The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-09-20
OF THAT CONVENTION
JUDGE BENNETT, SECRETARY
COOKE AND MR.. BECKWITH
DROP INTO \ CHAT.
GOLO-BUGS LlKENED TO JUDAS


Judse Bennett Said Their Crime was
FqnaI to that of Judas, who Sold His
Master forsI6 sG-The Conscience of
Democracy at the Convention will
Speak Through the Intelligence of
Democracy, if act Through Its Head
ers.
cit is but the continuation Of the tyr
amy of the divine right of kings
The conversation had been dropped
into in desultory way.
For the speaker, ex-Judge Bennett, OF
Wadesboro, had been rambling along
leisurely, and sometimes brilliantly, from
one subject to another, noting on the
way some contrasts between the genius
of the late artist Elder and the late art
list Brown. Those faces of Brown, and
those conceptions of Elder, specially
those that gave birth to "Appomattox"
and "The Confederate ScoutW
"And, by the bye" continued Judge
Bennett, ''do you know there are only
two of Elders creations Of Appomattox
in existence? One of them, have"
Here the ex Congressman told Of the
potentially and atmosphere Of the
figure of the private in that
picture, and you can see the
tear in his eye, he exclaimed, eff you
come close enough to the picture. When
I get ready to 60 up yonder, where most
of my friends have gone, I have told
them to hold that picture close to me, so
that it may be one Of the last things |
see before | 60, and then / think l shall
leave it to the State of North Carolina,
Judge Bennett was seated, after tea,
in the lobby Of the Marlboro House, talk
ing to Secretary of State, Charles M.
Cooke and Er. B. @. Beckwith, and the
drift of his conversation flowed along in
such gentle and reminiscent fashion as
that which had brought back Elder
and his conceptions, Brown and his sue
cesses a d sadnesses, and, too, J. Madison
Leach came in for pathetic touch
among all those who were talked about.
If Thomas Carlyle were describing
Judge Benefits head he would say
probably that 'it was like the bald top
of mountain with fringe Of fire wood
about it." His brain seems gradually to
have thought the hair down to the edges.
What is left tries to curl and look young,
and to tell the truth, there is nothing
old looking about the hair per Sc, which,
moreover, is made younger looking by
stout growth of well trimmed beard,
moustache, too, Well-trimmed and
square trimmed. And the chin comes
forward with intellectual rather than
physical rasoluteness, though the physi
cal is there plain enough.
The judge wears & pair Of gold trimmed
spectacles which make his eyes seem
darker blue than they really are. They
have that intense, pent up force that
some blue eyes have that lock like bul
lets in pistol chambers, about to
go off: they almost reach you,
at moments Then too the mouth Is
more than frm-it is norvoGsly firm, and
the czanial portion Of the head above the
ear mounts up with a certain vig0r of
command, with memory pronounced IF
phrenology is to be beIieved) and self
esteem large and held almost perfectly
under control only by artistic sense OF
the unfitness of seif-esteem for the most
pleasing results in converse.
But grasp aud energy and quickness
mark the mana quickness often too
quick for his hand, which moves syupa-
thetically, but cut Of time with what is
said. Spaamodic, aiming for the bulls
eye, with hair trigger touch upon
words that seem rot ylriie enough ever
for the thoughts Of the man.
Judge Bennett is some such man as
this, and after the heat waves began to
glimuer well over the gAiney surface of
his dome shaped crown, he burst out in
the spasmodic way noted above: sit is
but the continuation of the tyranny Of
the divine right Of kings"
Judge Bennett, was dwelling primarily
upon the Silver Convention called in
Raleigh for the 25th instant, and secOn7
darby upon the relation of the silver
question to the public veal, and the
rest listened.
But in lull Secretary Cooke said
that he regarded the Convention as re
presenting more the E.o-a- -e-J.menl 81
the people than any bel since 1876.
Yes, said Judge Bennett, the con
yention Will be the conscience of Demo
cracy speaking through the intelligence
of Democracy if not through its
leaders 1t was after this that he
likened gold-bugism to the tyranny Of the
divine right of kings.
His hand jerky upon the knee of
Secretary Cooke, even after his sentence
had come to a close, he continued
"Just the other day." said he, taking
a silver dollar from my pocket, | look I'd
a it and saw upon it 1890 and - hua-
d ed cents'-'uLii. h. eYc'...Al i, and
yet they say that he n.mocratic party
never made the silver collar the unit of
value"
Judge Bennett referred to the fare
well address of Andrew Jackson --''old
Andy-old Fl k)ry," said he, and cited
his onslaught against the turning out Of
paper money aud his advocacy Of gold
and silver money, "and yet these vaga-
bond fnanciers-I call them yagabond
fnanciers try to take from the Demo,