The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1896-02-06
A Disgusting Performance.

An extraordinary ana ui~graCclu
pt rformance was that Of the ont-el ed
man from South Caroline 90 the Il ur
OF the senate today. Mr. Tilmau had
been announced to speak, and he drew
4 large audience Senators and iepre.
sent4tive~ filed ali the cnairs o. D. e
floor and seats were at premium IN
the galleries. But the people had no,
assembled TO hear a Statesman. They
had come with curiosity to behold a
freak They were not dis ,ppuinled.
Senat r Tlman is neither hands me
OF person nor lovely of temper. He is
cat.lked He claws aud rends He
mistakes denunciation for logo As
an orator he may be said to be an ex
treme Southern type. He gesticulAtts
like man playing King Lear He
even executed something like skirt
dance to illustrate one Of hisIancies
AS an elucutioni.t he reminded his
hearers of he Old camp meeting ex-
hnrter style For time his voice an
along deep, low and tremnlous. Then
it was suddenly lifted, with tremen-
dous energy like an explosion OF dy-
Mantle, to pitch about an octave
higher. This style OF giving emphasis
IS tn be absolutely necessary in the
south, or at least in some parts Of it, if
a man would carry his audience with
him. II public speaker does not ex-
plode once in while, after permitting
his voice aud fingers TO vbrate to
gether for brief space, he is not an
orator, and the truth is not in him. 1t
did mar the artistic effect of things to
have Mr.. rilman chant his nouns,
verbs and sd Electives, and then explode
on some poor, innocent proposition
but Mr.. Tilman was after blood, not
artistic effect.
For two hours Tllman ragged and
roAred, aud only one man had he
C ulage 10 interrupt him, and this
m N, oddly enough, WAS old Mr. Hoar
of Massachusetts,. He did not fare
very we'll Tillman came back at him
savagely. There were dozens of sens
tors sitting within Tillman's hearing
Who knew the man ought to be called
down, who felt that to permit him t.
continue with his TRADE was a disgrace
to the senate. But no; one Of tht n
dared to speak. 1t had somehow beer
noised aboutlhat Gilman was All ugl,
/, customer, that he would as soon insull
a man on the floor or cut his hears
out with a knife or strike him in the
face as to take a sip Of wat r. Senator
Hill, who likes to go at almost every
body else, twisted nervously, at times
as if he was about to leap on the QUE
eyed man, but cautiously repressec
himself. So the horrible example, tht
untamed cowboy Of tn most dignifie.
Legislative body on earth, rode up anC
, down, booted and spurred, shootiu,
} off his gun az every one he conf.
) think OF. He talked of northern
l senators who had become millionaire
, through corrupt practices, spoke Of al
lnfs contract which the secretar,
Of the treasury had made, insinuatet
hat the president OF the United State
: had sold himself out for gold, and NJ
one rebnked him No better evidence
could be found of the decadence of th
senate. Ten or twenty years ago h
would have been called to account h
) lore he had uttered a hundred word
An odd incident occurred sllol
before Mr. Tllman began hisIi's {
Y When he came into the sena't ham
: Der the routine business eas unde
: consideration. All eyes W re turne'
} toward the holy terror Of the lowe
: Carolinas Mr.. Tillmaa covered a
E the spectators, and ccA amazed al
within view by rev to bis hi
r pocket and draa lorth-not ST.
shooter, but aroH 'ftAper,which prov
ed to be the y IN ed proofs of his sc
called speech--Wasbington Cor. CHI
5 cago Times-'i Iald.