Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1889-10-04
On the Cars With Malone.
of the staunton VINDIcA-

Correspondence of the Staunton VINDIcA-
TOR.
BURKEvILLE, NorTowAY Co., VA, }
Sept. 18th.
Happening to be a passenger Saturday
night on the Norfolk & Western train
which. took Gen. Malone from petersburg
to Abingdon, where he was to make his
opening campaign speech, l made some
dots about the little boss and his campaign
for the benefit of the VINDICAToR readers.
The first intimatiOn had OF the presence
of the man in tights, was discOrdant blast
from several horns and weak cheer as
our train from Norfolk pulled into the
of uncertainty aboutit, which seemed -
say, 1--WE are going to try this thing asy
how and see how it Will take Mahone
soon made his appearance coming from MS
carriage and stepped upon the platform OF
the car accompanied by his son, Butler.
Upon sight of him hat in hand, there was
some more cheering, but 1t was very much
restricted in volume and vim. The large
majority of the cheerers were negroes and
a hard looking lot at that. They called
speech" speech" but there was no
speech, the candidate did not propose to
make himself so cheap and as the tram
moved off, he bowed and withdrew to his
coach. This was all the outcome of what
understood was intended to be great
popular outburst of enthusiasm, a regular
gubernatorial send off, which it had been
proposed to work up by placards on the
Streets of Petersburg that day. announcing
the Generals departure that night and
calling upon his friends to meet at the
station and see him off. But the send Off
did not pan out.
1t had been telegraphed ahead that the
s.conuuering hero" was coming and the
loyal were invited to turn out at the sta
lions along the road and give the guber-
Ia4o n,+h octio
ton, and it was evident that every effort
was made to give his journey to the South
west the appearance of a triumphal ION
to Richmond business, but there was no
popular demonstration. The effort in that
line was miserable failure, and only at
Crewe and Burkeville was there any de-
monstration that noticed OF heard of. AT
ceedingly mild type. When the train would
slow up, few negroes with sprink-
ling of whites would hurrah and call for
Malone He would step out on the plat
form, some one would say Gentlemen,
this is General Mahone;" the crowd would
enough OF them to- raise a good yell, Ma
hone would wave his hat and the train
move off and all hands would subSide.
1t was at Burkeville that l got off and
retired with some of the receiving party to
the hotel and heard the black belt Ma
honeites talk Mahoneism.
And Just here | want to put in special
warning to you Valley Democrats. Don't
be over-confident Of victory in November.
The Mahoneites are not enthusiastic but
they are confident of success, just as conf
dent as you are, and when both parties are
so sure of winning, there must be some
elements of uncertainty in the contest.
Ioverheard passengers on the train dis
cussing the situation, and as they were OF
the same way of thinking and did not
know me, there was no game of bluff at
tempted for my benefit. eyes" one man
would say to the other, "Mahone will get
there sure, he's going to sweep the coun-
try" II think so too, he'll be the next
Governor If the Democrats don't cheat him
out of it, ooh Boss Billy is too smart for
that, he can count too and don't you forget
H." Here man from Southwest Virginia
struck in, ''Well, l hope he will get there,
he will make good Governor and | would
like to see him try his hand atsettling that
debt GLOW are your negroes down
here?" ooh they are all right They will
follow Langston all the time, and the
kickers are all with him now and we will
go whoOping." So it was, they were all
of one mind, and they are working, too,
like beavers. Every where down here l
hear of quiet, determined effort and per-
feet organization and it behooves the De-
mOcracy to be wide awake and see that
every voter is brought out on election day.
That will make us safe in the face of the
Black Belt combinations and the South
west organization. Otherwise we may
wake up the morning after the election to
find that things did not turn out as we eX-
pected. 7. c. NJ