ’ denotes the norm map. In
particular, the small ring element cannot be extracted from
the element .
(16)
(17)
respectively.)
128 11 4 ( ) ( )
8 ( ) ( )
12 4 ( ) ( )
8 ( ) ( )
256 13 4 ( ) ( )
8 ( ) ( )
14 4 ( ) ( )
8 ( ) ( )
Ring-LWE parameters Required blocksizes of BKZ
512 15 4 ( ) ( )
8 ( ) ( )
16 4 ( ) ( )
8 ( ) ( )
both attacks from (16) and (17), respectively, and we also estimate
required blocksizes of BKZ to achieve target from the Eq. (2).
We see from Table 1 that the trace map attack requires considerably
smaller blocksizes than the standard attack. We also see that the
difference of required blocksizes between both attacks increases as the
degree parameter n increases. In particular, the difference of blocksizes
is larger than at least 100 for cases . Since the complexity of
BKZ is at least exponential in as described in Subsect. 2.1, the trace
map attack is much faster than the standard attack, and it becomes
more efficient for larger n. For example, in the case
, the difference of blocksizes is 130 from
Table 1, and thus the trace map attack is at least times faster than
the standard attack.
5 Conclusion
We discussed a cryptanalysis for ring-LWE using the trace map over the
integer ring of the 2n-th cyclotomic field for a 2-
power integer n. Specifically, we gave a sufficient and necessary
condition on a pair of ring-LWE samples for which the trace map attack
is applicable (Proposition 1). As a typical case, the trace map attack can
efficiently solve ring-LWE with a special pair of samples. We see from
Table 1 that the trace map attack requires much smaller blocksizes of
BKZ than the standard attack for success to recover the secret. This
shows that the trace map attack drastically decreases the hardness of
ring-LWE when a special pair of samples is given. (Note that the
complexities of both the trace map and the standard attacks depend on
BKZ, and the complexity of BKZ is at least exponential in an input
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
WELL, WHO IS PRUNES?
2nd Episode of the great Dramatic Serial,
THE TRUTH, NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, SO HELP ME GOD.
Same scene as the first Episode—the Third Degree Room
of the Grand Jury of the United States Senate. Mr.
Senator Walsh leading question asker of a body of men
noted for their inquisitiveness.
Doortender of This Torture Chamber
Who will we call first today?
Senator Walsh
Call the Editorial Writer of that newspaper.
Doorman
But, Mr. Walsh, we just called him yesterday.
Senator Walsh
I know we did but call him again. A whole lot is happening in this
country between yesterday and today. Now Mr. Bennett who was it
that you referred to as the Principal in those wires to Palm Beach?
Mr. Bennett
Why, Senator Curtis.
Senator Heflin
Curses on the Luck. I thought it was Coolidge.
Senator Harrison
Wish it had of been Coolidge. It’s no novelty to get a Senator in
Wrong.
Senator Walsh
What did you confer with Curtis about?
Mr. Bennett
About the Editorial Policy of our Paper.
Senator Walsh
Well what does the Editorial Policy of any Paper amount to? You
don’t suppose anybody reads those things do you? Why one Ad is
worth more to a paper than 40 Editorials. That will be all for you Mr.
Bennett.
Senator Caraway
Just a minute before you go. Who was Peaches in those Telegrams?
Mr. Bennett
I don’t remember.
Senator Robinson
Yes, and who was Prunes? I hope it referred to no Democrat.
Senator Walsh
Call Mr. Curtis.
Senator Walsh
Senator Curtis, will you tell the Grand Jury in your own way just what
happened between you and this Editorial Writer of the Washington
Post.
Mr. Curtis
Yes Sir.
Senator Walsh
What was it?
Mr. Curtis
Nothing.
Senator Walsh
You mean you didn’t confer with this Gentleman?
Mr. Curtis
I did not.
Senator Walsh
But you know him?
Mr. Curtis
Never saw him in my life.
Senator Walsh
But you have heard of him?
Mr. Curtis
Never in my life.
Senator Walsh
But you know of the Washington Post?
Mr. Curtis
Yes sir, I have heard it.
Senator Walsh
Heard it? What do you mean you heard it?
Mr. Curtis
I have heard Sousa’s Band play it many a time.
Senator Walsh
Play what?
Mr. Curtis
Washington’s Post.
Senator Walsh
It’s not a tune; it’s a Newspaper. You talk like a Congressman.
Where are you from?
Mr. Curtis
Kansas.
Senator Walsh
That will be all.
Senator Caraway
Just a minute, Mr. Curtis, Who is Peaches?
Mr. Curtis
I don’t know unless it’s Jim Reed.
Senator Heflin
Just a minute. I object to the Republican Senator’s slur on the fair
name of the Democratic Party. This Investigation is supposed to be
Non Sectarian, and I object to having Politics dragged in, just to
make a Republican Holiday.
Senator Robinson
And I want to know who Prunes was.
Mr. Curtis
You mean you want to know who Prunes IS.
Senator Lenroot
Mr. Walsh, and Gentlemen of the Vigilance Committee there is a Bell
Boy over at my Hotel and he just got it from the chauffeur of a
Prominent Oil Man, that Major Leonard Wood’s Son had just heard
that his Father was offered the Nomination for the Presidency 3 and
a Half years ago, if he would appoint Mr. Jake Hamon Secretary of
the Interior. Now that is a very serious charge, and one that I think
this Committee should look into at once. Public affairs have come to
a fine Climax when a Man in this Country offers to make another one
President. I tell you it is undermining the confidence of the Great
American People and when you do that you shake the very Bulwarks
of the American Constitution. I think a Subpœna should be issued for
Mr. Wood’s Son at once and if this is so I am for a swift and speedy
trial for the Culprits.
Senator Walsh
I am for calling Mr. Wood himself. There’s one thing that this
Committee has proven that it won’t take, and that is Hear Say
Evidence. So call Mr. Wood himself.
Mr. Moses
(The Senator one, Not the Apostle One)
But, Mr. Walsh, Mr. Wood is in the Philippines.
Senator Walsh
I thought he was home. Haven’t they got their Independence yet?
Mr. Moses
No, Mr. Coolidge wouldn’t give it to them.
Senator Walsh
What’s the matter? Have they struck oil, too?
Mr. Moses
No, Mr. Coolidge told them that a Nation that would not support
Wood’s Administration certainly would not be able to support one of
their own.
Senator Heflin
Well, how did America get Independence? They didn’t support
Wood.
Senator Reed
Who said we had any independence?
Senator Lodge
(The Confucius of Nahant)
I object to having the President of these United States’ name
dragged into this thing. I think when a Man occupies the exalted
position that he does that his name should not be degraded by
having it mentioned in The Senate. Now I know that he is doing the
best he can. I have known him ever since he got prominent enough
for me to know. In the eight months that I have known him, I have
found him to be patient, honest, and a Man who would not knowingly
rob a single Filipino of his Liberty. This is simply a Political trick to
drag his name into this Philippine muddle.
Senator Heflin
Yes but he sent the Filipinos the Wire didn’t he! And it’s wires that we
are here to investigate ain’t it?
Senator Harrison
Does the exalted Senator from Massachusetts recall that during the
late Democratic Administration, he himself during the talk on
European Affairs mentioned not only once, but twice, the name of
the then President, Mr. Wilson? Now he don’t want us to mention his
President.
Senator Heflin
Well it’s funny to me that a Country can’t get their Liberty, when they
have advanced far enough to have the Champion Bantamweight
Prize Fighter of the World. I know Countries that have their Liberty,
when they can’t even produce a good Golf Player and that’s the
lowest form of Civilization.
Senator Caraway
I would like to ask Mr. Lodge if he knows who Peaches is.
Senator Lodge
I do not. It’s the only subject I ever admitted being ignorant on.
Senator Robinson
Well, I want to know who Prunes IS.
Senator Lodge
You mean who Prunes AM, don’t you?
Senator Robinson
Darn it; that man is a bear on Grammar.
Senator Walsh
I think the committee should adjourn until we can get Mr. Wood
himself.
Doorman
Excuse me, Mr. Walsh, but there is a Gentleman out here who wants
to testify in regard to the Doheny and Sinclair leases. What can I tell
him?
Senator Walsh
Oh, yes, I had forgotten about those. Tell him as soon as we get this
Wood for President affair settled, and Jack Dempsey’s mysterious
sickness, and Babe Ruth’s collapse, that we will be able to get to
that Oil Lease thing again.
Senator Copeland
Mr. Walsh, I was in New York last night and I heard Mr. Vanderlip
make a Speech to the Rotary Club of Coney Island, and he said, “I
have it on absolutely reliable authority that George Washington
never crossed the Delaware. That fellow you see in the Picture in the
middle of the Boat was a fellow doubling for him, and if I am called I
will be glad to give this information that I possess to the Senate
Investigating Committee.”
Senator Walsh
Mr. Secretary, call Mr. Vanderlip at once.
Mr. Lenroot
Let’s not call him until tomorrow, Mr. Walsh, as he will make another
speech tonight perhaps on what he discovered about Lincoln. So we
can quiz him on both men at once.
Mr. Caraway
Well, before we adjourn, I want to know who Peaches is.
Mr. Robinson
Well, I want to know who Prunes WERE.
POLITICS GETTING READY TO JELL
POLITICS GETTING READY TO JELL
The Illiterate Digest, after reviewing the news, finds that Politics is
sure at the point when it is about to jell. My old friend Jim Reed from
the smelly banks of the Kaw River has broke out again. If you have
done anything against the welfare or conventions of the United
States, and everybody has passed their various opinions on you,
and you think you have been roasted to a dark bay, why, until Jim
Reed breaks out on you, you haven’t been called anything.
Well, it was kinder funny Jim was to make a Washington Day
speech. Naturally everyone supposed it to be on George
Washington, but it was the only speech ever made on Washington’s
Birthday that didn’t have a word about Washington. He didn’t even
mention his name. I don’t know that McAdoo, Denby, Daugherty,
Doheny, and others will consider it much Flattery, but it will go down
in History as being the only time they ever replaced Washington.
Reed wouldn’t have been any good making a speech on
Washington, anyway. He would have been expected to compliment
him and I doubt if he could think of anything George had ever done
that really was worth while.
Vanderlip made a speech at the Rotary Club of Ossining, New York,
that astonished the United States. Now that speech didn’t astonish
me near as much as the knowledge that Ossining had a Rotary Club.
For the sake of the unfingerprinted ones, I will state that Ossining is
the Town where Sing Sing is permanently located. Now if Ossining
has a Rotary Club they certainly had to take in some Lay Members
from this Musically named Institution.
But when you come to think of it, just think what a Distinguished
Rotary Club they could have at that. Rotary is composed of one of
the best of each line of work or business. Just think what a
competitive thing it would be trying to find in Ossining the leading
Burglar sojourning with them at the time, or the most representative
Pickpocket to represent them in the Club. And Bankers! Mr.
Vanderlip must have felt right at home up there. There are more
Bankers in Ossining than any Town of its size in the United States.
A two year residence is necessary to be able to join the Rotary. Can
you imagine them questioning members of Sing Sing, “Have you
been a resident of this Town for two years?” and the answer would
be, “Yes Sir, constantly.”
So, as I say, it was not the things Mr. Vanderlip said that attracted the
unusual attention. It was the distinguished audience that he
delivered it to. Just to show you the difference: Appearing before the
Rotary Club of Sing Sing he caused a commotion by his Speech. He
took the same Act down to Washington and nobody would listen to
him. It shows you have to have an intelligent audience. Up in Sing
Sing they got what he was talking about but down in Washington it
went right over their heads.
I know, for last winter while playing in New York I was asked to go
over to a big Charity affair given by the 400 of 5th Avenue. I thought I
had a pretty good line of Gags, as there was quite a lot happening
every day of Public interest. So I go over and start in telling them
what I had read in the Papers and nobody even cracked a smile,
much less laughed. So I just kept on trying remarks on every subject
that had been in the papers since Bryan last got a Hair cut. But it
was about one of the worst Flops I ever encountered, and I have had
some beauts in my time.
Well, of course, I felt terrible about it, so just by a coincidence on the
very next night I had promised to go up to Ossining and do an act for
(at that time it wasn’t called the Rotary Club). I think then they called
it Inmates. There was no show—just me alone went up to add to the
hardships of Prison Life. Well I never knew I had as many friends in
the World. I knew everybody up there. I was twice as much at home
as I had been on 5th Avenue the night before. So now I know why
Vanderlip picked out Ossining for his Annual February Oration.
I started in on those same Jokes on up-to-date things that had
flopped so completely at the Millionaire’s Charity affair. Why, say,
they just started right in dying laughing at them. I was sorry Ziegfeld
wasn’t there, as I would have got a raise in salary if he had heard
how my act went. I don’t care what I talked about they knew all about
it.
Ordinarily, I only do about 15 or 20 minutes but up there I did an
Hour and a Quarter. I was so tickled I offered to take all the whole
audience of 12 hundred down to the Follies and pay their way in to
see our Show. Now you know I must feel pretty good with myself,
when I offer to spend my Dough like that. A lot of people would be
kinder sore at the 400 because they didn’t laugh like these 12
hundred did, but I am not. I don’t blame them. If I had their money I
wouldn’t read either. So I can understand very readily why
Vanderlip’s act didn’t go so big in Washington as it did in Ossining.
Of course Van and I use just the opposite methods in our Stage
performances. Every Gag I tell must be based on truth. No matter
how much I may exaggerate it, it must have a certain amount of
Truth. Vanderlip bases his Gags on Rumor.
Now Rumor travels Faster, but it don’t stay put as long as Truth. I
will, however, give him credit for one thing. While here lately
everybody is telling what he has heard, and all about this and that
rumor, why, he thought of by far the best ones I have heard up to
now.
That’s no small accomplishment I tell you, in this year of Rumors, to
be able to say at the end of it: “Well, I told the best ones.”
His were so good that before his audience got through applauding at
Sing Sing (or rather Ossining) why, they had him on the stand at
Washington. That’s the first time a Theatrical troup ever jumped from
Ossining to Washington.
They even put him on ahead of Fall, Sinclair, and all the Headliners.
TWO LONG LOST FRIENDS FOUND
AT LAST
THEY REHEARSED THEIR OLD ACT HERE YESTERDAY.
TWO LONG LOST FRIENDS FOUND
AT LAST
Well, sir, I have a real Message for my readers. It looked like it would
be just the ordinary Article with no flavor or Backbone or Truth, and
with no real underlying news or wisdom, that is, nothing that the
people would be glad to know and read. As I say, that is the kind of
Article I thought it would be. But as I picked up the morning Papers,
why, I read who was in our midst out here in Sunny California. Well,
sir, it struck me like a thunderbolt here was news which my public
had been longing for for years and here I had found it out!
Well, I says to myself, this is too good to keep, for here people had
been wondering all this time for just what I knew now. I kinder hated
to leave the East on account of thinking I would be out of touch with
some of our National Characters but I find that sooner or later they
all arrive out here and start in fighting off Real Estate men the same
as shooing away Mosquitoes on Long Island.
Well, who should blow in but two of our old long-lost friends, and I
know that even ’Frisco (who is jealous of any one being here) will be
glad to hear they are here well and hearty, and rehearsed their old
Act here yesterday and people enjoyed them just as much as they
did in the old days.
Both of these Boys were on the big time and were well known all
around the Circuit, and any time they took the Platform standing by
the side of a Pitcher of ice water and a glass, why, it just meant 6
columns starting on the front page and ending among the want ads. I
bet you hadn’t heard of them in years and will thank me for
resurrecting this information for you.
I can’t keep it any longer. I did want to keep it till the finish of this to
tell you but I must tell you now who they are—William J. Bryan and
Billy Sunday!
Neither did I, but they are, and looking fine.
You know, if you have lost any one, look out here, because sooner or
later they will come here to visit relatives, for anybody that has
relatives comes here so he can write back to other relatives.
They are both just resting here (so is everybody else). Mr. Bryan is
waiting till he finds out where the next Democratic Convention will be
held, and then be there ready to knock any aspiring Presidential
Candidate on the head the minute it shows above the mob.
The only way they will ever fool W. J. is some presidential year
decide not to run any one. Then it will be a good joke on him; he will
have no one to object to.
Of course, now we don’t hear much of Democratic Candidates, as
both sides are busy watching to see what Cal. will do. When he first
become President there seemed to be quite a Sentiment to nominate
him again for Vice President.
Everybody was wondering how he would come out of the Coal strike
situation, and figured his political life or death depended on how he
decided, so he just fools everybody by appointing some other man to
settle it. Now, no other President had ever been smart enough to
think of a thing like that; they tried to do it themselves, so I think he
will go a long ways. He figured, why should I get in wrong when I can
get some man to do it for me, so he just looked around until he found
some other fellow who had a political future.
He said, “Gifford, you go get in wrong with which ever side you
decide against.” Now, the minute a Crisis comes up, all he has to do
is to remember some Republican name and appoint him to settle it
for him.
Now the only Crisis that Mr. Coolidge can possibly get into, himself,
is running out of Republicans to appoint. In that case he would have
to appoint a Democrat which would bring on a worse Crisis than the
one he appointed him to settle.
But I am not here to talk about Cal. and what he is doing. I am here
to tell you of these two long lost Prodigals that I discovered in the
wilds of this Village. They were preaching in a Pulpit. I guess that’s
why no one had seen them for so long. Both these Boys, in the good
old days used to talk in a Tent. Now you can always attract a crowd
in a Tent, for they figure that it might be a Circus. Come to think of it,
their Acts were similar; either one of them could take a Dictionary
and sink an enemy with words at 40 paces.
Bryan’s speeches have been the only thing to look forward to at a
Democratic Convention for years. He has sent more Presidential
Candidates home without a Reception Committee meeting them
than any Monologist living. He can take a batch of words and
scramble them together and leaven them properly with a hunk of
Oratory and knock the White House door knob right out of a
Candidate’s hand.
Bryan has made more Political speeches than Germany has Marks.
He kissed, when they were Babies, every man and woman in the
United States who is now up to the age of 45. He has juggled the
destinies of America more than any two Presidents because he has
the choosing or rejecting of them.
His career has varied from Non-intoxication to Evolution; his hobbies
have jumped from Grape juice to Monkeys. He tries to prove that we
did not descend from the Monkey, but he unfortunately picked a time
when the actions of our people prove that we did. He, undoubtedly,
is one of our greatest minds and in most of his Theories he has been
just too far ahead of the mob.
He preached Prohibition at a time when it meant Political Suicide for
himself. I bet the next Democratic Candidate for President, no matter
how strong he may think he is, would rather have the support of W.
J. Bryan than any doubtful State in the Union.
Now that brings to us his accomplice, Willie Sunday, who I
discovered staggering from one of our Local Pulpits last Sunday. To
some of you who can’t or don’t wish to remember, Billy passed out
just as Andy Volstead made his entrance. Now Barnum invented the
Tent, but Billy Sunday filled it. He can get more people into a tent
than an Iowa Picnic at Long Beach, California.
He is the only man in Ecclesiastical or Biblical history that ever had
to train physically, for a sermon. He brought more converts to
Prohibition before the 18th Amendment come in, than the 18th
Amendment has converted to Prohibition since it went in.
He is the first preacher to specialize on Liquor. While Bryan’s
oratorical wrath in the later years has been hurled at Darwin, Billy
Sunday picks his opponent with a carelessness that is almost
reckless.
I suppose that he has had more mortal worldly combats with the
Devil himself than any man living. He has challenged the Devil
publicly more times than Wills, the Negro, has Jack Dempsey.
People have been going for years to hear Billy, just figuring that if
they didn’t go that night it might be the very night the Devil would
hear what Billy was calling him and come up, and they might miss
what would happen.
I don’t know this Devil myself but if he heard Billy say these things
and didn’t come up and call him for it, I think less of him than Billy
does. Of course, the Devil may be just good natured, and figure,
well, he can’t hurt ME, and if he can get anything out of it why let him
go ahead.
Now, of course, you can get a fellow wrong. Billy used to lay all the
drinking on to this Devil, and claimed that if we had Prohibition we
could lick this Devil. Now we got Prohibition, I don’t think he can
legitimately lay the present drinking onto the Devil.
Course, from this I don’t want you to think I am taking sides in this
thing. I don’t know either one personally. But, as I say, there is a
chance that they both may have each other wrong. As I say, Billy
must have something on the Devil or he wouldn’t dare to call him
what he does, especially if the Devil can hear him, and I tell you the
Devil must be pretty low if he don’t answer him, that is, if he hears
him.
I have always figured that the reason that the Devil didn’t arise and
respond was Billy’s slang was too much for him. But Billy sure did do
a lot of good in the old days, and no matter if you didn’t like his style
of sermon, you sure didn’t get a chance to do any sleeping.
So I hope we can keep them both out here with us, and help to get
some of our population’s mind on the Church on Sunday instead of
being continually looking for lots.
THEY NOMINATED EVERYBODY BUT
THE FOUR HORSEMEN