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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