The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-09-01


Chairman Aver Will Soon Introduce,
"Just Tell Them That You Saw Me-
Gossip About the Powhatan of the
Pee Dee and Other Things Germane
to Wadesboro--The County ConVen-
ton.
Wadesboro, n. c., Aug. 31.-(Spe-
ciaD-Populist Chairman Hal Aver has
introduced a new issue into the cam
paign-Guthrie1 voice. Maj. Guthrie
can sing and play the "pianner" too.
The Major has been afraid to talk this
heretofore. for fear of being mobbed,
but as soon as Chairman Aver discoy-
cred this new accomplishment he came
down here, determined 10 follow up
the shock of Dockery's defiance with
the still greater shock of unthr1e's
voice. Chairman Aver laid his wires
we'll. He waited until night when 1T
was too dark to see the flaws ana
cracks and splits and splinters in his
candidates voice. The parlor was full
of young ladies, all dressed in white,
while Col Dockery sat in his shirt
sleeves rocking away on the old-fasn-
toned long front porch. The old chief
Powhatan of the Pee Dee was cooling
off his collar; it got hot during the
speaking. But the notes from the par
lor came over the brow of the little
town like the caress of a spring morn
ing misfftted in the midst of winter.
For Major Guthrie was at the ''pian-
ner,'' and a. singin' in the parlor. He
said in his speech that he had been IN
Wadesboro some thirty Years ago; the
tavern was near by where he stopped.
There was as much difference between
the tavern now and the tavern then as
there was between the Majors voice
now and the Majors voice then. There
were vines growing about the old tay-
ern. so there were vines elinging to the
Majors voice. The tender little trees
that then grew in front of the tavern
now were rugged and weather-beaten
with seamy bark. The Majors voice
was seamy and hid bark on it too. The
village girls that thirty years ago had
listened to the young Guthrie were
now mothers or grandmothers or old
maids. The Majors voice, also, seemed
to send forth notes which were grand
mothers to the notes of years ago. But
he was singing the same song uanita
though his Juanita of now was not
the same Juanita as the Juanita of
then. But to digress a moment Hal
Aver thought he had discovered am
other Bob Taylor, and determined to
open up another campaign right
away This is to give notice that at all
Il h
RE should be made to give some song,
any old song, in the midLstof his speech.
If Danny Russell thinks the negroes
are sayages. Russell's voice hath
charms to sooth the savage breast.
Major Guthrie is at his best in Juanita;
his voice I'M this opens and closes at
will. All the little bird-notes i'm the
front part fly home to roost in the
last big bass note, which spread its
wings over everything in reach, like
as hen gatheretlh her brood under her
wings. For nearly an hour Hal Aver
kept the Major going, and the young
chairman studied all the faces with the
conviction that he had done a good
thing. Now, it is a question whether
the repertoire is all it ought to be, or
lust what it should be. There was,
ed absence of "Just Tell Them That
You Saw Me-; II Won't Play in Your
Backyard Any More; this would
come in we'll just after
Dockehy's speech; ''They Say
Such Things and They do Such
Things" These and more might be
worked in to advantage during the
present situation. As it is, the Major
In.
on Cell Sit" Sweet Annie of the
Vale" just Before the Battle, Mother"
Let Ne Like a Soldier Die" 1.-THE Ty-
rants Heel is on Your Shore" TENT
in Tonight, Night" all handles as sung
by the Major, but it will do NO harm
for Chairman Aver to hump himself,
and to remember that the generation
now on thirsts for Little Alabama
Coon Mamie, Come Kiss Your Honey
Boy" ''I'll be True to My Baby Boy"
These are merely suggestions. Then
what is the matter with Fifteen Dol
lars in My Inside Pocket, land ''On a
Saturday Night When the ParloT's
Full" Even though Major Guth-
RE fail of his goal, even
though the place he is after will never
know him, even though he wdll
pass from the SIdSG as Il
tale that is told, his voice
will Enger. Next year fragments of it
will be found in the last years bird
nests" among the eggs that failed to
hatch ont. But in that case, he can
take his voice to New York and rent
it to Major Pond at 500 a night for
one hundred nights, like Bob Taylor
did with his fiddle.
X X
As I said, Uncle Dockery was sitting
i'm the front porch in hisshirtsleeyes. He
was talking about crops mostly, and
saving that his cotton had been injured
at least twenty-five per cent by the re-
cent hot weather. The Colonel has
gone back to his big plantation on the
Pee Dee. He did not expect to go out
on his campaign for two weeks yet.
1t was hard to get him to talk about
much except his son Oliver (who stands
abreast with the most promising young
men in the State), who is just barely
convalescing from frightful attack
,f fever .d1lr-iOos which his life wa al