Blue-grass blade., 1890-09-20

its practicability, and a coward
according TO the "codc' of the
coutry in whichI live, / am not
so white-livered as to he afraid TO
maintainn my convictions at any
cost. In the iifty-two years of
my life ! have never had occa-
sion to offer violence to any man.
Any man may call me coward
that wants TO, but though | have
had some "close calls" nobody
has yet seen my face turn pale
with fear, and | can remember in
my own defense that when others
stood back through fear, swan
for a drowning man that | had
never seen before, and when we
got ashore / was almost as near
dead as he was, but l saved him.
1t is embarrassing, in these days
of expensive funerals, for a man
who, like me, has not a life insu-
rance policy, to tell "the truth.
the whole truth, and nothing but
the TRUTH" but until some fellow
scares me worse than | have ever
been yet, that is just what the
readers of The Btode may look
for.
Mr.. Bronston is the recognized
head of that faction of the DEM
ocratic party here which is so far
in the ascendant that the more
moral element of the party are
as impotcnt as if they were Wo-
man Suffrage Prohibitionists.
lie receives their gloritication,
and it is but justice that the vi
carious iniquities of them all
should be laid upon him. Ad-
ded to this is the fact that in the
positon'of Commonwealth's At
torney, the community has a
right to look to him as an exemp-
lar Of private and public morals,
and any obliquity in these that
gets to be a matter of general
repute, whether through the pub.
lie prints or otherwise, is a just
theme of journalistic criticism.
Claiming this as my right,
therefore, | address myself to
this duty in certain features of
his record which are publicly
known.
In a house on East Main Street
in this city, which was of such a
character that it has been, since
then, abated as a nuisance, Mr..
Bronston used a pistol to resist
an officer. lie was at the time,
Commonwealth's Attorney, one
of whose duties is to prosecute
those who carry concealed weap-
Ons.
On another occasion | saw him
and Senator Mulligan occupying
a public room in the Court House
here, surrounded by a body of
roughs, issuing money to buy
votes to elect Mr.. Foushee May
or Of the city of Lexington. I
forget whether it, was a primary
or regular election, but think
it was the former. In this city,
however, the nomination at a
Democratic primay is regarded
as equivalent to an election.
Messrs. Bronston and Mulligan
each had a pistol in an open
drawer before them, and were
paying out the money of Mr..
Foushee to the men who stood
before them, who were to go out
and buy votes with it, with no
more appearance of Conscientious
conjunction than if they were
paying-tellers at one of our hand
some city banks.
The room they occupied was
not rented as a private office,
but is that which is used as q
Chamber of Commerce, and
doubtless it would have been
leld by the parties of the first
oart as against the Chamber of
Commerce or any other body of
gentlemen who may have want
ed the room in which to transact
he business of the county.
| can only remember two of
.he gang that they had around
hem to receive the money. One
was a saloon-keeper, prominent
N politics here, and the other
was the son of another saloon
keeper, and is eihter a man or the
brother of a man who has since
killed IA man in a saloon brawl,
and is now a fugitive from JUS
tice.
Had these gentlemen been en-
gagged in trying to elect a supe-
riOr Democrat over an inferior
one, the case would not have been
SO bad, but they were helping
Mr.. Foushee to beat the Hon. |
Claude johnson, and succeeded
n their purpose.
Lexington is called the Athens
IF the West, and was once the
,radle of learning for all the
Western country. Her colleges
md schools are her chief orna-