The Washington critic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1885-1888, 1885-06-08
REUBEN DAVIS STILL LIVES.

found il necessary to excise from his
book, now in press, q chapter relative to
the terrible taking off of Hon. Reuben
Davis, q member of the House, when Mr..
Cox first came TO the Capitol from his
original district in Ohio. Mr.. Cox was in
duced TO believe that his Democratic
friend Of thirty years ago was slain by an
irate district attorney in 1912, and that
the Reuben Davis of whom we have been
reading of recent years, as the leader of the
Greenbackers and Local Optionists in
Mississippi, is son or other kinsman of
the older Reuben Davis, whose untimely
death MIR. Cox deplores. In fact these
two are one and the same person, and
would tell how Mr.. Cox and the rest of
mankind were led into this grievous and,
as the sequel shows, most pitiful error.
| was an editor of the appeal in Mem
phis in 1879. At that period an appar-
emily sane inmate had escaped from the
asylum at Jackson, Miss, and taken ref
uge in Memphis. He had outwitted DIR.
Compton, the shrewd and learned mana
ger of the institution at Jackson, and be-
came useful local news gatherer for the
attaches of the AppedL. | did not know
this mans name, but had become cogni-
2ant of his virtues. | never dreamed that
he had served term in a lunatic asylum.
On the contrary | esteemed him most in
telligent and philosophical. Late one
evening when | was discharging the task
of night editor this man, wearing a
troubled aspect, entered my apartment, |
was rewriting and condensing telegra-
phic news. He said:
II have just reached this city. / came
ON the express train, leaving Oklahoma,
Miss. to-day / have been Watching the
nf al
there, in which Sam Meek, the poetical
and eloquent district attorney, is pitted
against that grand old lawyer, Reuben
Davis
My visitor went on telling of the wit
nesses and what each swore and of the
personnel of tho. jury. He gave number
less details. / know that in all this he
spoke the truth. He defined with singu-
lar accuracy the personal and moral and
intellectual qualities of Reuben Davis and
Sam Meek, the two attorneys now pitted
against each other in life or death
struggle. He spoke justly, as | well knew
of Davis violence and Feasibility and of
Meek's mildncss and gentleness and
suavty of manners and admirable good
temper and kindness. Meek had been
my school-fellow, and such were his
tender sensibilities and such his generosity
that he suffered more keenly when con
templating the griefs of others than his
OWll, Ilt entertained u uNeTSlOlI
to the infiiction of pain. 1t was a sort of
fixed insanity, and, therefore, vulgar peo-
pie who did not know Sam Meek well
used to say he was cowardly. He is thor
oughly imbued with the tender sensibili-
ties and poetical temperament of his
brother, Alex b. Meek. He is of gigantic
proportions and measureless physical
strength, while Davis, the defendants
lawyer in this trial at Oklahoma, was physi-
cally weak, slender, sunburnt nervous
and eXcitable.
These Just descriptions of the two ar
dent, eloquent lawyers were given by the
voluntary reporter who had just left the
extraordinary trial and death OF Hon.
Reuben Davis. Through the whole
day" continued my informant, District
Attorney Meek bore patiently the often
siVe gibes and taunts and acrimonious
assaults of General Davis. He pretended
not to hear and then to misconceiVe many
offensive declarations made by Davis.
were unworthy of credence and his as
sertions false. Friends Of Meek gathered
about him, urging him to resent Davis
insults or retire from the courtroom and
from an office Of which he was unworthy.
| Davis rose, defying Meek. Thrusting his
| clenched fist in Meek face, he pronounced
Meek q liar and coward. Meek was driven
| to desperation my excited reporter
| rose to his feet, his eyes aflame with fury,
| and throwing up his hands he exclaimed
Sam Meek, Wrestling q Cots repeater
| from John Gilmer, shot Davis dead"
THE FEARFUL FINALE.
There was profound silence. | was
| deeply shocked. The reporters face was
paler than that Of the hapess Davis whom
| stretched upon the clerks table in the
courtroom at Oklahoma. When | finally
recovered my senses my interlocutor went
| on.
| II was compelled to be in Memphis to-
| morrow and therefore, within the hour
| that Davis fell, | left the scene Of death
| for this city"
THE PUBLICATION AND RESULTS.
! wrote out at great length and fullness
| of detail, with Biographical sketches of
! Meek and Davis, the story above given.
| | was then the Southern correspondent of
| the New York World and the whole terri
bic narrative was teegraphed to that
| paper, while | gave Il brief synopsis of the
| tragical facts TO the Associated Press.
| Next morning five or ten millions OF
| people in varying tones of sadness, or
| with bated breath, or startled were read
| ing or telling TO listening groups how
| Meek slew Davis Davis was no more.
\ TELEGRAM FROM THE OTHER WORLD.
Within thirty-siX hours after Davis UNI
| timely death as described by my unknown
and unemployed reporter, ! received and
| was dumfounded by an extraordinary tel
| egram signed, much to my amaZcment,
| by Reuben Davis. The peculiar verbiage
| of the dispatch had, too, Il deadly signiii-
| canoe. There was table-tipping spirit
| ualist or mind-reader named Miller, hard
| by, and was about to submit to him the
queer telegram, when | read it again, as
| follows;
OHALoNA, MISS, sept. II, 1872,
| /. j. M PIE, AppeaE QHcc .Nmpht%
You are the blankcst liar living. Com.
| ng TO cut your cars of,
REuREN DAVIS.
Instead of0pplying TO Miller / Went To
| the telegraph Ullico and asked the presid.
| ing Judge of the Oklahoma Circuit Court
| whether Davis had recovered sufficiently
| from the wound inflicted by Sam Meek TO
| send me dispatch. The Judge answered
| that he had delivered my inquiry for an
answer 10 Davis himself who was in per-
| feet health.
THE MAD REPORTER.
| went forth to discover the name, his
| tory and abiding place of the reporter"
| who had RECALLED me with his admirably
| theatrical recital of facts incident TO the
| conflict in the courtroom at Oklahoma. IAN
| agent of DR., Compton a the lunatic asy-
| lum at Jackson, Miss, had unwittingly
| served me by arresting my reporter as an
| escaped lunatic ] proceeded TO "inter-
| view the fugitive from the asylum, and
| exhibited Davis dispatch. He upheld be-
I fore mo "a anou nf FiU nnusnanas 1aolop-