Newspaper Page Text
around, speaking- my little piece it so hap
pened that I landed on a small school-house
crowd of victims in the eastern part of Jeffer
son County, Georgia.
Yes, I made my speech. Applauded? Oh,
yes! Handsomely applauded by a very easily
pleased lot of farmers. When I sat down,
something- else happened.
A slender stranger, several years older than
I, came shambling forward, wearing a pair of
run-down slippers on his feet, but otherwise
dressed in a law-abiding, constitutional man
ner.
Well, this reckless looking stranger took
hold of that little crowd and in fifteen minutes
he had given us more different sorts of jolts,
had trod on our toes in more different varieties
of stamping, and had got up more currents of
new thought in our heads than anybody that
had ever happened along.
Without saying a single word that could
hurt my feelings, he considered every position
that I had taken. Even to me, it seemed tha/t
he had cut the ground from under my sees.
He shocked me into a state of Doubt, and I
determined, then and there to give careful
study to the questions upon which he had
touched.
When I look back upon my own career, and
recall the process of change which revolution
ized my convictions, there is no one spot that
stands out more prominently in the past than
the little school-house where, in 1889, I heard
the bold and forceful stranger knock my
speech to pieces. Only once after this did I
ever see him—for a moment at the Indianapo
lis Convention of 1891.
And now he is dead.
While in Atlanta to address the Farmers’
Union meeting of January 22, Mr. H. F. Marr
placed in my hands a copy of the “Plain Deal
er” in which was given an account of the
sudden, tragical death in Nacogdoches, Texas,
of Col. Bill Farmer, the man who had so much
to do with my own life-work and destiny.
It is doubtful whether among the pioneers
of the Reform movement in this Union there
was a man who gave himself more unselfishly,
more constantly, more courageously and more
effectively than W. E. Farmer.
In life, he was honored, loved and followed;
in death he will be mourned by everybody who
knows what a true man we have lost.
HMM
An “Editor Who Deserbes to be
Called up Higher.
Over at Hickory, N. C., there is a man of
the name of Stroud —C. Frank Stroud —who
publishes a paper of the name of the Hornet.
This paper is published every week, and in
size is somewhat larger than a dinner plate.
But it is one of the brightest periodicals in
America, for all that, and I wouldn’t miss its
weekly visit for a pretty.
I don’t suppose that Stroud—J. Frank—is
doing much more than making tongue and
buckle meet over at Hickory. He says things
about non-paying subscribers that seem to be
saturated with experience and sincerity.
The look of the “Hornet” is not suggestive
of heavy Deposits in the local banks, and the
subscription price is stated with a brevity that
indicates good-natured desperation.
Per Year A Quarter.
6 Months Three Nickels.
3 Months •’ , , .Two Nickels,
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSDNIAN.
And yet the short editorial paragraphs of the
Hornet are not less brilliant and piquant than
the very best of the paragraphing done for
the Atlanta Journal and the Washington Post.
They are equal to anything of the same sort
done for the leading metropolitan dailies.
They are far and away ahead of the average
editorial writing done in our most successful
weekly papers.
Tn proof of this statement, we give a few ex
tracts from the issue of Jan. 24, 1907:
A newly married couple only bought one
bed and two chairs, when they went to house[-
keeping, but that did not save them; kin
came just the same, one relative bringing a
cot with him and a soap box to sit on at the
meals.
M
This seems to be the dullest season we have
experienced in years. People may have plen
ty of money, but if so, they are hanging onto
it with both claws.
H
Hickory is all right, but she has some\ citi
zens that think they are too holy to tread upon
the soil of this city, and the people should help
them get a wav.
M
A Long Island widow hired a man she di*l
not know to cut some stove wood and then
married him. This should prove a solemn
warning to all tramp woodchoppers.
M
How times change—A few years ago a bus
iness man would take his pen in hand, now he
takes his typewriter in his arms.
M
A Southern paper speaks of a young man
kissing a girl “under her mother’s nose/’
There are times when a mother should keep
her nose out of her daughter’s affairs.
M
A young fellow called us down the other
day, and said there was nothing in the world
that would equal a pretty girl. He has never
eaten any quail on toast, and—he’s not mar
ried.
H
The editor of the Kalamazoo Gazette de
clares that he is daily going to pray with his
staff. What the average staff wants is more
pay rather than pray, though it may need the
praying more.
H
Gertrude Atherton has politely requested
the London Times to go to the devil. If she
will furnish the address and a year’s subscrip
tion in advance, the Times will no doubt be
glad to comply.
HMM
E ditorio. ial Comment.
After getting a few more well-directed
snubs, like that given us by the Governor of
Jamaica, perhaps we will be more inclined to
mind our own business. Why should we be
always so eager to rush to the aid of foreign
ers who can take care of themselves?
Why not let France and Great Britain man
age their own affairs? Why inject charity
into people who have not asked for it?
Admiral Davis had no cause to land Ameri
can marines upon British territory “to main
tain order.”
His conduct was conspicuously officious, un
tactful and offensive. The Governor of the
British island did quite right to order Davis
off* „ „ ._ 1i .. .J.-*., t
Let us hope that the lesson will have a ten
dency to cure us of the vulgar and dangerous
habit of rushing into matters that are none of
our business.
In the pursuit of our World-Mission vaga
ries, we are making ourselves trouble through
out the world.
H
Yes, sir, the manner in which the Legisla
ture of Texas disposed of the Bailey case was
funny.
1 hey pronounced him not guilty, elected
him to the Senate, and took his written pledge
that in case the Committee of Investigation
found that he was guilty he would punish
himself by handing in his resignation.
I wonder how that plan would work in the
trial of other citizens accused of wrong-doing.
For instance: Suppose a prisoner at the
bar to be accused of murder; suppose the
Court declares him “Not Guilty,” and orders
his release; suppose the Court then proceeds
to examine the facts to decide what the truth
of the case may be; suppose the accused to
have signed a pledge to come back and be
hanged providing the Jury investigating the
matter so requested—wouldn’t that method of
doing business Seem queer?
Well, that’s about what the Texas Legisla
ture did in the Bailey case.
Assuming that Bailey is innocent of the
charges brought against him he has made as
great a mistake as McClellan of New York
makes in opposing an honest count of the bal
lots cast in the Mayoralty election of 1905.
True, McClellan holds the office—but he has
absolutely lost out so far as the confidence and
respect of the country are concerned.
And Bailey also has the office —but to get it
under those circumstances impairs his prestige
and influence.
M
I am glad to see that Congress has increased
the pay of the carriers of the mail on the R.
F. D. routes. Seventy dollars per month is
none too much for a man who has to take all
sorts of weather and all sorts of roads, main
tain a good horse, cover an average of some
thing like twenty-two miles per day through
out the year. The necessaries of life cost so
much more than they did a few years ago,
that a salary which would have appeared lib
eral in 1890 is niggardly in 1907.
H
Our fool government wants to meddle some
more.
Got to feed, at your expense, Great Britain’s
poor in Jamaica.
Has Great Britain no food or money for her
own people?
We are behaving with generous hysteria at
present, just as we did a few years ago when
the French suffereed from the eruption of Mt.
Pelce. We rushed appropriations through
Congress, loaded ships with provisions, and
feverishly steamed away to the relief of a peo
ple that France would have taken care of—
had we not butted in.
It’s said that when our supply-ship reached
Martinique, the first one of the “starving na
tives,” whom the Americans saw was a col
ored gentleman who came forward offering to
sell the American’s fruits, vegetables and
other things to eat I
9