Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-01-08
EX-GOV. BOB TAYLOR.
THE FUNNY SIDE OF A SUNNY LIFE.
some of the Humorous Incidents Con- nected With His Campaign for Con gress---How a Fiddlins Dem
 ocrat Was Elected in Re
 publican District.

ocrat Was Elected in a Re
 publican District.
 LEwIsBuRG, TENN, July 24, lS94.- It is announced in the papers that Bob Taylor has settled down at Johnson City for the balance of the summer, and is engaged in the prep aration of another one of those gor- geous phantasms of the brain with which he has delighted the public for two or three years past. This will be welcome news to all who have heretofore heard the distinguished gentleman in those delectable per formances known as "The Fiddle and the Bow" and "The Paradise of Fools" two veritable versions Of fairyland, which the author modestly calls lectures. The subject of the production which he now has ill hand, and which s9ill be placed upon the boards early in the ensuing sea- son is "Visions and Dreams;n and without knowing definitely in ad- vance anything of it's character, it is, nevertheless, safe to predict that it will do more to revive dropping spirits and exercise the dull cares Of life than any tariff bill which Con- gress is likely to pass.
 The newspaper announcement above referred to brought to my mind period ia the life of the lee turer when he was not so famous as he is now. That was nearly twenty years ago. He was then simply plain Bob Taylor, a rough and unpublished diamond, unknown beyond the limits of his native county in the mountain wilds of East Tennessee, where the song of the uncaged bird, the babble of the brook that goes on foreVer,th sweet perfume of myriad-tinted flow CTS, growing in rank luxuriance throughout natures vast conserya- tory, were tue inspiration of his waking hours, while the scream of the wildcat and the hoot of the owl made up the lullaby song of his slumbers by night. In a word, Bob grew up amid conditions that were bound to make of him either an ora- tor, poet, or moon-shine distiller; but the influence of noble father and mother prepondera ting in the balance, the world was saved, in his person, two greatest curses ever known-mountain poetry and moon shine whisky. Bob became an ora tor. statesman, lecturer; and in each relation he has blessed mankind.
 The first time that he came into something like general notice was when he made his memorial race for Congress against 4. H. Pettibone in 1878. Pettibone was a distinguished lawyer and a Republican politician,a man of wealth, and considered the best all-round Republican campaigner in the State. Two years before that time he had been an elector for the on the Hayes ticket and made great reputation for his prowess on the stump. His nomina- ton for Congress by the Republicans was considered by everybody as equivalent to his election; and the Democrats simply put cut Bob Fay Tor as a practical joke, relished by none more keenly than Pettibone himself.
 But Bob did not look on it as a joke. On the contrary, he thanked the Democrats for their distinguished consideration and told them that he was going to be elected. That was considered the best part of the joke. The idea of Bob Taylor going to Congress! It was so funny that the people had to hold their sides while they laughel
 Bob's accomplishments were thought to consist solely of a very happy faculty for telling yarns. an extraordinary facility for the fiddle and the bow and a most captivating grace in swinging corners with the mountain girls in d puncheon floor hoe-down. And those were the very auxilliaries upon which Bob eonfi- lently relied to encompass his election. He knew the mountain character thoroughly. His native intuition had taught him that, with the aver age mountaineer, an enlivening song and a good tune op the fiddle would go a great deal farther than the best speech on the tariff Pettibone could make. But how was he to make the canvass and meet the people? That was the perplexing problem. Petit bone was able to go over the district like lord, but if steamboats had been selling for dollar apiece, Bob couldn't have bought a gang-plank While all had the utmost confidence in his integrity, nobody was willing to advance him money to "blow in' on such foolhardy wild-goose chase as that. Bob was not dismayed in the least Walking is good" he