Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1895-03-01
FRIDAY MORNING, MAR. I. 1895

A. 8. MORTON.
FRIDAY MORNING. MAR. !. 1895.
THE PASSING OF THE LONG HAIR
ED DELEGATE.
To an observant journalist in Virginia
State conventions and assemblies, there is
nothing more noticeable than the passing
away of the Long Haired Delegate. If he
appears at all it is as curiosity. The dele
gate with the short hair, cutaway coat and
chippery NOW then let's hurry through y
air has taken bis place. He was the essence
of the old times, with his hair flowing
down to his shoulders, neatly oiled, turned
under and parted far down on the side. and
his shining frock coat, with it's greasy col
lar, buttoned up in front. The world may
not do him reverence now, but when this
man in other days got mp and said. "Mr.
Chairman" the other long haired delegates
stopped to listen. He had his weaknesses
it is true; he arrived at the convention
with just enough to carry him there; he
was financial terror to the citizens OF the
town in which it was held; he returned to
his friends houses at such hours at night
as gave the impression that the convention
had been holding an all night session; and
when the day of adjournment came he was
much given to effecting loans of $5-tO his
honor be it said he rarely asked for more
to pay his fare home. He had his weak
nesses, we say, but he also had his strong
points. He was courtesy itself; natural
courtesy, the glow Of which was as warm
and natural as the sunset effect Of his
nose. He gave offense to no man, not even
the humblest, and he did not propose
any should give offense to him; for be
was a gamecock, was this Long Haired
Delegate, whether in his own barn yard or
anywhere else. When he was speaking and
another delegate rudely interrupted him be
sat down instantly in silence, a menace that
few men cared to bring upon themselves
more than once. He spoke of the othel
delegate from his county with whom he
had spent many mornings discussing
whiskey and talking politics at the village
grocery, as 'my distinguished colleague
from Blank county," His collar and cuffs
may not have rivalIed the snow after the
first day of the session, for he did not often
bring with him more than one garment of
which they are the annex, but his red ban
flung to the breeze, both in convention and
in bar room.
Bar room! Yes. for we intend to be
truthful about his vices as well as his vir-
tues. He was an impartial man, this Long
Haired Delegate, and divided his time
fairly between the convention and the bar
room. What could this visit to the city
be to him if there were no bar rooms 1t
egate. But you must not confound him
with the bar room frequenters of these
more hurried days. Not for him was the
mad rush, the hurried gulping down OF
whiskey and scurrying out. For him it
was the spoon and glass and sugar, and the
slow mixing and slower drinking of his
own tOddy, during which he discussed the
affairs OF the Nation with other Long
Haired Delegates, often varied with ac-
counts of their sad experience with chips
of various colors the night before. 1t was
this that made the Long Haired Delegate
SO expensive to his friends. But who
thinks Of expense now that he is gone never
to return? Who that has heard him while
mixing his toddy, recall the old times when
he was at the ''Univussity," and how he
missed passing because some professor
want f-yar," a wrong that moved him So
that he was forced to fill his ''glahss'
again; or heard him recite how he came
within one vote OF being nominated for the
House from his county; or how he was
with jim Tandem the very night before
he went out to fight Jack O Lantern-who,
We say, that heard him could regret the
small financial contribution he was forced
to make to keep the Long Haired Delegate
while in town, and to finally get him out
Of town.
The advancing civilization is what slew
the Long Haired Delegate. It first cut his
hair making him a shorn Sampson, and
having made him helpless, proceeded to
dress him in modern clothes. What Julius
Caesar would have been in cutaway coat
and tan colored shoes, the Long Haired
Delegate was in modern clothing. Then
it became disreputable to spend hours in
bar room mixing toddies and talking pol
iticS, and with this his heart broke: he dis
appeared from the walks of men and con-
ventions knew him not. The cold world
may forget him, but it is not so with us.
With all his faults We love him still. That
he knew little, despite the efforts of the
ssUnivussity" did not affect the warmth
of his heart; that he drank too MANY tod.
dies never made him forget the manners of
a gentleman; that he spent other people s
money was equally true with the fact that
other people could spend his when he had
any, and that he sometimes mistook pune.
tilio for punctuality in the matter of re-
paying small loans, is true. But the tact
that he ever made vague and often tipsy
but always honest effort to live up to the
fact that he ''came from the bess people.
sab, always endeared him to our heart.
And it is with the feeling that take him fol-
all in all we shall never look upon his like
again, we lay this humble sprig of mint on
the grave of the Long Haired Delegate.
POOR NORTH CAROLINA.
\ 1t is pretty hard to tell where man is