The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-09-25
the ALLIANCE LEADERS.

Congressman Tillman's Great Jaw-bone
Reminds One OF the Ancient Weapon
Used BY Samson.
The Farmers Alliance and its nation
al officers have again been annihilated.
This has been done with almost tire
some frequency of late, but somehow
the alliance seems to need heap of
killing and its national officers appear
to have more than the nine lives of the
traditional cat. Scarcely has the type
been distributed which announced with
q 'Ascare head" its death and interment
in the associated press dispatches Of
yesterday, when it is again needed to
tell q listening world the same old story
for tomorrow. One day the alliance
has died in the throes of internecine
strife in Kansas, then it dies again be-
cause of family quarrels in Texas;
again it is repudiated to death by q
bakers dozen of political farmers at
some out-of-the-way party caucus, and
now it has been smitten by the
mighty jaw of Congressman Till
man, Of South Carolina The alliance
will please take notice that this time
it is dead indeed, dead beyond the
hope of resurrection. South Cardinals
terrible congressman must not be
Knocked by the victims of his extermi-
mating eloquence rising up and making
a laughing stock of him. Having dis
posed of the alliance, Mr.. Tillman
turned upon the leaders of the alliance,
and. if the associated press dispatch is
to be believed, ''made the most scath-
Of <lo%
made in public" We suspect the tele-
graph editors or the compositors have
been taking liberties with the dispatch.
The word ''scathing' probably read
''scurrilous" originally. At any rate,
scurrilous would be the more fitting
word Mr.. Tillman is not master of
invective, but he does the best he can.
He does not know the difference be-
tween invective and clapperclawing,
between strong language and bad lam
guage, and so when he possibly only in
tends to be severe he be-
comes foul-mouthed Whether
this be the fault Of natural
depravity, evil training, defective
education or questionable associations,
the failing is unfortunate and makes it
undesirable that he should speak much
in public lest the moral tone Of his audi
ences shall be lowered. When Mr..
Tilman calls men like Mr.. Polk, Mr..
Macune, Mr.. Terrell and Mr.. Wardal
''a sorry lot" he does not injure them,
but merely advertises his own lack of
sense and inherent untruthfulness; and
when speaking of Mr.. Macune he says
that God Almighty stamped villain on
his face" he simply raises doubts in the
minds of such as have seen Mr.. Macune
of his assailant's sanity or sobrietv; and
when he says that he thinks Mr..
Macune 'took pay from the republican
party" he says what none but hard
ened and utterly shameless falsifier
would be base enough to say. Mr.. Till
man may fatter himself that attacks
such as his will injure the leaders of
the alliance, but he overestimates the
potency of his weapon. Only once in
all history do we read of any damage
being done by a jaw-bone of his partic-
ular pattern, and it required a Samson
to WELD it then. We congratulate the
alliance leaders on being complimented
by the dislike of the baser sort of poll
ticians. of the Knights Of
Labor.