The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-06-16

were genuine farmers, too. The hay
seed was plainly visible in their hair,
and they did not seem to care if it was.
Rough, weather-be 4tenfaces andhorny
hands were theirs. They were in dead
earnest. Their earnestness was pathetic.
No lover of his fellow-man could look
over that eager throng of care-marked
men and not be profoundly moved.
They listened eagerly to the dullest
commonplaces that fell from the lips
Of the speaker. They cheered at the
slightest p~rovocation. Looking into
those faces furrowed by care, peering
eagerly up from shoulders bumped and
bowed by the toughest toll, it seemed
to me that I could hear the crackle of
burning passions and faiths beneath
the cauIdron of a coming revolution.
NOT FOR FUN.
They did not come there for fun.
The humorous found little response.
Most of those men looked like they had
quit smiling sometime ago. But they
knew how to cheer, to stamp their feet
and yell until they were hoarse. And
they were not drunk either. They
meant business. They were ready to
stake their lives on the issue. Four
teen hundred delegates from over thirty
States Of the Union were represented in
that earnest throng. Let men ridicule
it who may, it was an impressive
spectacle. 1t was a great convention.
1t was great because the people were
there. People were there who had no
axe to grind personally. People were
there who were not accustomed to at
tend political gatherings.
THE DOXOLOGY.
The tone of the meeting was pro-
foundry religious. They sang. They
prayed. They shouted. They did it
all with fervor. They closed their
meeting with an involuntary burst of
religious enthusiasm in the Doxology,
whose glorious old strains echoed and
quivered from arch and cornice and
ceiling until the great building trem-
bled with it's melody.
CRANKS, FOOLS, DEADBEATS.
There were many incongruous ele-
meDts mingled there. There were
cliques and cults that will be sloughed
in process of time. They were dead
weight, and they are so dead that to
carry them is an impossibility. There
were many cranks and fools and dead
beats, political hacks and bummers-
almost as many as you would find in
one of the conventions of the old par
ties. These we're inevitable. The crank
is always present at the launching of
every new movement. He sits down
on the movement and expects to be
launched himself with his banners fly
ing before an admiring world. The
fool is there because he seeks new fields
and change of scenery from his old
political associates and comrades. The
political hack, deadbeat and hummer
is there because he is everywhere. Yet,
in spite of these potent facts, it was a
great representative assembly. If the
histories we have be true, it was a far
greater and a more thoroughly repre-
sentative body than that which nom
mated Fremont for President.
SENATOR PEFFER's BEARD.
1t seemed to me this convention in
launching the Peoples Party wrote the
preface to a new chapter in the politics
of the nation. And for these reasons
among others:
1. 1t implies the breaking up of the
traditions of a generation. Kansas
leads the way. Kansas led the way
once before. A few months ago Kansas
was regarded as the most bitterly par
tisan State in the Union. Kansas now
nestles beneath the flowing beard of
W. A. PETER. Ingalls,, the silver
tongued charmer of partisanism, is for
gotten. Names that once thrilled the
groundlings fall on deaf ears. The
people have chosen other gods. This
is not an accident. 1t is a logical fact
of profound significance.
TRUTH AND FALsEHOOD.
2. Their platform introduces a new
element into the active politics of
America. 1t is the platform of the
modern Social Democrat. Socialism
throbs in every line of their ~utterances.
Their platform contains much that is
utter rubbish, more that is fundamen-
tally false, some things intrinsically
dangerous to the welfare of society. It
also contains truth enough to overturn
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