Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-10-05
Houk in Kingston.

Yesterday, October End, was Houk day in
Kingston No pains had been spared to
create the proper degree of enthusiasm.
Every method known to the machine poll
tician had been resorted to, to gather in the
'1oyaP Republicans of Roane County.
Flashy posters and tireless horsemen
heralded the coming of the mighty Caesar,
till every hill and every vale had heard the
GLORIOUS news" The bosses actually cal
culated they would have from /, 200 to l,50O
Houk men N town that day. Roane has
! always been regarded as one of Houk's
strong fortresses, and nothing must be left
undone to give him such boom here as
would roll out over the ''deestrict" and turn
in from every direction SO
steadily against him. County Court
was IN session, also, and the seventy-tive or
one hundred men who are commonly at
tracted to town on this occasion could like
wise be counted for Houk. The selection
of the day was happy conception, the
plans were well laid, and the work was
faithfully done but the crowd and the en-
thusiasm, oh! where were they? The est
mates of the crowd in town. vary from 300
to 400. L have conVersed with no one who
believes there were over $50 IN the court
house at any one time, and of these at least
| 100 were outspOken Rule men. Neither
was the enthusiasm up to the notch, nor as
widely diffused as the circumstances might
have seemed to warrant Only once or
/ twice was the attempt made to three
ioI,n ,7rly a1ad yni inf
| teen boys with bob tailed
cat and one tin can, could have had more
/ fun in ten minutes than those enthused
| boys got out of Houk's two hours speaking.
| Major Coffman, of the lockwood Republi-
| can, whom the Houk men have been abusing
! soundly for selling his printing office (fop-
! ping to Rule, as they claim, redeemed him
| self in this connection, for not only did he
| introduce the ''Hon. L. G. Houk, the
regular nominee for Congress-" but he &C
| tually cheered as loud as anybody, perhaps
| just 'leedle" louder.
| Houk's speech did not make much
| impression, at least, if it did, it has not
made it's appearance on the sur
face. 1 can not give its strong
points, as it had no such points in
| it. He devoted at least half of his time to
prove his Regularity" going over the
| grounds so deliberately discussed before the
people of Ohio in Mr.. Guenthers late letter
to the Cincinnati Commercial. The next
step was to deInolish the "custom-house
ring" and turn that "old set of thieves" out
again, and then, bless his innocent little
heart, he almost shed tears when he began
to talk about the way in which these bad
Rule men, these custon-house thieves, and
polk berry juice swindlers, were ''persecut-
ing" him, and he, oh! how bravely. was just
agoing to take it all, because he despised a
contest of personal character" Most holy
Houk! Oh! righteous Caesar!
The charges of open and notorious drunk
enness, the calaboose episode and the poi
son" explanation, he treated with silent
contempt, only distributing a roll OF
Waterman Supplements " to prove how
maliciously he was besng prosecuted. Hi
hearers must conclude that he pleads d" gull
ty as charged in the Indictment" And
many of his supporters now feel that they
have been defending him on the calaboost
story without just grounds. What vii
they do now? BRUNO.