The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-14
I'M JONES OF TEXAS
szow William Walter Phelps Caused
the Lone Star Statesman to be Left at
Homo,
From, the Ne,c York Grorhic.

Flow William waiter PnelpS CauSeo
the Lone Star Statesman to be Left at
Home.
From the NeU York Grorhic.
Col. Jim Jones was in Congress from
sTaxas for four years previous to the present
session. He is quiet sort of lawyer, and
ha lives. when at home, over in the little
Gown of Henderson, In the eastern part of
.bat State. He is neighbor of Webb Flana-
con who made that famous speech in the
To+;onal Republican Convention of 1880, in
.',h;cb he wanted to know, "What are we
49, FOR except for the officesr' Col Jim,
han he first went to Washington, was a
,oIain homespun sort of man, and he kept
Ris tongue still and his eyes open. He had
x,ot seen much of the world prior to his trip
n the national capital, but he was more
,ooraful of himself than his friend Major
p;iI Martin has been, and he made no bad
Sraaks but grew to be well liked as a sensi-
BILE sort of a granger.
When he had finished his first term there
,ras NOT a speech to his credit in the columns
,of the Congressional Record. He went
hack to his constituents, was renominated
without opposition and reelected without
efficiently He was growing man in the
ninev districts and they began to talk of
him for Governor, and even mentioned him
for United States Senator. He blossomed
mt as quite statesman, and when his
second term began he took part in some of
the debates in way that showed how
MANY of his angularities had been removed.
William Walter Phelps has large landed
interests in Texas, and Col. Jones occasion
ally looked after some legal business for the
Jersey Congressman in connection with the
nroperty The Colonel considered Mr..
Phelps as one of the brightest men in the
House, and never missed an opportunity to
listen attentively to any speech the states
man from Bergen County might deliver.
One day Mr.. Phelps had the floor and In the
course of an eloquent address made use of
the expression faux pas"
whats foo pasp" said Colonel Jim to
Frank Lawler of Chicago, who was one of
his neighbors
Franks knowledge of French is as limited
as that of the Colonel himself, but no one
could get the Chicago member to acknowl-
edge that fact. So he answered calmly:
"Why, don't you know the meaning of
that expression? It's just as if you said,
Good morning. or glad to see you, or how
do YOU do, or anything like that" and the
Colonel believed him and treasured up the
expression for future use.
Jim Jones went home in a month after
wards, and began shaking hands with his
neighbors in preparation for the Congress
sional Convention. He never missed an
air his French. He rung in ''foo pas" on his
constituents on every possible occasion, and
the horny handed, leather-leggined voters
of Henderson, Tyler and Longview began
to talk about Jim, and resented his intro
duction of such a strange phrase. They
might have been brought to tolerate high
toned English, but they began to declare
they would not have man as their repre-
sentative in Congress who went around toot-
ing q foreign tongue.
when the convention met at Tyler Jim
found he had big fight on his hands, and
one of the back country orators from Shelby
county stood right up in the body of the
hall and told the delegates why they should
not renOminate the Colonel.
Jim is spilled for ever" said the speaker,
''aud we ought to keep him away from the
limitations ard humbugs of Washington.
He don't kind a know enough for them
fehers. He's loosin' his head. Why just
think of fellow as big and as sound as Jim
Jones is, goin' around and shootin' off
foo paw foo paw to respectable East
Texas Democrats. 'Twon't do, l tell We.
No SIGH lingo as that kin speak for us Dimi-
Gratis of the Third District"
The fight was a fierce one. Everybody
liked the Colonel, even those who were
voting against him, and over a thousand
ballots were taken without any result. The
fourth day of the convention came, and
everyone felt that it was time to end the
struggle That morning the public square
of Tyler was placarded with flaming
printed posters. There were only three words
on them, but they were in wide and big
letters, and they read "Foo-Paw jim"
The convention met and on the first bal
lot Jim was beaten, and Buck Kilgore" of
Gregg county was sent to Congress in his
place.
And this is the true story of the causes
which drove Jim Jones out Of Congress to
spend the remainder of his days among the
white sands of Eastern Texas.