The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-08-23
The Candidate.
RAcoooN RETREAT, Aug. IL, 1879.


Sink or swim, live or die, survive {
perish, become q candidate, or go off dow
here somewhere, and crawl up a hollow 10
where my creditors generally and the mel
chants who have mortgage on my croI
can't find me, are questions which for yea
or so past have been greatly disturbing m
mental quietude; but here, lately, I hav
tackled one that is more perplexing, harde
to masticate and digest satisfactorily NOR
difficult of solution than I have ever We
had forced on my mind or my stomach, an
that is What does the candidate do wit
his old shell-his former self-when he lift
himself out of it and comes out suddenl
before the dear people in his new ga-b-il
his sleek and unrumpled robes of candidac,
presenting the phenomenon of q com
| plete transformation in his make up
When he pulls off the old and puts on tht
neto, what does he do with the old?
Did you ever scrutinize candidate right
thoughtfully and philosophically from every
available standpoint? In some respect he
is like a snake. l don't mean he is like q
snake in the grass, or that he would attempt
to ''pull the wool over your eyes" and try
to induce you to do anything contrary to
what you knew to be right, like the snake
in the garden of Eden persuaded Eve to do.
But I mean this, that he can shed of SO
effectually bis old exterior, which until
done, he was apparently blind, and could
not detect in you those virtues and amiable
qualities which he afterwards discovers
shining SO ~eminently in you, and which
draw him 80 closely to you. 1t is said, be-
ieve, that snake is blind until he has un-
dergone his annual shedding of, and
many time in walking through the woods
haven't you found these sheddings with
the impress or indentations of the eyes,
nose, mouth, spots on the back, the ridges
or muscles of the abdomen, ETC., all show
ing-with shape and everything about it
almost complete-except that the snake had
gotten out of it-and haven't you often
wondered how the snake got out?
Now, when the candidate came away out
here to my house to see me and inquire
about my own, my wife's, and my chil-
dren's health, and about my little crop, etc.,
[ can't help but wonder how he got out of
his old shell; how the scales were so effec- |
tually removed from his eyes that he can
see SO much good in me- q would like for
him to teach my wife the secret, for she is
getting to be as blind to the good there is
in me as he used to be before he "shed off,
mis- former SELF
The difference between Mr. Brown whom |
used to meet whenever I went to town |
md when he was an unpretending citizen,
,ut who now is no more and Mr. Brown,
he candidate, is so wide the two men must
necessarily be regarded as tI10 different and
listinct beings. Mr.. Brown, the candidate,
S so different in his bearing towards me from
Ir Brown whom used to meet without his
me. (The last account heard
f the latter gentleman was an expression
rom him in the newspaper that he had
nally gained his consent to yield to ''the
'licitation of many friends''D Mr.. Brown,
le candidate, is so affable and polite, so {
leek, so "childike and bland;" Mr..
rown, the ordinary citizen, used to be SO
ruff and Indifferent. Mr.. Brown, the can
date, is so familiar and solcitous of my
elfare, and has such Difference for my
ews on politics, the necessary reforms of
le day, agriculture, religion, good whisky,
I'd on matters generally, yet 80 much like
personal appearance to Mr.. Brown
hom used to know By sight, can't help
It regard the former as a brand-new, fresh, Il
SEX snake with the old skin from off his "
es; and the latter as the old shedding 81
lich he has crawled out of, thus creating D
the transformation two things or two u
rsons as separate and distinct in being n
are the genuine snake and the skin which n
leaves down in the woods on the branch pl
newhere, and which he has turned his W
ok on forever as dull, dry, useless, and
pid nothing. Il don't mean that the Sc
ldidate has any of the meanness of the III
Ike about him. SC
Sow, what does be do with that old SHELF :.
ange you never find it 'lying around ~
SCI anywhere. May be he laid it away V
a shelf to crawl back into next winter,
ether elected or defeated. do him inS
tice though, to intimate that he will be :,
eated. Every one that has been out here O.
ny house yet is going to be elected. II,
he candidate for the Legislature, though,
he subject best fitted for the study of the
uralist He is the queerest of them all, ON
one most wisely and most wonderfully II
de. went to town last Saturday with
wife to have the children's pictures tax
10 send to their aunt Mary, who lives in
t ), and while standing at a window of
photograph gallery, observed one Of
10 subjects walking with all the dignity COZ
,ould affect on the opposite side Of the stu
ct. He is a member of the legal fra A.,
ity of a neighboring village, practi> on,
er at the bar of Squire Spriggins for
t, (the judicial officer who wears the ual
inc Of the aforesaid Beat, barrister Of nm
1t the calibre Of Simon SugSs, as slim o
is framework, and as conspicuous and .
ninent in what Mrs. Partington would II
his abandon" as the man in the alma &c
before taking McLean's strengthen &c
cordial, and with his clothes fitting him