The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-07-16
lCupyriShr by Edgar w. Nye.l

E>o&.s"N -:
REASONING WITH REED.
yards of Mount Katahdin, or in some
clover enameled pasture Of the mighty
Pine Tree State, a great big coarse car
would be born. whose influence would
be felt throughout Europe and as far
back as Rome City, Ind, / would have
hesitated in selecting Maine as site for
my own birthplace
HadI known that there, where benefi-
cent sunshine wooes from its hiding place
the scarlet which mantles to the brow Of
the wintergreen berry, and where the
crystal sap Of the somber spruce tree
comes forth to gladden. the heart and
stimulate the salivary glands of ma
tons vet unborn; that in the quiet of
some hothed of shingles, where the
white birch spool is made, or where the
scream Of the sawmill or the srore of
the shingle mill salutes the balsam bur-
deued air, would spring up, with blood
in his eye and side whiskers on his front
teeth. a cruel and corpulent czar who
would enjoy biting old people. would
have controlled myself and been born
elsewhere.
Maine is the hotbed of progress and
American freedom. Everything in Maine
is free except rum. The work of giving
to the colored man the divine right of
voting, as he was requested, was inaugu-
rated aud. assisted in Massachusetts,,
which was then part of Maine. Free
dom has always been characteristic OF
Maine-freedom to be, to do or to suf-
fer; freedom to be born there and then
go west to grow up with the country;
freedom to remain there and behave
ones self or so away tosome other state:
freedom to fish, cut bait or 60 ashore,
and freedom to utilize her hallowed
precincts as /. birthplace, provided they
be returned in good order as when first
received
It is. then, to me most serious and a
most bitter truth that comes to me now
knocking for admittance at the storm
door of my recently reftted and refur-
nished temple of reason. 1t is the great
SORROW of a lifetime to know that in
Maine, where the only true, deep and
earnest dried apple pie of the great work
aday world was first discovered, there
should arise middle aged czar with
knout in one hand and an OK CAD in the
other, at the end of which is sharp
brad three-foulths of an inch in length.
And what is it to be a czar? Ask of
the blood spattered history of Europe
where you cannot even trust hen to
lay for you a pure and noble egg. Ask
the man whose life is today imbittered
by shivering fears and the chilling hor-
ror that even his own long trusted hens
must be watched lest they insert some
deadly poison in an egg while prepar-
ing it for use. Ask him at night as he
cooks his own supper over a kerosene
oil stove because he dare not trust the
hand of his slave. Ask him as he un-
laces his sheet iron corset and hangs it
Oh chair, or jumps into his Mosler
folding bed and screws the copper COW
erlet down so that people cannot stab
him in the night. Ask him as he runs
his eye carelessly over this column
which am now writing, and then blots
it out by means of his mucilaginoIs
roller and handful Of black sand, re-
grdless Of deep and earnest kick of
our entire list of shocked and outraged
subscribers III bis empire!
This is not i'll the nature Of Il threat,
but il order to lend up to the great ques-
ton whittier are we tending. Is the
time coming when one man is to have the
responsibility US this mighty government
upon his shoulders? Is the day ut hand
when one man will have to be re5pon-
sible and Lave TO personally pay all the
bills of the government? Are we to be
ruled by one lnan who will not even al
low us to tiiNl; a diSrespectful thought
of him without danger of the knoEt:
Think OF the time, dear reader, if it
must come. when 4 nice, pleasant old
gentleman like Mr. Holman, of Indiana,
may become the parent Of a disIcspect-
full thought II: :;;ardlng the cZar. In fancy
can see William now, brought forcibly
along the aisle, clutching eagerly and
yet impotently at the desks and clothing
of members as he is dragged to the desk
of the speaker, with his tongue hanging
out like that of a hunted stag at Il stag
party. Then in fancy see him COM
pelled to remove his Prince Albert coat
and vest, and then remove sufficient Of
his shirt 50 that the czar can get at it
with his knout! Then | hear the loud
and echoing plunk of the knout as it de-
scends upon the spinal xylophone of the
great Objector!
Oh, it is too terrible to think of! 1t is
too sad to anticipate! Let US hope that