The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-09-26
ARP ON POLITICS.
Bryan Must Be Elected or He win
Quit Talking.
seab Calls Him Uncle Yet = Wriehtls
Platform DIssecscd by the Sage Of
Bartow-wouid Make q Good
Governor Himself.

Only a few years ago the alliance was in
full blast and had its star chamber with
its signs and grips and passwords and,
no lawyer or doctor or preacher need
apply. It rolled into Office a few Lead
ers and schemers and then went into a
state Of innocuous desuetude, as Mr..
Cleveland would say. But it didn't
stay dead. In its dying agonies it gave
birth to a child that had more sense
than its daddy and they named it pop
ulist or the peoples party and invited
us all in. The sta chamber was abol-
ished. The goat was dehorned and
turned out to grass. The'big warehouse
scheme was abandoned. The railroads
and telegraphs were allowed to run on
awhile longer on their own hook, but
theyheldon to the free silver plankwith
a stubbornness that was born of des-
peration. BY and by the southern
democrats and western democrats be-
gan to cry out for free silver and they
cried SO loud and so strong that they
carried Chicago by storm and took the
fort like a cyclone had struck it. Then
came the populists at st. Louis and with
great good sense and liberality said
what is the difference between us; let
us be brethren. You have stolen
platform, but we can all stand on it.
You take the head and we will take the
tail. and together we will Jury these
goldbugs so deep the hand of resurrec~
ton will never reach them. But the
democrats had already attached a tail OF
theirown andnowthe head has two tails
that are wagged by different parties and
it's very annoying, for there is no law
or constitution that allows but one.
And there is the republican party, and
before long there will be a goldbug
democratic party, and SO if this tail
question is not settled the populists will
put up an electoral ticket of their own
with Bryan and Watson electors, and it
will take four electoral tickets to settle
the great question of the next president
and the vice president. That means
Mckinley and Hobart, it seems to me,
for the republicans always stick to their
party. But l reckon the general man
ayers know more about that than l do,
and will arrange about the tails. Ihope
so, for if Bryan is not elected I shall do
like Evan Howell said: 81 will take to
the woods" or 1 will do like Iago said:
al will never speak word more" that is
to say a political word. When the late
war began 1 heard a preacher say in the
pulpit that if the Lord suffered the
Yankees to defeat us he would never
again believe in a special Providence. ]
don't say that, but I have a supersti-
tious faith in Mr.. Bryan's election, and
shall go to bed sick if he is not. / be-
lieve he was raised up to purify and re-
form national politics.
But I was Eliminating about these
populists in our state affairs. 1t hasn't
been so long since Tom Watson sold his
law books and burnt the bridge behind
him because his party said thatlawyers
were not fifteen to hold office or go to
Heaven and were not fifteen to get fifteen.
But now Tom has picked up Seab
Wright, a lawyer in full practice, and is
grooming him for the governors chair
Besides that, Seab has the misfortune OF
being rich, which was another unpar-
donable sin. But now Seab didn't have
to sell his law books like an idiot, nor
take his wife's money out of a national
bank. The fun of the whole business is
that the populists took a democrat for
president and now have conscriptcd a
democrat for governor. Seab Wright
never joined them until after he was
nominated; in fact, I don't know
whether he has joined them yet or not
nor how long he will work in the
harness. For several years he hasn't
been considered a subdued working
democrat. He wasn't well broke and
had to he watched, for sometimes he
bucked like a bronco. But this is in his
favor, for / never admired a democrat
who would go it blind and never kickat
the pop of the party whip. Statehoust
rings and courthouse rings have some.
times to be broken up and it takes {
man of nerve to do it. Butitis funny tc
see the populists hunting around in the
bushes for a standard-hearer. And
they found a good one. like Scab-
everybody does. He was raised in my
town and went to school with my boy
and wanted to marry into my family
connection and call me uncle, and Seal
says everybody was willing but the
girl, and she made a mistake and sale
no when she meant yes, but he didn-
know it at the time and he lost her
But he called me Uncle Bill the othel
day to show his affection. He doesn'
want this mentioned at all. for sucl
things sometimes interfere with doraes
tic felicity.
Seab is smart, bright, handsome
eloquent, another boy orator who vii
make the welcome ring" as a popu
list said in the convention. The,
wanted him bad or they wouldent hav,
let him bring his plank in with him
Seab carries that prohibition planl
under his arm and when he stops t
rest he lays it down and stands omit
1t is a good plank, but parties ar
afraid of it. An anti-prohibition lead
or in our town says it's all right, TO
they nave a ~dispensary in every tow
where a Teller can get purer whisky a
a lower price. There is another planl
about the state providing free schoc
! books. That is the best v~ote-catcher il
the platform, for, as Sam Jones says
paternalism is run mad and al
most every poor man in the land
white or black, wants the govern