The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-07-02
r s, c., July 2, 1895.
TiIIman,s Memphis speech.

The readers of the ADVERTISER know
that the ADVERTISER ranks Tillman
very we'll up in the scale intellectually,
n as q man of some literary accom-
plishments. We have read his occa-
sional letters, his Hundreds of speeches
and thousands Of interviews, with inter-
est, IL not with profit. We recognize
the fact that he is a rich man: q lordly
man; q man of blooded cattle upon a
thousand hills; that he is of blue blood
himself as he boasts and has boosted,
descended in a straight line from the
De Tilghmans that landed at Balti-
more and probably came over with the
lord OF that name. We recognize that
Tillman Is q master of the art of
persuadlng people that they are getting
along mighty sorrily in this world or
that they are not getting along atal,
and that the world is imposing upon
them and robbing and plundering them
of their hourly, daily and yearly labor.
We also accord to him that he has car
ried the masses Of our people with him
and shown first class popular talents,
not to use the other adjective hat us
ually goes with the Graccbi and other
leaders of hat ilk. All these talents
and accomplishments we accord freely
and have uniformly, and we would con-
cede o great deal more upon q pinch or
proper pressure. We have had hopes
h q he would sober down, graduate
himself, descend into some show of
soundness and with practice make q
statesman and do some good work for
hfs'owh reputation, his State and his
country. From his conceded talents
and given opportunities, these hopes
were, we trust, not i'll founded. But we
now surrender; since that Memphis
nSneech all hope is lost. He should have
been~chained, like Prometheus, to q
rock and not allowed to go to Memphis
and make that speech. There is. moth
ing like it existing in type, unless the
Anatomy of Melancholy of old Burton
can be placed side by side with it. 1t
has every thing in it. There is no end
Ito 1t. All the literature of the past and
present is>cr0wded into that two hours
speech as spoken, and ten hours speech
as printed Gle had been to q great
feast of authors and stolen the scraps"
All South Carolinians were familiar
with them as hashed ana rehashed over
and over again. Now the tit-bits are
given to all the world, make common
property, and there will be nothing
new for Benjamin to say when he rises
to electrify the Senate, the Congress,
the nation. There is no reason that he
should ever have halted in his remarks
he might have gone on for months,
yea, Aiken years with thirteen months
inthem. We regret that Tillman made
that speech. His chances for figuring
as q great figure, a coming man, and a
great Carolinian, gone and utterly
done for. Benjamin will find the ut
t%erances of that speech rising up to
challenge him, as spooks in a hundred
frightful shapes, for the remainder Of
his titful career. 1t is q sad duty and
we lament that we must make the
dreary prophecy of the evil days to
come. In after times, under his wide
spreading trees reclining, watching
the clouds from his fragrant Havana,
and counting the long lines of Bour-
bon cattle winding their way gracefully
"o!er the lea," as he reflects upon his
downfall and "that hat ruined me-"
~mournfully, wretchedly must he pull
his hair and mathematics that mon
grel speech to a more mongrel crowd
at Memphis.