The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1879-01-16
BOB TAYLOR.
How Re Won Wife and the Honors
Of Congressman-A Short Ro-
nance Of the Mountains.
The BeardI IS Boy and His Fiddle.


Especial to the Cincinnati Enquirer.l
NASHVILLE, December 2I.-Last
Wednesday, at Asheville, North
Carolina, Congressman elect Robert
Taylor, of the First Tennessee dis
trict, was united in marriage to
Miss Sallie Baird, a neice of Gov.
Vance, of North Carolina. The
marriage is the conclusion of a
somewhat romantic story. When
Taylor was nominated by the Dem
ocrats as their candidate for Con-
gress, Miss Baird promised him
that, if elected, she would marry
him; if defeated, it would be an in
definite time before their union
could be consummated. The dis
trict contains some of the strongest
republican counties in the State,
and has always given a republican
majority of twenty-five or twenty
three hundred. The prospect for
Taylor attaining his desires were,
therefore, not at all promising. Be-
sides, he had as an opponent Petit
bone, one of the republican chief
talns of the State, an emigrant from
Michigan, possessed Of unusual
shire wdness. In the Presidential
contest, as one of the republican
electors, he bore the banner of his
party as gallantly as was possible,
worrying the democrats considera-
bly,. For Taylor he entertained
seemingly nothing but contempt.
Taylor's nomination was simply.
lucky stroke of-fortune. In the re-
publican convention TayIor's broth
er, very pronounced republican,
was the principal candidate for the
nomination against PettibOne; but
the latter, after a bitter fight, sc
cured the honor. Republican Tay
lOr's friends were all angry, land they
conceived that it would be a good
thing to nominate his democratic
brother, who would probably draw
votes from the republican ranks.
The plan was carried out. Taylor
was only twenty eight years old, and
in that region had made considera-
bic reputation and popularity as a
fiddler. At the frequent gatherings
for dancing be was a most welcome
guest. His nomination seemed to
fire the young men with enthusi-
asm. Numbers of republicans, and
two or three republican journals,
left the party ranks and went over
to Taylor's side. 1t was an under
stood fact that Federal money was
10 be showered on that district.
Taylor, as he afterward told friends,
had only five dollars to commence
the canvass with, but once out,
money and assistance of every kind
poured in on him, so that after the
was over, very little Of
the five dollars was spent. Petit
bone looked on him with contempt,
and in the opening speech merely
TO him as the "beardless
boy who adde's" When it came to
TaylOr's rejoinder, he approached
the table with a fiddle in one hand
and carpet bag in the other He
commenced with the statement that
the serious charge had been made
against him that he was a fiddler.
Laying the fiddle and the carpet bag
side by side on the table, he asked
tie crowd to choose between them.
The point was taken up and carried
from one end of the district to the
other, producing any amount of
at Pettibone's expense.
Pettibone, afterwaFd, never alluded
to Taylor's fiddle more than once
or twice. Taylor also tainted Pet
tibone with the fact that his regi-
ment, at the close of the war, dis
banded with more men than it had
started with. The young democrat
was a ready, eloquent speaker, and
never failed to awaken enthu siasm.
Frequently when the speaking was
over he would entertain the crowd
with music from his violin. The
district has its share of moonshin-
ers, and they, with all their friends,
were for Taylor, as Pettibone was
in with and supported by the reve-
nue. men, the enemies of the moon
sinners. Taylor's majority was
nearly fifteen hundred, making a
democratic gain of one Congress
man from Tennessee. His father
the State in Congress
just after the war. When nonina-
ted, Taylor was advised to take a
very conservative course, but an
swered firmly that he proposed to
make the fight on straightout dem
ocratic principles. He did SO and
won.