The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1895-08-08
THE COMET
Editorial Correspondence.
'ur Nashville correspondent.

Editorial Correspondence.
From our Nashville correspondent
If the Republicans do not carry Ten
nessee next year it will not be for lack
of most desperate effort. know they
expect to do it. They fear most the
nomination of Bob Taylor by the Demo-
Gratis and they are now laying the same
old scheme to prevent it. l have 1t on
good authority that movement is on
foot to place the mottle-crow standard
in All Taylor's hands again. You know
that this choked off Bob the first tine
and he never would have been a candi-
date but for Joe Pearcy. Pearcy was
sent by the American up to Knoxville
to interview Bob and found him snugly
and cententedly fixed in the pension Of
fee, with big salary and little to do,
and he resolutely refused to listen to
overtures. ALI had already been nomi-
mated, and besides that, Hon. Nat Tay-
lor, the father, was considering the offer
of the Prohis to lead their forlOrn squad.
Pearcy got all around him with plead
ings and persuasiOns, and you know
Pearcy has soft voice and Bob soft
heart. His greatest weakness, or weak
est greatness, lies in his inability to say
Nor and stick to it---and even that
amounts to virtue as he practices it.
! have seen his better judgment yield a
thousand victories to his generous heart.
Pearcy prevailed upon him to defer his
declinaton until next day and then
agree to accept "if' something nobody
ever found OUT, and Immediately Pearcy
swept the eff out of the way by some
kind of logical hocus-pocus and tele-
graphed his consent all over the State.
The next morning Bob said he had slept
on it and had flung away ambition and
announced finally and firmly that he
could not engage in war with his broth
or, and possibly his father. Pearcy pre-
tended to be indignant and held that it
was too late---that it was in every paper
in the State, and made him think he
would be badly compromised II he back
ed down. Pearcy knew the joints in
his armor and cruelty thrust him there
and he fell and bit the apple.
The Republicans now are thinking of
the same game. Pearcy is in South
America. do not know that the pur-
pose is general, but / do know that the
scheme is afoot here, and All is threat
ened. But these Republican pie-hunters
are an uncommonly voracious set, weary
with lingering hunger long drawn out,
and now that there is a reasonable
chance to seize the pie that has so long
eluded them, they are licking their
chops and may have Kilkenny Scram.
BILE for the bare chance. | had Re.
publican to corner me off and tell me
for Gods sake to use my distinguished
influence to keep Bob Taylor out of it
with promise of being permitted tC
''see the goldarndest bear fight you ever
seen"
Benton McMilln is in training by the
allied forces of the goldbugs and coun
ters-in, or by the unsated cravings of al
o'er-leaping ambition. Now, Benton ha
always been counted among the silver
ties, until the silver question became ;
real issue, and then he fell back into
kind Of cataleptic fit of mastery ant
tetanic non committalism and puz
cling neutrality-suspicious., the grea
distinguishing characteristic OF states
manic profundty, and is a hound or
hare as the event may necessitate. IL
has happened to make remarkable rec
ord of gifted silence or sweet evasion
that meant all things or nothing, as yo
please, during the time that the silve
cat has been cutting up didos, and the
he has been mostly in Washington
breathing administration atmosphere
and has been stricken with the illusio
that "the silver craze is dying out" S
industriously iterated by the Josiahite
to hurry on the funeral that he doesn
yet know whether to wear crepe @
dance jig. DO you notice the buoyar
tone of his recent atterances. 1t is til
goldbug battle cry, and fellow ma
shrek it around until he dislocates h
epiglottis without committing himsel
but II the boogers win he can t'poir
with pride" to it, don't you know; an
II they don't win he hasn't said darne
thing. A ten-cent raise in wages in
country blacksmith shop makes him Sc
visions and dream dreams, and an II
crease of dollar and half In the gol
reserve throws him into optimistic jim
jams and he sees great roaring oceans
prosperity sweeping hitherward, and
pre-empts all the corner lots in Utopii
Now, this is not meant in criticism
of the honorable statesman, nor {
brighten the beautiful gold-bragger