Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1894-07-11
THE NEW ISSUE.

iiieh'CAto Vic llCh man Huo Dteu Lne
fashionable issue in popular contests.
Judge Brown has changed the pro.
gramme. 1t is now the poor man, the
old man, the man with the last chance
of his life slipping from his clutch.
With the deeply frazzled and well
abraded art of a certain set of dema-
gogues and Office seekers he pirates
about being a self-made man, thus re.
lieving the Almighty of q fearful re-
s%ponsibility but the concentration of
pathos in his pitiful appeal for votes
lies in his plea of abject poverty.
We have no warrant to go into any
mans personal concerns, but as Judge
Brown has invited the public to a con
sideration of his financial affairs, it is
not bad manners for us to tell what we
may happen to know about them.
Judge Brown was Lieut.. Col, of the
9Th Tennessee Cavalry. On account of
the grave Charges preferred against him
by Col. S. X. N. Patton of the same
regiment, he could not get a muster
out with his regiment at the close of
the war. In '66, through the interces.
sion of Senator Patterson and by order
of President johnson he was enabled
to get a muster out and his pay which
was about $4,000. In 1868 he was pen.
stoned receiving S1,4O0 at the start with
a monthly allowance of $50. This was
twenty six and one half years ago and
up to date he has received near $50, 900
from the Government. He was State
Senator and drew out of the Treasury
in the way of per diem and mileage
about $1,000. In, the last eight years
he received as his salary for Judge 500
600, and his pension payment in that
time has amounted to 1850. During
all this time he has carried on farming
operations quite extensively and claims
to have made it pay handsomely. Or
at least did make this claim almost up
to the time he published an expose of
his abject poverty in the Democratic
newspapers of the Circuit. Whilst he
has been Judge, he has owned one of
the finest river farms in Greene County
and now owns it, and if he is the prac-
teal and successful a~griculturist he
claims to be and which we do not
doubt, he was certainly able to feed
and clothe his family and school his
children out of the products of his farm.
In the last eight years Judge Brown
has had 2 2,SS0 in cold spot cash that
we can count, and as u handsome for
tune for this country $4,000 long be-
fore that which the Government paid
him. In addition to this, he had a
large law practice just after the war.
His minimum fe 3 were up in the hun
dreds, whilst his maximum fees knew
no bo~unds-both sizing the pile of his
clients al near as he could calculate.
Very, very few men in this country
they probably can be counted on ones
tingers-has had as much money as
Judge Brown, and there are thousands,
who have met with serious reverses
and misfortunes and who have had far,
far less, and yet they would never, no
never, humiliate and compromise them
selves by r)strating themselv yes in the
dust and imploring and be~seeching and
begging votes on the score of poverty.
With the means he has had, if Judge
Browns sagacity had been equal to his
apparent frugality he would now be a
bloated bond holder, a Wall Street
banker or the owner of a trunk line
railroad. Thousands of men, with far
less resources and fewer opportunities
have reached these rounds of the ladder.
Judge Brown poor, indeed! Why tho
average best farmers in this country
are not making half the money that
his pension, $50 a month, brings in.
They would gladly trade him the annual
produce of their farms for his $3.50.
Then he would have the produce of his
fine river farm and the proceeds of a law
practice in addition. Why Judge
Browns income without the judgeship
and 1.-The last chance of his lifen gone
forever, would be wealth beyond the
dreams of avarice to multiplied thous-
ands in this country who, without MUIR
muir, complaint or suppliant appeals
for help, are performing the most ex-
hausting drudgeries of toll to maintain
large families and educate their chill
dren. When they hear Judge Browns
Macedonian cry for their help to stay
the going of his last chance, they in
stinctively think Cf his afluent condi-
ton compared to the discouragements
and bitternesses of their own hard lot.
When Judge Brown was elected Cir
cult Judge eight years ago he told the
editor of this paper and other intimate
friends that he was in such circum-
stances, that one years salary, S2, 800,
would pay all his debts. Since that
time his salary as Judge has brought
him 100000 and his pension S2,sSO and
he has had his fine river farm besides.
He has no costly habits, his frugal turn
of mind is proverbial, the simplicities
of his life have passed without the
golden glamour of pomp snd circum-
stance. and tho uenial xuharopca Of