Newspaper Page Text
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THE PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER.
Entered st the Post Office at Atlanta. Gs.. M
■eaond-claes matter. Oct. itt 18SL
Office 84 1-2 South Forsyth Street.
Subscription, One Dollar Per Year, Six
Months 50 Cents, Three Months
25 Cents, In Advance,
Advertising Bates made known on ap
plication at the business office.
Money may be sent by bank draft, Post
Office Money Order, Postal Note or
Registered Letter. Orders should be
made payable to
THE PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER,
Subscribers desiring to change the ad
dress of their paper will please give
the old address as well as the new.
We must have your old address to
find your name on the mailing lists.
Our readers will miss Mr. Wat
sons editorials in this issue. His
time has been eo heavily taxed for
some days, that neither time nor
strength was left ro write for this
paper. He can do more work than
any man we ever know, but like
other men, his endurance has a limit.
Onr State Politics.
The action of the Democratic ma
jority in the present general assembly
has demonstrated to all Georgians
who believe that public office is a
public trust and not a private snap,
who believe that promotions should
be made beean cos honesty, abidty
and faithfulness and not as a reward
for blind partisanship, that all elec,
tions must be taken from the legisla
ture and relegated back to the people
where they piojerly belong.
Under existing conditions, no
modest, clean man, no matter how
great his worth, how high his eharao
ter, how distinguished his ability,
stands a ghost or a chance before the
legislature. Every office is a matter
of barter and trad*. You vote for
my man and I will vote for yours is
the rule, only the mors marked by
the few honorable exceptions. Never
again will wo see such men as John
son and Jenkins grace tie Georgia
bench, nor such men as Hill, Cobb
Toombs and Berrien refl-’oi lustra
upon the State in the National Senate
until the ring which dominates the
dominant party in Georgia is broken
and crushed oat of existence. The
most distinguished jurist or lawyer
in the State cannot ba elected circuit
judge or solicitor unless ho stoops to
b irter votes with other candidates
without regard to fitness for office
but with an eye single to the number
of votes each man can deliver. It
matters nothing whether a man is the
oaoico of the people in hie cwn cir
cuit cr whether ho commands their
respect and confidence. If he can
deliver votes from other sections of
the State, where the people know
nothing and care nothing about the
matter, they are jnst as good because
they count just the same.
Such men as Lewis, Robertson
Norwood, dußignon, Garrsrd and
Hammond have no show for the
Senate against such trading politic
ians as Clay and Atkimon. It seems
to be the settled purpose of the ring
that the Democratic party shall con
tinue to control the politics of the
State and for the ring to rule the
Democratic party.
Two years ago it was thought that
the Fleming election law assured (
Democratic supremacy for a long j
time to come, but as the people have
become familiar with the working;
of that law and are learning to guard
against the frauds possible under its
provisions, a new bill still tn. re par
tisan has been introduced in the
present house and when the Felder
law fails to grind cut the required
majority it will doubtless ba amended
or changed to meet the requirements
of the occasion. Hence if oilice hold
ing in Georgia is to be raised again
to its former position of dignity and
honor, we must look to honest, pa
triotic Democrats to restore the old
conditions rather than to men now
identified with other parties.
Years ago when the Tweed ring
dominated the New York machine
and every public office had become a
veritable Augeau stable of fraud,
rascality and corruption, although
they seemed to ba impregnably in
trenched in office, brave, honest
Democrats like Samuel J. Tilden
laid aside all partisanship for a time,
united with the Republicans in put
ting ont a clean ticket and swept
these knaves who had dishonored the
name of Democracy out of office and
into the penitentiary.
la there honesty enough, courage
enough and loyalty to the houor and
interests of Georgia enough in the
ranks of Georgia Democracy to cause
them to rise in the might of a just
indignation to crush the ring and
relegate the ringsters into oblivion Y
D. N. 8.
PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER, ATLANTA, GA., NOVEMBER 27, 1896.
The Zeigler-Brooker Trouble.
Now that Solomon and Corrie
Zeigler have been tried-and acqutted
of the murder of Sheriff Brooker, it
may be profitable to review the h s
tory of thia remarkable ease and
draw a useful lesson from its teach
ings.
George Zeigler and Sheriff
Brooker wore personal friends cJ
long standing; both were high
strung and fearless men, and both
wero active and zealous workers for
their respective parties. In the
campaign of ’94 both happened to
be on tho sama car bound for Syl
vania in the interest of their respect
ive tickets. There was also in the
same coach a negro politician named
Bellinger, whom Brooker was taking
along, to work on the negro voters,
Zeigler and Brooker were seated
side by side engaged in a friendly
conversation, when the negro, Bel
linger, began to curse and villify the
Populists. This language provoked
Z igler, and be arose from his seat,
drew his pistol, and started for the
negro, when Brooker called to him,
saying : ‘ Georg?, this is my fight.”
Zsigler at cnoo faced about, and,
Brooker seeing thi pistol, reminded
Zeigler that he was unarmed.
Zeigler atorce changed his grip from
the handle to the barrel of the pistol,
and, striking Brooker one blow with
the butt of the pistol, threw it to the
floor and fought wi h his naked
hands.
Tho combatants were soon separa
ted, but not before Zeigler had
knocked tlrooker down one or more
times. To prevent tho repetition of
tho fight, friends persuaded Zeigler
not to go on to Sylvania but t >
leave the train at Zeigler Station,
his home. His son, Solomon, joined
him alighted from the car. As
they started to the house, Brooker,
who in the meantime had secured a
pistol, raised the car window and
called after Zeigler, using insulting
words. Z.igler stopped, remarking
to his son that the insult was hard
to take. The son replied, “Then
don’t take it; let us go back. As
the Zeiglers, father and son, were
walking by the side of the train to
reach the steps, they passed beneath
the window whore Brooker was
seated, end he, reaching through
aha window, shot the elder
Zeigler, the balls passing through
his hat brim into his body, fatally
wounding him. Both hurried to the
car step.-, though neither was armed,
some ono having saoroted Zeigler’s
pistol during the scrap in the car.
80l Zeigler received a scratch
from Brooker’s pistol as he entered
the oar, but ho succeeded ia wrench
ire; the pistol from h a grasp and
Brooker with his own pistol.
Supposing the first shot was fatal
he forbore shooting him again. The
older Zsigler, weakened by the shot
from the window, was prevented
from climbing the steps by one Wil
liamson, a friend of Brooker’s. In
opposing Zeigler’s entrance to the
car, Williamson severely gashed his
throat with a knife, although he was
t lrcaly family shot. As Williamson
passed Zeigler’s Station on hie re
turn from Sylvania in the evening,
tha Zeigler boys, Sol and Corrie,
boarded she train, disarmed William
ton of a shotgun, which he had pro
cure.l in Sylvania, and pummeled
him. A few weeks later two men
drove up to the home of Beilingen
who hai been the provoking cause
of the whole difficulty, and shot him
to death.
At the next term of court, a Dem
ocratic grand jury, indicted the
ZeigL-r boys for thrashing William
son but refused to indict Brooker for
killing their father.
The Zeigler boys were loyal and
devoted sore; but so far as we can
learn they made no effort to avenge
their father’s death until a partisan
jury refused them a hearing through
thocorts. Some months later they
met Brooker at Goloid Church and
shot him to death.
And now comes the most ramark
able chapter in the story. For eight
months these two boys, under indict
ment for murder, and with a reward
of 11,000 hanging over their heads;
remained in Screven county, and
then voluntarily surrendered to the
sheriff.
These eight months were spent,
not in hiding but under the maternal
roof except that they made frequent
visits to their neighbors and friends,
and on one or two occasions they
left the house to let the sheriff come
in and search it.
Now forth® lesson; Let partisan
ship be hereafter kept out of the
courts of Georgia. No man in Geor
gia believes, that the Zeigkrs or any
Other two or three men, could remain
at their home for eight months, four
months or one month under indict
ment for the crime of murder, with
out being arrested whether there was
any reward for their capture or not,
if the people of the community be
lieved that they were guilty and
deserving of punishment.
Public sentiment was behind the
Zeiglers and aga’nst the grand jury.
These jorors who allowed partisan
ship to hold .the scales of justice
brought discredit upon themselves,
upon their county and upon the State
of Georgia.
Hereafter let Georgians yield to
to each other the right to differ in
opinion and let justice be blind to
party, creed or soot and we will never
live to see a repetition of the Brooker-
Zeigler tragedy. D. N. S.
Senator Jones.
Senator Jones, in reviewing the
election return", discovers that a
change of twenty-five thousand votes
in an aggregate of nine states would
have defeated Major McKinley in
the Electoral College and given the
presidency to Mr. Bryan.
Se accounts for his candidate’s
defeat by the large number of orders
placed in ths factories contingent
upon McKinley’s election. He says
these orders were read to the opera
tives and the men voted for MoKin
ley in order to secure steady labor
during the coming winter, and that
this vote defeated Mr. Bryan. This
contingent order business was a
shrewd election trick and doubtless
cost Mr. Bryan many votes ; but if
Senator Jones will carefully review
his brutal remark, “Let the Popu
lists go back to the niggers where
they belong,’’ and his infamous trade
with Senator Allen, whereby it was
hoped that Mr. Watson would be
discredited, his party demoralized
and Populists forced to vote for Mr.
Sewal), he will find that his action
cost Mr. Bryan many more voles
than the contingent order business.
In the nine close states which he
names, he drove away from Mr.
Bryan’s support four times the
twenty-five thousand needed votes of
men who would gladly have voted
for him if they could have done so
without sacrificing their self re
spect.
Let the Senator honestly and
candidly review his conduct ot the
campaign and he will discover that
his candidate suffered more from his
own blunders and worse than blund
ers than from ail the tricks of ths
opposition put together.
He knew when tho St. Louis Con
vention adjourned that a solid
phalanx cf two million Populist
voters were ready to unfurl the
Bryan-Watson banner and bear it to
victory. Ho knew that Mr. Sewall's
name had be«n placed on the ticket
at Chicago not by the friends but by
the enemies of the platform and of
Mr. Bryan’s oondidacy. Ho knew
that Mr. SewaTs name had been
placed on the ticket for the very
purpose of stultifying ths platform
and weakening Mr. Bryan’s candi
dacy—that it would drive a hundred
men from the ticket where it would
not attract ton. He knew that with
Bryan and Watson as running mates
both could and would have discussed
every plank of the Chicago plat
form ; that they could and would
have made the most brilliant and
effictive campaign tn America, and
could and would have carried the
country by storm in spits of tho
contingent order busines?.
He knew also that with Mr. Sew
all as a running mate Mr. Bryan
would bo handicapped and forced to
confine his discussion‘to one single
plank of his platform—free silver.
Ho could my nothing about the in
come tax because his lunning mate
was on record against it; he could
say nothing against railroad;; noth
ing against national banks because
Mr. Sewall was on the other side,
and he could gay nothing against
high tariff or against subsidies be
cause Msj r McKinley’s committee
was at that very time scattering cir
cularscver Mr. Sewall’s signature in
favor of high tariff and government
subsidies. These things Senator
Jones knew or ought to have known
at the very beginning of the cam
paign. Senator Jones desired to tee
Bryan win, but there was another de
sire still nearer to his heart. That was
to see Mr. Watson downed and his
party disrupted. Ho hoped that
by a dicker with such leaders as
were willing to sell their principles
and party for the spoils of office ho
could accomplish both purposes, but
he has signally tailed. If he will
now calmly survey the field of action
he may see and learn a few things.
He will discover that instead of go
ing to tha bottom, Mr. Watson is
floating serenely on top; and that
the party instead of being disrupted
is stronger and more compact than
ever, because the rank and
file now know which of
their leaders sre true and who
have proven false. Senator Jones
will discover that tha only important
results of his management are the
defeat of his candidate and the de
moralization of his own party.
D. N. S.
Executive Committee Meets.
The State Executive Committee
convened in Atlanta on Tuesday
A Bub-oonmittee was appointed to
write an address on Mr. Wai son’s
recent letter and one to suggest a
plan for future organization, both to
report to a future meeting of the
full committee.
The following resolutions submit
tep by Mr. Jas, Sibley were adopted:
“Whereas the people of this state
did not consent to the increase in the
number of the supreme court judge ß
until a plan was offered that they
believed would eliminate partisan
methods and caucus combinations,
thus making the office one to be filled
by the people rather than partisan
ringsters and trading politicians; and,
whereas there are no candidates be
fore the people who submitted their
candidacy to the voice of tne entire
people, but only those who subjected
these high offices to the dictate of a
partisan convention; and, whereas
we believe that this violates the
wishes of a majority of the people or
this state, therefore be it
“Resolved, That we call no con •
vention of the People’s party to nom
inate candidates for the supreme
court of this state,”
There was a general disposition to
go to work at once to straighten out
the confusion resulting from fusion
and to strengthen tha lines for the
next battle.
Gov. Atkinson’s Appointments
Governor Atkinson gave out tha
following appointments on last Fri
day: F. Willis Dart, to ba judge of
the city court of Coffee for the unex
pired term of four years from Decem
ber 24, 1895; W. U. Jscow&y, to be
judge of the county court of Dade
for tho unexpired term of four years
fiom March 31, 1895; D. L. Hender
son, to be judge of county court of
Dooiy for the unexpired term of four
years from January 11, 1895; Arthur
G. Powell, to be judge of the county
court of Early for the unexpired term
of four years from October 1, 1895;
Samuel J. Winn, to be judge of the
city court of Gwinnett for the unex
pired term of four years from De
cember 21, 1895; J. 11, Scaife, to be
judge of the city court of Mitchell for
the unexpired term of four yea s
from January 25, 1896; J. M. Den
ton, to be solicitor of the city court
of Coffee for the unexpired term of
two years from December 24, 1895;
F. F. Juhan, to bs solicitor of the
city court of Gwinnett for the unex
pired term of two years from Decem
ber 21, 1895; R. W. Moore, to be
solicitor cf the county court of Han
cock for tha unexpired term of two
years from July 10, 1896; Donald
Fraser, to be solicitor of the county
court of Liberty for the unexpired
term of four years from July 20,
1896; R. L. Cox, to be solicitor of the
ceunty court of Walker for the unex
pired term of two years train Sep
tember 8, 1895; Max E, Land, to be
solicitor of the county court of Wil
cox for the unexpired term of four
years from November 5, 1895; T. R,
Perry, to be solicitor of the county
court of Worth for the unexpired
term of two years from August 8,
1896. The following judges and
solicitors were appointed for terms o-‘
different lengths. Their appoiutf
mont was confirmed by the senate-
W. F. Brown, to be judge of the city
court of Carroll for four years, from
April 25, 1897; G. W. Warren, judge
cf the county court of Jefferson for
four years, from June 3,1897; Julian
B. Williamson, judge of tha city court
of Monroe for four years from Feb
ruary 20 1897; James L. Willis, judge
of the city court of Muscogee for
four years, from December 23, 1898;
John T. Harrison, judge of the county
court of Stewart tor four years from
November 26, 1896; B. J. Edwards,
judge of the county court of Walton
for four years, from September 21,
1897; James F. Wall, Solicitor of the
county court of Henry for two years,
from December 1, 1896; J. K. Kin
man, solicitor of the county court of
Jefferson for four years, from June
26, 1897; Graham Forrester, solicitor
of the county court of Stewar: for
two years, from April 29, 1897; Earl
A. Jackson, solicitor of the county
court of Walker for two years, from
September 8, 1897, ana S. A. Crum
ley, solicitor of the county c: urt of
Quitman for four years, from Novem
ber 30, 1893.
The Latest News.
G. W. G. Ferris, the inventor and
builder of the great Ferris wheel at
Chicago, died in Pittsburg on Sun
day from Typhoid fevsr.
John A. Hoffer, cashier of a Le
banon, Pa., bank has owned up to a
defalcation of 8110,000. Says he
sunk the money in a Colorado gold
mine.
Earnest McElhanon, a Tallapoosa,
Ga., boy, was killed at Ocala, Fla.,
on Saturday while trying to steal a
ride. He was horribly mangled but
lived long enough to tell who ho wae
and where he lived.
General Weyler has at last been
heard from. Instead of hunting up
Maceo, he is fortifying near the town
of San Christobal, and does not pro
pose to advance oa Maceo until after
Christ seas. Although Weyler has a
larger and better armed force, he is
evidently arraid of the game and
wily Cuban. .
A dispatch from Madrid to the
London Standard says tho Spanish
government has intimated to Weyler
that for reasons of international and
domestic politics it will not ba ex
pedient for him to return to Havana
until he has achieved a decisive vic
tory over Maceo’.
At Lien, Mass., a meeting of the
Armenian Revolutionary Society on
Sunday evening broke up in a lively
fight. Thera arc two branches of
the Society and the meeting was
called to consider the advisability of
combining. The discussion soon
grew warm between those in favor
of and those opposed to union, aud
benches, sticks and other material
substances were resorted to as more
effective than words, if not more con
vincing. The police were called in
to quell the disturbance.
The great wire nail trust which
has bten robbing the people the past
eighteen months has gone to pieces
and nails have fallen 40 per cent and
the price is still going down. While
the people have been robbed the
trust has not prospered. It was not
only heavily taxed by being forced
to buy or lease and close up a great
number cf factories, but was forced
to keep employed a host of detec
tives to see that the trust companies
“teted fair” with each other. The
coroners verdict over the dead trust
will be, killed by its own dishonesty
and greed.
Berlin, Nov. 22.—A section of the
centrist party in the reichstag, chiefly
composed of members from the south
German states, have decided to op
pose the increase of 40,000,000 marks
in the naval estimates which will be
proposed in the budget, and are ar
ranging a coalition with a fraction of
the national liberals and the radicals
and socialists for the purpose of de
feating tho proposal. Ths movement
renders the passage of a naval in
crease clause of the budget highly
improbable. Ministerial reports in
circulation in tho lobby of the raich
stag agree that the kaiser is deter
mined to dissolve the chamber if tho
increase is not granted ani this being
the case a hot fight over the naval
estimates seems inevitable.
Prince Hohenlowe, in a speech last
week declared that officers of the
German army who, hereafter declined
to fight a dual on account of con
scientious convictions should not be
forced to resign from the army as
heretofore. The radical leaders in
the raiohatsg profsss to believe that
while an officer declining to send or
accept a challenge, may not be
formally expelled, he will be socially
ostracised which will amount prac
tically to the same thing. Herr
Hackett, radical unionist leader, has
announced that when the debate on
the military estimates comes up, he
will again bring up the question of
dueling by moving that any military
officer or official who engages in a
duel shall be deprived of his rank and
W. M. SPRATLIN,
IIJOBBER OFU
Steel And Heavy
Wagon & Carriage Hardware.
Wood Stock, Carriage Trimmings, Etc.,
18 West Mitchell Street.
JVTLA.JSTIC’.A., - G-EORG-IA.
Also a full line of Carriage and Wagon Paints, ineluding Rogers’ celebrated
Ready Mixed colors, Valentine’s Coach Colors and Varnishes, Lawson’s Coach
Varnishes, Bealh .t Milligan’s Colors, Linseed Oil, both raw and boiled, Ma
chinery Oils, Turpentine, Eagle White Lead, 25 and 12R lb kegs, Plantation
and Implement paints, etc.
By use of our Heady Mixed Paints, a farmer is enabled to paint his wa< r on
or buggy for 75 cents. Quite a saving. DON’T FORGET MY NUMBER—ia
WEST MITCHELL STREET.
THE OLD WATSON STAND.
expelled from the service, and that'
officers’ courts of honor shall ba
abolished. >
Congressman Hitt, Chairman of
the Housa Committee on Foreign
Affairs, in a recent interview says :
“Our duty to the Cuban people is a
practical and pressing question. Oar
government should act at once, recog
nizing tho belligerency of a people
carrying on so extensive a war. They
have fought great armies for a year
and a half, and with success. The
Cabans are truly belligerents. Such
action on the part of our country
would boos great advantage to them.
Recognition of belligerent rights is
due under the principles and prac
tices of general international law and
practice of the United States gov
ernment. We refuse to see that they
are belligerent enough to defy and
defeat 150,000 Spanish troops. This
is not a question of sympathy, but of
plain, pressing duty, that should be
performed immediately.”
Other People’s Time.
There ia among a great many
people a singular lack of the sense
of the value of other people’s time.
No man goes to his neighbor and
asks him for a hundred dollars for
his own use, except upon a business
basis; but there are many men who
do not hesitate to ask services of
their neighbors, involving the expen
diture of more than a hundred dol
lars’ worth of time, with no thought,
apparently, of the value of that for
which they are asking. Men under
stand very generally the value of
money; they do not understand the
value of time or of effort, and those
who would be the very last to ask
for a gift of money are the very first
to ask for a gift of time quite as val
uable. Eminent actors and singers
are, for instance, constantly asked to
giva benefits by people who have
absolutely no claim upon them, but
who suppose, becausa they are not
asking for a gift of money outright,
that they are making a perfectly
natural and reasonable request; as a
matter of fact, they are very likely
asking for a donation of five hundred
or a thousand dollars. There is
probably nothing which the busy
American needs quite so much
as time; nothing which tha
successful preacher or speaker, for
instance, finds himself bo sorely puz
zled to preserve, aud of which he
feels so constantly the need. Men
will respect a minister’s rights on
every side except his right to thia
priceless possession. For time ia
only another name for intellectual
growth and intellectual power, if a
man knows how to use it properly.
The man who does know how to use
it properly is very glad to give it
where, he would give money of the
same value, but ho objects to the
assumption that in eases in which he
would not ba asked to give money
he will give time, because time has
no value Outlook.
He Starts Eight.
Governor-eleot Johnston has noti
fied the State military that he does
not deaire any formal military dis
play on tha occasion of his inaugura
tion, and that he prefers to be in
ducted into office as a plain common
citizen, with as little demonstration
as possible.
The people of Alabama will honor
Gov. Johnston for this determination.
It shows that he enters upon hia
duties &a Governor with the inter
ests of the whole people at heart and
that his efforts as chief magistrate
will be more to relieve the common
people of their burdens than to make
a display as commander in chief of
the State militia. Sooro one for
Governor Johnston.—People’s Ad<
vocate, (Ala.)
A correspondent of Keith, Ga.,
sends us a communication written on
both sides of the paper. It is against
a printer’s religion to “set up” such
copy.