The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-26
BLACKBURN AS A CAMPAIGNER.
How He Urges the Cause OF silver on
Biblical Grounds.

Biblical Grounds.
Washington Letter 70 the New Orleans
Picayune.
Col. William Green sterrett. the humor-
ist Of Newspaper row and well known cor
respondent OF the Galveston News. was re-
Gently in Kentucky investigating the fnan-
ciaI contest. These are some OF the i'm
pressions he brought back:
Kentucky is my native land. and like
TO 30 back there occasionally and talk
over public and private affairs with my old
friends. Finance is now the one engross-
ing topic, and the battle between those
giants Of the forum, Carlisle and Black
burn, engages every eye and ear. Black
burn has brought the discussion Of finance
directly TO Biblical grounds Blackburn
says the finance Is a Biblical question.
Kentucky, which is the most religious
state in the union, comedies with Black
burn in this view. Now every politician
is turning over the leaves Of Scripture
To-day in Kentucky the Bible is the cam
paign handbook. Blackburn, as you know,
Is a very eloquent man. l attended several
Of his meetings. He begins all his speeches
the same way. Blackburn Will get up and
say:
Mr.. Chairman and fellow-citizens,
your liberties are in danger
"Of course, every Kentuckian gets ex-
cited at this. They are an ardent people
Kentuckians are, and any suggestion that
a thing they love, like liberty, or a dis
tilery, or a horse, is in danger. will throw
them into fever. Then Blackburn Will
proceed:
Yes, fellOw-citizens, you are ground
beneath the heel Of the despot and led in
chains before the throne Of the tyrant
gold
Now" continued Col. sterrett, eff you
want to carry a Kentuckian TO the point
of frenzy you have only to mention a
despot TO him. Whenever you want to
see a row. or feel a yearning to witness
trouble, just point out a tyrant 10 Ken
tuclSian If there is one thing the people
of Kentucky live for it is do up a despot
every time they meet him. Nero or Cal
igula, would not have stood as much
show as a feather in Gehenna if they'd
come to Kentucky. Blackburn knows
this, and so he talks 'tyrants and 'despots'
to them and rifles them up. But about
the Bible and its present place in Ken
lucky politics.
When Blackburn gets down to busl-
ness in his speech he opens the scriptures
and shows EN- that one of the patriarchs
bought cane and paid for 1t in silver.
There says Blackburn, isn't the
money Of the Bibla good enough for you?
OF Christianity at the behests Of Wall
street? That old father in Israel bought
land In Palestine ana paid for it in silver
1900 years ago, and a money which would
buy real estate in the Holy Land ought
to be good enough to pay your interest
with to the money-leeches of the Bourse.'
AT this sort OF talk every Kentuckian
yells like a wolf. He is romantic and
sentimental, Kentuckian is; full of moss,
and mocking-birds, and religious enthusi-
asm, and Blaokburn's allusion to the BIZ
Bile fetches him every time.
After Blackburn has exhausted the
story Of the patriarch and the cane sale
he comes down to Judas and the thirty
pieces of silver.
I abhor Judas as you do Blackburn
will say, but l ask you to note that the
transaction was on a silver basis. If Ju-
das, in selling our Saviour, could take
silver for him, 1t ought to be good enough
for the plutocrats and 10 per centers, who
are slowly eating out our hearts with
their extortionsf -.c .a q1-
IT'S fact" went on Col. Sterrett.
blackburn had the goldbugs on the run.
They couldn't stand the pace. When he
pulled the Bible on EN- he had them out
on limb in moment. But along comes
a pretty smart goldbug, who'd been search
Ing the scriptures, and he finds a place
where the Good Book said: Silver is
dross.
This was an upper-cut for Blackburn.
1t wouldn't have floored him If a preacher
hadn't explained from his pulpit that sill
YER in the text was fgurative and meant
money all kinds of money. Its use in this
connection could not be taken as an
attack on silver specifically. This broke
the force of what the silver people would
otherwise have found was a hard jolt.
Just as l came away however" said
Col Sterrett the gold orators had learn
ed that the streets of heaven were paved
with gold.
There they were crying, doesn't
that sound significant? Don't you sup
pose that the Great Architect of the uni
verse would use the best and richest met
al to pave heaven with? If silver was
better OF as good as gold, don't you sup
pose we'd hear something about 1t at this
time as paving material in the New Jeru-
salem? But you see how it Is. They paved
the streets of heaven with gold and we
are at liberty to infer that silver was re-
TESTED az not good enough for the purpose"
Ihats the way they were talking when
! left" concluded Col. Sterrett, and this
timely discovery of gold as the favored
paving material on high was enabling the
gold people to halfway hold their own
against their silver foes"
Outsider: Mr.. .Surplice, why is it that