The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1885-07-15
UNWRITTEN HISTORY.
How Green Smith Was Elected to the Presi-
dency Of the Indiana State Senate.
a Young Man of Good Impulses, But in
Whose Composition There is Too
Large an Element of Assault
and Battery.
special 70 the Sentinel.

WASHINGTON, July S.-Eere is point the
public may not thoroughly understand.
newspaper is as liable to incur the enmity
of some individuals by Withholding from
them extrayagant praise as by actual hos
tility. Green Smith never charged the
Sentinel with having assaulted misrepre
scented him. 1t was wholly because the
paper had not defended him that he made
brutal TRADE in the State Senate Chamber
against the management, editors and re-
porters. The split between Senator Green
Smith and the Sentinel involved the ques-
ton of conducting property. Senator Smith
really believed that the Sentinel ought to use
its presses, reporters and circulation for the
purpose of establishing a reputation for
Senator Smith. The Sentinel saw more
money in course that promised subscrip-
tion and advertising. Senator Smiths tai
ents unfortunately were not such as to in
spire repOrtorial respect. but he might have
partly secured by policy what a wiser man
would have recognized from the first, as i'm
possible to achieve by conquest. From its
earliest inception | curiously watched the
development OF this remarkable conflict. 1t
was the original disposition of the reporters,
Sentinel and all, to go out of their way to
write what would be agreeable to Senator
Smith. While not fellow of infinite Jest,
he has large and generous impulses and
the physical courage of Sullivan, the
Singer He will fight at the
seen him face a raised chair in the hands of
an angry man as powerful as himself with
out finching. 1t is an interesting matter of
history that about the time the Legislature
was organized, Johnson, Of.the News, asked
Fortune of the Journal, as a personal favor
to make pleasant mention of Senator Smith.
Fortune proceeded to work this line, but
few days later he dropped in on Johnson,
and observed: There is not much of your
man, Green Smith," A few days later For
tune turned up apologetically and plead:
You must inst let et,, me out. ! can't do it any
could not do otherwise than submit to a re-
scinding of the contract. Then the racket
began. i have talked to perhaps twenty
members OF the last Senate without find
ing enc who doubted that for his election to
the Presidency of that body Smith was
wholly indebted to the indianapolis Journal.
Any legislative body will naturally resent
an outside assault upon one of its members
A poverty of intellect that enabled him to
detect the source or case of his good luck
constituted the great misfortune of Smith.
Only the smartest of smart men know when
they are well fixed. Had he stopped then
no young man OF Indiana, according to his
talents and culture, would have had a
brighter future. But his promotion be-
ing by virtue of a strange and
unnatural element in the very nature
of things, had 10 eliminate in his
downfall. In the sense that I employ il.
this word has no uncertain meaning. The
loss of temper is the loss of everything in
the State Senate, and the member who fumes
up and down the isle, impelled with bloody
nosed desire to thrash somebody, perpetrates
an offense that con not be forgiven. 1t was
not particularly what ne said about the Jour
nal for squibbing him or what he said about
the Sentinel for not defending him, but his
obscene attempt to array reporters against
each other, that caused Williams to enter a
silver-tongued plea for adjournment, May to
hide his head, Francis Johnson to shiver
with a feeling Of revulsion, Campbell, of
Hendricks, 10 look out of the window
TO conceal a feeling of embarrassment,
Foulke too artfully suggests that the less Of
such discourse the better for the order Of
the Senator's memory. Smith caressed
Tindall in his speech, attempting to make
Tindall, one of Smiths partisans, offensive
TO Fortune, Tindall walked to Magee and
whispered to him. Magee arose and said :
II am authorized by Mr.. Tindall 70 say that
50 much of the Senator's speech as alludes to
him is untrue" The experiment was then
tried on Romeo Johnson, who, with a
tountenance revealing indignation, inter
viewed Foulke- That gentleman arose and
said; II am authorized to announce that so