The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1871-10-12
RICH, RARE AND RACY.
From the Favette Chronic

From the Fayette Chronicle
Our reporter attended a Convention of
I Republicans at the Court House last Friday
| evening. What he saw he will tell; but
i to write.
He saw the gathering of the clans. He
heard somebody talking. He entered the
| Court House. Lemuel Long, j. p, county
Assessor, County Superintendent of Edu-
cation and Deputy County Treasurer, had
the floor The old man waxed eloquent -
! lie became excited; indignant; mad, be-
cause Merriman Howard aspired to become
Sheriff. The old mans feelings were out
ragged at such presumption. he was aston
lshed at such course, when y. >. Miles the
man who had done so much tor the cOlored
people by bringing the old man himself and
his multitudinous family to the county and
giving them nearly all the Offices of profit.
Why, Merriman was an enemy to the Re
publican party He could not be trusted.
He had purchased fine school houses for the
colored children to be educated in {; he got
them competent teachers: he was doing
much for their good he could not be trusted
MerrimaD Howard was a bad man. And so
the old man went, varying the monotony of
his eloquence with blow of illogical venom
at poor, lean kearns, and ambitious little
Henry Mcclure. But he went back TO
charge Howard once more, when Kearns
asked him about the old mans changing the
records in his Office, because the records
would not agree with the old mans reports
as Deputy Treasurer. D, the eloquence of
Lemuel Long! How he was inspired by
standing just where Prentiss had stood In
days gone by How he did speak words of
nonsense, and shake his polished head until
his glossy wig had well nigh fallen.
So much has been said about the old man, |
because he would have felt sighted had |
his imperfections been passed by with |
briefer mention. We would flatter him |
more, but the next orator claims some at
tention.
FL Il Il I, foIo
quence, o. S. Miles was vociferously called |
for. He bashfully mounted the rOstrum,
and with a modesty unheared of, glOrified /
himself unto the skies, and told what Won
derful things he had done for himself, and
the fifteen colOred gentlemen he had /
brought there to applaud him. He even
declared that he had borrowed money at Is
per cent to supply his laborers and took no
security whatever. He convinced every
body that as financier a success he was
not. Our reporter was here called away,
and heared not the remainder of Mr.. Miles
remarks so laudatory of MIR. Miles himself;
when he returned Merriman Howard, old
man Longs big devil, was sweeping every
thing before him. He showed his record up
clearly and denounced the assertions of old
man Long as false, and affectionately told
the man that he was san infamous liar, and
the truth was not in him." This term of
ehdearmcnt was several times repeated,
and those present agreed that there was a
slight difference between the two individ-
uals, and that Howard had decidedly the
best of the question. Merriman next be-
slowed his attentions on the Sheriff a. Il told
how he was and is defauIter to the amount
OF $780, and when his good friend Walton
+. Long" denied the ''sOft impeachment"
he told him with sweet simplicity that he
was IAN infamous malicious liar"
After Merriman followed little Mcclure
in impassioned strains of high-soaring ora
tory genial, polite, refined j. Clarence Ellis
in a speech replete with brilliant corrusca-
lions and scintillations of bombast; stutter-
ing Nelson Hall, who briefly told j. Clarence
that he ''mi-might co-cOme d-down, as the |
colored folks w-were go going to vote flor |
Doug. Mccormick and Wash Shackleford."
To sum up, Howard came out far ahead of |
all competitors, and showed conclusively |
the utter incapacity, ignorance and rascali- |
ty of the white men with whom circum-
stances have compelled him to associate.