Newspaper Page Text
VOL- I-
The Lay of a Bird.
'The night, which covers every kind
■Of variegated tricks;
The ancient papers in the squares;
The worn and shabby bricks;
The countenance of boss and slave,
The collars that they wear—
Had fallen, when the gallant First
To meeting did repair.
And Wickham, j., was in the chair,
With Murphy at the door;
And Saussy, G., charged in the lists,
And Butch he held the floor.
And, oh, it was a pleasing sight!
And, ah, it was a dream!
With gentle breezes all abaft,
And likewise all abeam.
Then Cream he spoke of purity,
And Satis he sang of peace;
And the language when not oily
Was redolent of grease.
And as each noble' word went up
Like rockets in the air,
The henchmen pounded on the floor,
And Wickham on the chair.
Ah, who might know and who' might
guess
That to that peaceful scene,
Where politics was stripped of greed
And graft was no more seen;
And everything was bright and pure
As any summer day—•
That even to that sheltered nook
A squall was on its way.
For even as they smiled and smirked,
With chuckle and with grin,
A humming on from pole to pole
A telegram came in
To advertise that peaceful throng,
■ A bird was coming through
IfcLJ-piLiisy with a. sharpened beak
was a fighting cock —
This nightingale so gay—
And when he lit upon that stage
And raised his tuneful lay,
He carolled of the names of things
And told with songful might
The legend of the milk white dove
With feathers black as night;
And how his mission was to pluck,
Like tares from out a sheaf,
A very darksome leatherette
He claimed to be the Chief
Who caracoles and gambolades—>
A warrior of renown—<
Whene’er our valiant policemen
Go slouching from the town.
Then up rose Sergeant Murphy,
A trembling like a leaf:
■“And must I sit or stand and hear
A bird peck at a Chief;
And call his plumage darksome,
And play upon his name?
I put the Chair on notice
I’m quivering like a flame.”
“Lese majestle,” cried Wickham, j.,
(Whatever that may be),
-TH have no little nightingale
A sassin’ back at me.
Avaunt! Away! Go forth! Begone!”
And out into the night
They drove that little soulful bird—
And turned out all the light.
And now we’ll never, never know
What name our chief should bear,
For nightingales where bosses reign
And graft is king, are rare;
And when our Chief with martial
stride
Upon our ways is seen —
The vexing question still will rise,
What did the birdie .mean?
O, Wickham, j.! O, Wickham, j.!
And has it come to this,
That after years of tooting horns,
And oyster roasts and fizz;
And spinning wheels, and lidless hells,
And marching clubs galore—
A free-born Chatham rossignol
May sing his song no more!
Feminine View of It.
Mrs. Diggs—l was too ill to attend the
Woodbe-L’perton wedding. Were you
tbdre ?
Mrs. Biggs—Yes, indeed.
Mrs. Diggs—And what did you think
of the presents? The papers praised
them very highly.
Mrs. Biggs—They were just too lovely
for anything, I Ho wonder of what
' grin they rented them.
’ ‘ ' • • • 'c
®l)c torcljlijljt
SAVANNAH, GA , SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1906-
NOTICE.
There will be a meeting of
the Southside Club of the Peo
ple’s Democratic League at
Benedictine Hall, 34th & Bull
Sts., at 8:30 o’clock, Wednes
day evening, May 16, 1906.
Prominent speakers will address the
meeting.
P. A, S. McGlashan, Pres. F. W. Perriott, Sec.
Flam Facts
Not by Our Professions of
Principles,
But by our actions should we be judged by our fellow
men. If we profess one thing and practice anoth
er diametrically opposite, then indeed are we
insincere and hypocritical. To merit our
own self esteem and to command the
respect and admiration of our
fellow citizens we must be
truthful and consistent.
But, why these reflections! Why
quote these axioms which every good
and free man, woman and child well
know ?
The answer is simple:—By the
above standard we propose to gauge
the Citizens’ Club.
In its (?) platform, adopted at the
Theater meeting held on Feb. 20th,
it proposes, among other things, to
| be opposed to bossism, graft, gamb
ling houses, policy shops and Sunday
liquor traffic. (The fact should not be
lost sight of that in its career of some
ten years or more the Citizens' Club
here, never previously adopted a plat
form.) During its existence, it has
on several occasions had opposition
previous to the present movement.
Why did not it then adopt a plat
form before now. It did not dare to,
because it nas always favored the very
things which it now with brazen ef
frontery declares against. It still fa
vors and fosters them, and if the Cit
izens’ Club continues in power, these
very evils will flourish even more
openly- than now, if such a contin
| gency is within the realms of possi-
■ bility.
; In his oration at that meeting, the
boss questioned the sincerity of the
■ Democratic Club of Chatham county
I in adopting the platform which that
organization had declared as its pro
i session of faith, and which the Citi-
I zen’s Club by attempting to steal
' were trying to make appear ridiculous
in the eyes of the public, Mr. Os-
borne suggested that if the Democrat
ic Cluo was sincere, that the Citizens’
Club was willing to let them lead
the crusade, and in a spirit of what
he considered was sarcasm mentioned
the names of two gentlemen identi
fied with the opposition, one to un
dertake the crusade against gambling,
the other against illegal sale of intox
icating liquors on Sunday.
Here they seem content to rest, for
here they have pitched their tents.
(The utterances are in strict accord
with Mr. Osborne’s official record on
these very two subjects. He does not
think it his duty to ferret out viola
tions of the law; but will prosecute
them when they 7 are brought to the
attenion of the grand jury by some
one else than himself.)
He expected the forces of the oppo
sition to accomplish the objects of
their platform, with all the machinery
of the law allied against them, with
the sworn officers of the law sanc
tioning and permitting what they
should condemn and prohibit.
Knowing the insincerity of. the of
fer, the opposition paid no attention
to the bluff. But what has the Cit
izens’ Club dr te since? Have they
accomplished what they profess in
their platform? Have they driven
from our midst the boss or the graft
ers? Is there a single less gambling
house, or one less professional gamb
ler in Savannah than there was be
fore th Citizens’ Club adopted its
(?) platform? Have the policy wheels
discontinued to tprn? Hav the poli
cy sharks ceased to wring from the
poor and needy n?:r nickels and
dimes? Are the bar rooms closed on
the Sabbath?
If these things have been accom
plished, then the Citizens' Club has
done its duty well. If these evils do
not now exist, then there might be no
reason for any opposition to the pres
ent administration.
But, has the good been accomplish
ed? Has there been any change in
the condition of affairs? Has the Cit
izens’ Club, or the administration
(which is a part and parcel of the
Citizens’ Club) made one single move
towards suppressing any one of these
evils? If not, why not? If these evils
won’t be corrected now, can the pub
lic expect the Citizens’ Club to cor
rect them after ’ election, if they
should be successful?
That the evils exist, the Citizens’
Club administration knows full well.
In its platform it declares to have
them discontinued if the Citizens' Club
is successful in the elections. Why
wait then? Why not act at once?
If it is sincere, why not do so at
once? It has every 7 branch of the
city and county administration in its
control, as fully now, as it would
have after election, if it elected its
every candidate. If sincere, do it
now!
But nothing is done. The deduc
tion is clear —the Citizens' Club is
insincere in the adoption of its (?)
platform. Is it therefore entitled to
the support of the good citizens of
Chatham county?
Reflect, ye men of Chatham coun
ty! Register and qualify yourselves
to deal the death blow to duplicity
and insincerity, to bossism, graft and
policy thieves.
Her Perquisites.
E. Z. Gross, th6 mayor of Harris
burg, Pa., was condemning the fees
and unfair perquisites which swell
unduly the salaries of many unimport
ant office holders.
“Fees and perquisites,” he said,
“tend to cause unjust dealings. Even
in the kitchen that is so.
“A butcher told me the other day
that a young woman, the cook in a
prominent family hereabouts,- came
into his shop and said,:
“ ‘Gimme a fine large roast o’ beef
with plenty o’ bones.’
“ ‘Plenty of bones?” said the
butcher in amazement.
■•‘Yes.’ answered the young woman,
’’pnes .is»my .perquisite? ’
NO- 3-
THE WAIL OF THE PAVEMENT
BRICKBAT.
Poor little cuss’d out brickbat.
How many things pity-pat,
Over me go.
Strangers stop and look at me—
’■Bum,” they say, "not worth a D,”
Oh my! Oh! •
AWJ
Very hard it is to bear
Everybody’s ugly sneer,
At me cast.
Pretty women-at me pout,
Saying “they should take it out,”
It can’t last.”
All the travel by me borne,
Just as if I wasn’t torn,
It’s too bad.
A whole brick’s work I do,
And to get a cussing too,
Makes me mad.
Since the city paid for me
Half price only, don't you see,
It ain’t fair?
Now I ’m down to tell the fake,
That since laying 1 did break,
From the wear.
“Grafters” make me doubly work
While their duties they do shirk,
All for self.
But at last they are dismay'd
For sure they’re doomed to be laid
On the shelf.
’Tis the same old ring,
With the same old song—
“ Vote for us an
We’ll help you along.”
”"i« the'same old crowd
\ml’ the same old threat —
• . ■ - ■’ ■,
We'll make you st* at.”
'Tis the same old gang.
With their same old strife —
. “Vote for us. or
We’ll wreck your life.”
'Tis the same old lot
That wouldn’t (?) rob,
"But vote for us
And we’ll give you a job.”
'Tis the same old set,
With its pap-greed cry*—<
“Vote for us, or
We'll starve and die.”
’Tis the same old ring
With its modest request—*
“Put us in power
And we ll do the rest.”
A CHANGE NEEDED.
Even a casual observer must no
tice the deplorable fact that the moral
tone of the city of Savannah has
been lowered considerably in the last
half of the reign of the Citizens'
Club bosses. During the first half of
their supremacy, they were without
experience in public graft and hence
not so harmful to the community.
But now they must have become a
political stench even to themselves.
What party could stand without nau
sea the unholy alliance that now mis
uses the name of Citizen (with Club
appendix) after detection and convic
tion of naturalization frauds of the
acknowledged leaders of the Citizens’
Club, who designed to cheat our real
citizens out of the power of their
vote. If they had not been detected
and punished in time, who can doubt
that the fraudulently naturalized
Greeks and Turks would have been
voted, over and over again, by this
mis-called Citizens’ Club, and thus
have neutralized hundreds of votes of
our true American citizens cast In
favor of public morality and honesty!
Can it be that the community has
fallen so low in its pwn estimation
that it is unwilling (to exert itself
to shake off the incubus of boodlers
and grafters! Can anyone who choos
es to exercise good judgment fail to
realize that a change of administra
tion is needed? We think that the
tiroper answer will be at the polls at
the coming primary when it is con
fidently expected that the People's
Democratic League will score a sweep
ing victory. , .c.
