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issued a policy on his life for a
twelve-month, but he was not only
alive, but in good health, to eat his
Christmas turkey—i. e., if they in
dulge in the luxury of turkey eating
in that savage country. The chances
are that he would die a natural death
Anally and establish the line of Kara
georgeovitches if his oldest son,
Prince George, was not a most repul
sive degenerate. Just why the Ser
vians have let Peter live puzzles those
who remember that they murdered
Alexander and his queen publicly and
that no effort has ever been made
to punish the murderers.
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THE PRESIDENT’S FUTURE.
Many persons who take President
Roosevelt’s declaration that he will
not again be a candidate for the pres
idency expend considerable ingenuity
in arranging his future after he quits
the White House. .Some make him
president of Harvard, some the great
mogul of the isthmian canal, some
send him to the United States senate
as successor to the effete Platt, while
still others insist that he shall be
made perpetual president of The
Hague peace tribunal, which shall be
sufficiently endowed by Andrew Car
negie to support its president in royal
state. One thing may be certainly
assumed, and that is that Colonel
Roosevelt will And something to do
and will command his own salary.
In this connection it is pertinent to,
state that only four ex-presidents
have held offices of any prominence.
John Quincy Adams served seventeen
years in the house of representatives
after his presidential term expired,
Andrew Johnson was elected to the
United States senate, John Tyler died
a member of the Confederate con
gress, and George Washington was
lieutenant general during our troubles
with France.
Colorado is peculiar in having a
minister of the gospel for governor,
Dr. Henry A. Buchtel. There never
was a gang on this earth more in need
of a spiritual adviser than the Repub
licans of Colorado, who two years ago
stole the governorship from that
splendid citizen and Democrat, Alva
Adams, as barefaced a piece of politi
cal grand larceny as even the records
of the Republican party can show.
The beneficiary of that theft did not
dare to accept the gubernatorial
nomination when it was tendered to
him, so it was given to Dr. Buchtel,
and, to the surprise of everybody, he
was elected. Let us hope that he is
at least better than his party in
Colorado. If he is not, he’s in a bad
way.
Hon. H. J. Simmons, representa
tive from Shelby county in the Mis
souri legislature and prominent can
didate for speaker, has prepared an
elaborate bill providing for nominat
ing all officers, from United States
senator to constable, both inclusive,
by primary election. In general out
lines the Simmons bill resembles the
South Carolina primary law, perhaps
the best in the Union. Mr. Simmons
is serving his fourth term in the legis
lature, has had ample opportunity to
form an idea as to the desires of the
people and by reason of his long
service, large experience and wide ac
quaintance! is in good position to
obtain favorable results. There is no
doubt that the primary election idea
is spreading.
It
It is peculiar how Republican
statesmen fall into the habit of imi
tating Thomas Jefferson even in small
thing's, although they one and all de
nounce him. The papers are making
a great hullabaloo because Mr. Post
master General George Bruce Cortel
you keeps scrapbooks headed “True,”
“Partly True,” “Fake,” “False,”
etc., and give that as a Ane sample
of his system in all things. These
writers may 'be surprised to learn that
even this is not original with Mr. C.,
but was precisely the way in which
Jefferson labeled newspaper articles.
If Republicans continue to copy from
him they will get to be pretty fair
Americans after awhile.
It seems that ithat eminent lawyer,
senator and publicist of Pennsylva
nia, Hon. Philander C. Knox, has
waked up to the fact that the late
Senator George of Mississippi was a
lawyer of exceptional ability, a fact
known by thousands while the great
Mississippian was still in the Hesh.
Better late than never is a dictum
applicable to Senator Knox’s recent
discovery. CHAMP CLARK.
A SPLENDID POEM IN PERFECT
ENGLISH.
It is our purpose to give to the
readers of the Weekly Jeffersonian
some of the beneAt of a course of
reading which has now extended over
a period of forty years. We will se
lect, from time to time, poems, es
says, short stories, etc., which seem
tu us to have the highest merit. Tn
this way our readers will get the ben
eAt of browsing around among thou
sands of books which would other
wise never come within their reach
We begin this reproduction of old
masterpieces in literature with a se
lection from Thomas Hood, the Eng
lish poet. We begin with this for
several reasons. One is, “The Lay
of the Laborer rings with true
democracy; another is, it is absolute
ly perfect as a specimen of English.
If it contains a word which is not
anglo-<Saxon in its brevity, strength,
compactness, and purity, that word
has escaped my attention. Again, as
a specimen of true poetry, it seems
to me to breathe the right spirit and
to clothe itself with the right words.
THE LAY OF THE LABORER.
A spade, a rake, a hoe!
A pickaxe, or a bill,
A hook to reap, or a scythe to mow,
A flail, or what we will,
And here’s a ready hand,
To ply the needful tool,
And skilled enough by lessons rough,
In Labor’s rugged school.
To hedge, or dig the ditch,
To lop or fell the tree,
To lay the swarth on the sultry Aeld,
Or rough the stubborn lea,
The harvest stack to bind,
The wheaton rick to thatch,
And never fear in my pouch to And
The tinder or the match.
To a darning barn, or farm,
My fancies never roam,
Are I yearn to kindle and bum,
Is on the hearth of home,
Where children huddle and crouch,
Through dark long Winter days,
Where starving children huddle and
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAW.
To see the cheerful rays,
Agiowing on the haggard cheek
And not in the haggard’s blaze.
To Him who sends a drought
To parch the Aelds forlorn,
The rain to ffood the meadows with
mud,
The blight to blast the corn,
To Him I leave to guide -
The bolt in its crooked path,
To strike the miser’s rick, and show
The skies blood red with wraths
A spade, a rake, a hoe!
A pickaxe, or a bill,
A hook to reap, or a scythe to mow,
Assail, or what you will,
The corn to thrash, or the hedge to
plash,
The market team to drive,
Or mend the fence by the cover side,
And leave the game alive.
Ay, only give me work,
And then you need not fear
That I shall snare his worship’s hare,
Or kill his grace’s deer;
Break into his lordship’s house,
To steal the plate so rich,
Or leave the yeoman that had a purse
To welter in the ditch.
Wherever Nature needs,
Wherever Labor calls,
No job I’ll shirk of the harvest
• work,
To shun the workhouse walls,
Where savage lords begrudge,
The pauper babe its breath,
And doom a wife to a widow’s life,
Before her partner’s death.
My only claim is this,
With Labor stiff and stark,
By lawful turn my living to/earn,
Between the light and dark,
My daily bread and nightly bed,
Aly bacon and drop of beer,
But all from the hand that holds the
. land,
And none from the overseer.
No parish money or loaf,
No pauper badges for me;
A son of the soil by right of toil,
Entitled to my fee;
No alms I ask, give me my task,
Here are the arm, the leg,
The strength, the sinews of a man,
To work, and not to beg.
Still one of Adam’s heirs,
Though doomed by a chance of
birth,
To dress so mean, and to eat the lean,
Instead of the fat of the earth;
To make such humble meals,
honest labor can,
A bone, and a crust with the grace to
God,
And little thanks to man.
A spade, a rake, a hoe!
A pickaxe, or a bill,
A hook to reap, or a scythe to mow,
Assail, or what you will,
Whatever the tool to ply,
Here is a willing drudge,
With muscles and limb, and woe to
him
Who does that pay begrudge.
Who every weekly score,
Docks labor’s little mite,
Bestows on the poor at the temple
door,
But rob them over night.
The very shilling he hopes to save.
As health and morals fail,
Shall visit me in the New Bastile,
The Spital, or the Gaol!
Thos. Hood.
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THE WORKER’S CORNER.
What did you think of the ffrst is
sue from Atlanta? You have been
sending us so many new recruits, we
feel sure you can do even better now.
We have been delighted with your
success in the past and we know it is
your ambition to make this paper the
largest and best, from a standpoint
of circulation, of any in the country.
Why not?
No paper goes into the homes of a
more patriotic, big hearted, home-lov
ing people.
Certainly no paper has as many tin
sel Ash, devoted workers in the Aeld,
and the end is not yet, for almost ev
ery mail brings us a modest request
from others who wish to compete with
you in the struggle for the Jefferson
ian’s success.
All this that they may experience
that unspeakable pleasure which
comes to us from the consciousness of
duty well done.
We were in such a fever of excite
ment and haste last week that we
didn’t have our usual little chat with
the men in the Held, but our heart and
our thoughts went out to them just
the same.
And noble work it was they did,
too.
From out in Chillicothe, Afo., Dix
on and Langford had sent in a club
of twenty-nine subscribers to the
Weekly Jeffersonian; P. F. Blood
worth, Perry Fla., twenty-four; F.
O. Wimberly, Cochran, Ga., twenty
one; from Newnan, Miss., W. D.
Thompson sent in three, while from
here in Georgia, S. B. Tarver, of
Bartow, S. B. McCall, Athens, J.
W. Dickey, Musella,. J. W. Allgood,
Temple, B. F. Lee, Thomaston and
■S. F. Strickland, Alpharetta; M. P.
Roone, Atlanta, W. E. Elrod, Jeffer
son, J. M. Gilbert, Washington, J.
J. Costello, Georgetown, J. A. Bag
wejl, Lawrenceville, F. J. Vining,
Thomaston, and Miss Willie Cox, Met
ter, sent in clubs ranging from two to
ten, while there were dozens of single
subscriptions.
Our who have club
bing atiJngements with us did the
handsome thing, too. The Atlanta
Journal, The Georgian, and The Con
stitution all sent in good lists, and so
did the Tallahassee Sun, Editor Claud
L’Engle’s paper; The Royston Rec
ord, The Conyers Free Press, The In
vestigator, of Omaha, Neb., Mr. Bry
an’s Commoner, The Sylvester Tele
phone, The Barnesville Union News,
The Elberton Star.
A few of those who have sent clubs
to The Monthly Jeffersonian are T.
A. McWilliams, Graves, Ga.; Miss M.
G. Wilson, St. Louis, Mo.; C. L.
Burns, McHenry, Ga.; Byron Bowers,
Athens, Ga.; Lester C. Culver, Sparta,
Ga.; Union News, Barnesville, Ga*-;
Frank E. Ajnderson, Philadelphia,
Pa.; The Watchman, Cleburne, Tex.;
R. H. Cleveland, Pleasant Shade,
Tenn.; J. W. Steeley, Hartford, Ala.;
J. M. Johnson, Flippen, Ga.; The
Commoner, Lincoln, Neb.; A. P. Da
vis, DeKalb, Miss.; A. C. Shuford,
Newton, N. C.
All this is very gratifying, and we
feel sure that as we make each suc
cessive issue of The Weekly Jeffer
sonian and of Watson’s Jeffersonian
Magazine better and brighter and
more attractive, the workers in the
Held will have still greater success to
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