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YANCEY_ CARTER,
RUGGED SON OF THE HILLS
OF HART.
THE SENATOR SKETCHED.
Two Incidents of the Populist
Senator’s Life Which Illus
trates His Character.
■‘Nobody knows me but God,”
Yancey Carter once said.
The giant-framed, lion-voiced,
lion-haired senator from Hart thus
tersely expressed what everyone
must think who sees much of him.
Don’t dismiss Carter as a mere
populist maker of sensations. There’s
more in Carter than there is in all’
the rest of the populist party in
Georgia,* leaving Tom Watson out.
He’s an extraordinary type—a new
type. We have never looked upon
anything like him in our public life
before. Presently I will cits you to
some thrilling instances whiji will
fix him in your mind as the most
picturesque and rugged figure on
the public scene in Georgia.
Concerning Carter it is well to
know this at first: Tho sense of
physical fear has never chilled his
iron blood. Carter, the youth, lank
and full of adventure, went to Texas
fifteen years ago. If. he had needed
hardening he got it in a two years’
experience on the cold plains of
Texas, serving in the thrilling and
dangerous capacity of a Texas ranger.
Yes, Carter was a Texas ranger,
and he looks it. Witness his voice,
his eye, his carriage, his quickness,
his endurance. I might write here
an entertaining page of his dramatic
career there on the frozen plains—
lost twice, environed by danger
always, but never despairing—Carter
says he never knew the conditions
under which he could not laugh.
The blood that ran in the veins es
Carter, the lank country youth, Car
ter the Texas ranger, Carter the
Texas cowboy, Carter the long
haired revenue officer, that runs in
the veins of Carter, the populist
senator, has the strains of two great
revolutionary warriors, of Indian
fighters and hardy pioneers in it.
The life of the rugged hills, the
blooming fields, the life of hardship,
of danger, has through many gener
ations been absorbed in this Carter
strain of blood. There is not a drop
of city blood in it.
Carter’s story is much too long to
recite within the limits of this pas
sing sketch. I merely pause to take
a hurried glimpse of a man who is
fi ling the public eye in Georgia be
cause of the remarkable fight he has
b en making against two distinguish
ed members of the Georgia judiciary.
There were two turning points in
Carter’s'career.
The Constitution—this paper—
presented one of them to him.
Carter was brought up in Elbert
and Hert counties. His was the
hard, matter-of-fact life of the Geor
gia country boy. No opportunities,
little schooling, no glimpses of the
world—nothing but work.
The long, big-headed, curly-haired
countryman got an idea into his head
somehow that ho wanted to be law
yer and he struggled his way to
Elberton and arranged to at least
get in the way of becoming a mem
ber of the profession. Joe Worley,
known to many people in Georgia,
took Carter in, ani the plan was that
the country boy was to read enough
law to be admitted into the profes
sion in six months.
One morning Carter got to the
office early to resume his reading,
but he read The Constitution first.
There was an item in the paper
which said that the supreme court
had held that an applicant for ad
mission to the bar must read law a
certain length of time, or conform to
certain requirements before being
admitted. Carter’s heart sank. He
hadn’t the money to go through
with the course.
“Carter, did you read that story in
The Constitution this morning?’’
asked Joe Worley, coming in a little
later.
“Yes, I read it,” said Carter.
“Well, it means that you will
have to study six months longer,”
said Worley.
“No it don’t,” said Carter; “it
means that I am going to Texas.”
Carter left for the prairies that
night. He was full of preeipitons
energy and love of adventure then.
The life of the untamed prairies
suited his blood and his temper. He
was not there long before, one cool
morning, he mounted a spotted
broncho for a 500-mile ride acrots
the naked plains with a commission
PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER, ATLANTA, GA., JANUARY 22, 1897.
from the adjutant general in his
pocket to join a troop of Texas
rangers on the border.
In all the rugged ranks of that
thrilling service there was none bet
ter than Yancey Carter, tho big
Georgian ; none readier, none quicker
of eye or of hand, none stronger to
endure, none more athletic, none with
a stouter heart.
Some may think that it was a
wild, rowdy spirit of adventure that
led Carter to this life. That would
be error. I believe it is universally
spoken of Carter that he is eminently
peaceable in disposition, kind and
generous. But he never gets out of
a fight when a fight is what is best
suited to the surrounding circum
stances. But the fire of blood which,
in his ancestors, found vent in revo
lutionary fighting, in Indian battle
and in the excitement and danger of
pioneer life, demanded a different
scene. The monotony and quiet of
Elbert and Hart palled upon him.
He found what he wanted in the
legitimate and daring service of the
state of Texas.
But an image dwelling in his stal
wart heart drew Carter back to
Georgia after awhile. It was that of
the pretty Hart county girl who used
to bring him a warm dinner to the
country schoolhouse, where, as a
green youth, he taught. He boarded
with her father. She came over
every noon and brought him the
daintiest dinner her hands could
fashion. While the children played
hs ate and courted pretty Mary
Sanders, and all the time he was a
rough ranger out on the Texas
plains he carried her face in his mind,
and at last it brought him back.
Now follow the story of Carter’s
coming back to Georgia and you will
find the key to his remarkable char
acter.
The story of his going to Texas is
strongly illustrative of his character.
The story of his coming back illus
trates it in a much greater degree.
Carter came back broken in health.
Ho started up his old school in the
old schoolhouse near where Mary
Sanders lived. In the community
there were several stills, hidden away
in the woods between the hills. They
were run by the young men whom
Carter knew as friends, whom he had
known -all his life, who were his
playmates.
But the stills were the ruin of the
community. Every Sunday the
young men got drunk. They went
to Carter’s schoolhouse to a Sunday
afternoon “singing,’’ behaved in a
ruffianly and disorderly manner, gave
the place bad repute and broke up
Carter’s school.
This?latter fact weighed on Car
ter’s mind and got into his blood.
They had broken up his school.
Why not break them up?
You will never bo able to weigh
the enormity of this undertaking
until you understand the conditions
existing in such a community. An
informer is the basest worm that
crawls the earth in the eyes of
those who break the rsvenue laws.
If ho boos the manor born then ten
thousand times greater is his offense
He is a traitor of infinitely deeper
dye than Judas or Benedict Arnold-
To be shot down like a dog is too
mild punishment for such a deed as
Carter contemplated.
Carter took down his old shotgun
and went squirrel hunting ip the
hills. He shot five squirrels and
found thuee stills, He thought out a
plan deeply characteristic of the man.
late that night ho stole back through
the hills and quietly watched the
men within. He observed that they
went home in the small hours of the
morning.
The next morning he tramped over
to Hartwell. He hired 'a big hack
and drove through the country to
Elberton. There Carter found three
revenue officers, and told his story.
That night, long past midnight,
tho hack drove into the Carter com
munity. The stills were torn to
pieces, put in the wagon and about
day’’ght the party started to Elber
ton.
The revenue men begged Carter
to steal home. “They will kill you
like a dog,” they said.
“You don’t know your man,”
said Carter: “I’m going to see this
through.”
That experience standi out as one
of the most thrilling in the history of
the revenue service in Georgis. How
a mob of Carter’s friends followed
and overtook that big hack, found
Carter there as an informer directing
the raid, how they surrounded the
wsgon and the mob was driven back
by the officers, led by Wink Taylor’s
father, is a thrilling chapter which,
one day, may be told of itself.
They got to Elberton Thursday
and everyone.advisad Carter to stay
there. Carter’s friends begged him,
and at last he yielded, but suddenly
bethinking him that the justice court
would convene on Saturday, he
hurried straight back home. At these
country justice courts everybody
goes, and it was so here.
“I will go back and give them an
opportunity to kill me,” Carter said.
“If they don’t kill me, maybe they
won’t do it all. They may get an
idea that I am not afraid.”
Carter was not killed, but he had
some desperate fights. From that
time on Carter lived in hourly peril.
There was not a moment that he did
not carry a brace of pistols and a
bowie knife buckled about his waist.
As an unexpected reward for his
single piece of service to the revenue
men he was, without notice, ap
pointed a revenue agent, to do ac
tive service- among tho very men
among whom he had lived all his
life.
“I could not tell you,” Carter told
me the other day, “of the life I led
for five years. Pistols, knives, pis
tols, knives alyraya.”
Carter was appointed by General
Longstreet. He served through
Longstreet’s term, through Bryant’s
term, through Buck’s through Nelm’s,
resigning four years ago. He has a
fearless record.
And hare is the strange lesson of
Carter’s life.
Tho men who would have shot
him down and killed him sent him
to the state senate. Their belief in
Carter i« next to their belief in God.
A man who carried two pistols once
to kill him is his warmest political
backer. He has conquered a great
part of this people. They respect
and admire him, and it may be said
here—they fear him.
Carter’s life as a revenue agent is
an impressive chapter in Georgia his
tory. He was just the man to lead
a daring raid,
It oocurad to me the other day
that a man whose life has been one
crucial test of courage, shut in with
danger on every side was the last
man in the state to retreat when he
had once started.
Personally, I believe that Senator
Carter will fail in the charges he has
brought. For many reasons, I hope
that he will. But one cannot help
but admire the courage, the forti
tude, the patience with which he
has conducted what was by all odds
the moat disagreeable fight that ever
rested upon one man’s strength in
this state.
I should not neglect to state that
in those after-Texas years, when he
was back in Georgia and living in
danger, Carter married the sweet
heart of his boyhood days—his first
ideal and his first lov«.—Robbrt
Adamson, in Constitution.
Some Suggestive Figures.
Statistics show that the chewing
gum business of the United States is
$14,500,000, and the peanut business
is several millions larger. One dry
goods house in Chicago, Marshall
Field & Co., does a business of $50,-
000,000; another business in New
York, Claflin & Co., does £60,000,-
OCO, while the entire school book
business of the United States is only
$6,500,000. From the best informa
tion available it appears that the en
tire school-book business of Georgia
including the colleges and high
schools, does not exceed SIOO,OOO.
A resolution has already passed the
house of representatives and wil;
probably pass the senate, authorizing
the governor to appoint a “school
book commission,” the duty of which
commission will be to ascertain
whether any better plan of furnish
ing books to our schools can be de
vised than the one now in vogue.
Tho general impression seems to
prevail that Georgia is paying an
enormous amount every year for
school-books. If it be true that our
school-book bill amounts to only
SIOO,OOO, and we take it that this is
not far from the correct figure, then
it is very clear that some of our leg
islators have a very erroneous idea as
to the cost of our books.’ The opinion
among them seems to be that Georgia
is paying about a million dollars per
year for school books.
Conundrums.
If God is tho father of us all wljy
don’t we act like brothers?
Why are people who live in the
cities cowards? Because they all
take water —from the milk-man.
If Mr. Bryan is a “dead duck,” as
some of the newspapers say, why do
they want to continue to pound a
corpse ?
If it doesn’t hurt the credit of a
nation to float a bond why should it
do so to float a non-interest bearing
paper currency, receivable for taxes?
—Buzz Saw.
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
Latest Views ot Populist Writers
in Many States.
Some one has aptly said that the
advance agent of prosperity has
played a trick on the country by
advertising a show that is not to
appear.—Farmers (Iowa) Tribune
Party leaders who seek to get
control of affairs by the corrupt use
of money do not believe in a govern,
ment by the will of the populace, or
popular will.—Hamburg (III) Popo
crat.
If the government stamp on paper
substance is more valuable than geld
in the shape of an interest bearing
bond just make it equal with gold
by a non-interest bearing bond.—
Labor’s Tribune.
Don’t be discouraged, we have
converted the silvcrcrats from gold
standard in 1894 to free silver in
1890. This is quite a success for the
people against the lawyers and cor
poration tools.—Texas Independent.
The People’s party was organized
for the purpose of righting certain
wrongs in governmental affairs. It
was founded upon principles which
antagonize trusts, syndicates men by
merit—moral, industrial and intel
lectual worth.—Farmers
Nearly all the candidates think
salaries are too high, until theyare
elected, then they decide that the
matter of reducing salaries can wait
a while at least—till about the time
their term of office expires. If we
had the initiative and referendum*
salaries could be reduced, but it will
never be done under the present sys
tem.—North Carolina Plow Boy.
It appears that there is a fight be
tween Senator Butler and Congress
man Skinner for leadership, Every
body recognizes the ability of the
two men, but we don’t want any
leaders. There has been too muah
leadership already. Tee people
want workers, not bosses, advisors,
not drivers. Loaders are responsi
ble for present complications. Just
because a man oocupies a responsible
position he should not attempt to rule
the roost. —Raleigh (N. C.) Progres
sive Farmer.
The Kentucky gentleman whose
will directed that his body should be
put in a coffin and the coffin filled
up with pure old Bourbon, was at
least to be credited with devotion to
his fixed principles and the tradi
tions of the Blue Grass common
wealth. At the same time the heirs
of the deceased cannot refrain from
comment upon this wilful waste of
valuable fluid. The circumstance
recalls to She Los Angeles Times the
story of the dying Irishman who
gave his intimate friend $25 to bny
a basket of champaigns, to
be Brunk at his funeral. The
friend inquired if the foaming bev
erage of EpOrnay was to be consum
ed on the way out, or when the
cortege was returning from the cem
etery. “Drink it on ths way out,”
rOarsd the irate Muldoon, “I’ll not
be wid yez whin yez come-back.”—
San Diego (Cal.) Vidette.
Is it Fraud ?
In our column of “Echoes from
the People,” we print today a letter
from President G. A. Nunnally, o£
the Southern Female College, to
gether with an article taken from
The LaGrange Graphic.
Dr. Nunnally, who takes no active
part in politics, but who, neverthe.
less, is interested in political matters,
as all good citizens should be, asks
if the statements made in tho article
are true. Our reply is that they ar®
lamentably true. The figures given
by the Graphic have already been
officially verified and have already
attractod attention in some parts of
the country. >
They have attracted attention, but
their awful significance has not re
ceived the consideration that it de
mands at the hands of thought
ful man. Tho significance of the
figures lies in the suspicion they give
rise to in the minds of men who are
more anxious that our republican in
stitutions .should be preserved in
their integrity, simplicity and purity
than they are for tha temporary suc
cess of any issue or party.
Not to mince matters, the suspi
cion that these extraordinary figures
give rise to, is that a monumental
fraud was undertaken—a fraud so
neatly planned and so cunningly car
ried out that its execution excites no
comment and attracts no attention
until weeks after the vote has been
announced and the result accepted
by the people.
The figures, as they stand, show
that there has been fraud or that
there has been s phenomenal increase
of population in moat of the states
named during the past six years—an
ITORNADO SWEPT!
Perfect Cyclone of Destruction. S
SOid Prices Completely Obliterated. S
Just think. A good solid man’s Lace or Congress Shoe for $1.50 jC'
and for $1.50 yon get Douglass Lace or Congress, never sold be- wy
L& fore for less than $2.00. Our 82.00 men’s Shoe will make you
open your eyes, Our genuine Calf Shoes at 82.25 is something *5/
immense. We have reduced our $3.50 Hand-sewed Calf Shoe to ff)
$2.75 just simply to have the best on earth for that money.
Now remember this is only a few prices in Men’s shoes, we
have hundreds of other styles
Sour stock of ladies shoess
D& Commencing at a Kid Button Shoe for 75c, and all solid Kid Si
Button for SI.OO, A real Dongola Kid Button for $1.25 and our
$1.50 Ladies Shoes is as good as anybodies $2.00 Shoo. And our £ft
rpk $2.00 Shoe is sold nearly everywhere for $2.50. zjx
© OUR STOCK OF ©
® Children’s School Shoes®
® IS SIMPLY IMMENSE §
Igy Baby shoes 35c. Baby shoes 40. Children shoes 50c. Children
(3?) school shoes, srood, 75c. Misses shoes 75c. Boys shoes 51.00. rjh
Our Boys no wear out at $1.25 beats the world vj'
©ZETJVT’S! IEEA.TS!! EZATS 1!! S
tgjz Men’s sample Hats at SI.OO well worth 52.00. Men’s Alpine Hats,
Zjh good style, at 50c. Good Wool Hats for boys at 15e. And hun- Za
5k dreds of other styles in hats, any grade you want, and cheaper JV
(:£7 than ever before sold by any body. We carry a complete lino of
g TRUNKS A.MID VAL SES g
And sell them at Manufacturers prices. Remember now, don’t
let anybody stop you until you have seen our goods and prices
yj and we will save you from 25c to 50c on every dollar you spend. 6ft
S Great Eastern Shoe Co. 8
R. G. TARVER, MANAGER, §
g 9oy Broad Street, ■ • ■ Augusta, Georgia, g
• P. S. To merchants we guarantee to give as
close prices as Baltimore, New York or Boston. Will
send price list on application. *
D R. G. Tarver, Manager, g
•‘ncreaso so remarkable that it could
not have failed to attract tho atten
tion of the public and the newspa
pers. In the case of Indiana, for ex.
ample, it ie well known that there
has been no groat influx of new
comers, and yet tho enlargement of
its vote calls for an increase of more
than 210,000 in tho population.
It is well known that there could
have been no such increase in that
state without attracting the atten
tion and arousing the pride of every
newspaper in tho state. The popu
lation of Indiana could not bo in
creased at the rate of more than
35,000 a year for six years without
attracting the attention of the whole
country, as well as the people of the
state.
This being so, and as there has
not beon a whisper to show that any
of the states of the middle west were
increasing their population at such a
rate—or, indeed, at any large rate—
the suspicion arises, the fear takes
form that a monumental fraud has
beon consummated in the people’s
ballot box, and that a grievous wound
has been inflicted on popular gov
ernment.
For what one party has done in
the line of fraud can ba done again.
What one party has done another
party may do. Once make Hanna
ism possible and it becomes epidemic.
Tho wound that has apparently been
inflicted would ba just as grievous if
a democratic Hanna had directed the
weapon.—Constitution.
Why is It?
It seems to bo admitted that there
is a larger number of men out of em
ployment at the present time than
ever before. The man who believes
that the helpless army of tramps now
patrolling the country prefer the
hardships of their present life rather
than to work for a living has but a
meager knowledge of human nature.
—Griffin (Ga.) News.
• Notice.
The Populists of Bulloch county
are requested to meet in the court
house at Statesboro, on the first Mon
day in February for the purpose of
reorganizing and. electing another
chairman for the county. The meet
ing will meet promptly at 11 o’clock
a. m. D. N. Nichols,
* • Chairman.
How’s This!
We offer One Hundred Dollars Reward
for any case of Catarrh that can not be
cured by Hall’s Catarrh Cure.
F. J. Cheney & Co. Props, Toledo, O.
We the undersigned, have known F.
J. Cheney for the last 15 years, and be
lieve him perfectly honorable in all
business transactions and financially
able to carry out any obligations made
by their firm.
’ West & Traux, Wholesale Druggists,
Toledo, O.; Walding*. Kinnau & Marvin,
Wholesale Druggists, Toledo, Ohio.
Hall’s Catarrh Cure in taken inter
nally, acting directly upon the blood
and mucous surfaces of the system.
Price 75c per bottle. Sold by all Drug*
gists. Testimonials free.
S I story l
OF FRANCE.?
CE, - ei.OO.|
Watson’s new his-S
work is now ready?
(very. S
elegantly printed,
and beautifully bound in f
cloth. £
We will send the book£
and The People’s Party t
Paper for One Year for 5
? ?
Atlanta, Ga., Dec. 21, 1898.
Haggard Specific Co:
Gentlemen—Svsral years ago I
was seriously injured in a railroad
wreck in my back and spine, and
have suffered a good deal over the
region of the kidneys and often had
to get up three and four times dur
ing tha night. I began the use of
your Tablets and after using nine
boxes I am free from all aches and
pains, rest well all night without in
terruption, and feel today as good as
ever and 20 years younger than be
fore I began to use them, My daugh
ter, who has been a great sufferer
from painful menstruation, and so
intense was her pain that she looked
as if she would go into spasms, and
her physician could only relieve her
with morphine. A few days before
her last period, she began taking
your Tablets and passed through it
without pain, and says she feels like
a now creature, although she has
taken less than one box. I cheer
fully commend them to suffering hu
manity ' T. J. Watt.
Mr. Watt was postmaster at Col
umbus, Ga., for a number of years.
He is now in the brokerage business
in Atlanta and will be pleased to
have his friends write to him as to
the facts about his use of the tablets.
The tablets will be sent by mail,
postage paid, to any address,, on re
ceipt of price; 1 box sl, 3 boxes
$2.50. Address Haggard Specific
Co., Atlanta, Ga., 74 N. Broad St.
Alliance Reports and Dues.
To County Secretaries:
It is important that the County
Alliance Secretaries send in their
reports and dues for the year 1896*
The National Convention will meet
in February, and the duty devolving
upon your State Secretary to com.
pile and forward a full report to our
National Secretary cannot bo dis
charged until you first send in your
reports and dues.
Kindly attend to this duty at once,
as the time is short and the matter
urgent. Fraternally,
H. P. Blount, Sec’y-Tres.
Ga. State F. A. & I. U.
Atlants, Ga. Jan. 5. 1897.
Organized selfishness is now , di
recting the affairs of this government.
3