The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1896-10-16
BANNEREsOUE.

world of fiction as the report of the
special young man which the Nash
vile Banner sent out to write up"
the Palmer and Buckner affair here
last Wednesday. He says that "a
crowd was waiting at the depot"
and that 1.-The candidates were
greeted again by a crowd at the
hotel"
Even this INSCRIPTIONS newspaper
conscience could not go the extent
of saying "a large crowd" or "a
great crowd" but just "A crowd,
leaving it to the Imagination of his
readers to supply the numbers. Just
how many people it takes to consti-
tute "a crowd" in the mind of this
correspondent, we cannot say, but it
is often admitted that everything is
fair in politics just as it is in love,
and in love it is also said that "two's
company and three's a crowd" Ac-
cording to this estimate then, there
was crowd or two at the depot to
meet the distinguished gentlemen,
and perhaps two or three crowds at
the Bethel House, when these same
gentlemen, with slow and silent
tread, stole noiselessly up to the
hotel.
This correspondent is just as rich
and resourceful when he comes to
the speaking. He adroitly accounts
for the lack of enthusiasm by saying
that the sound-money Democrats in
Maury County "are not very noisy
aud demonstrative, but they are
firm and reliable" While the facts
are that they are not enough to raise
cheer, and are too lonesome to be
demonstrative and it is also eharac-
teristic of pure, lofty, honest and
gentlemanly imitators, never to dis
compose the serenity of their SUI
perior wisdom and position, by so
grovelling and common a practice.
But the finishing touch to this
structure of Imagination is as fol-
lows:
"The business men of Columbia are
nearly all for sound money, but they
are very timid about Expressing them
selves. 1t has been said that an open
advocate of the gold standard would be
boycotted by the free silver people, and
| it is claimed this keeps many of them
from expressing themselves; but they
cannot be kept from voting"
Among all the base and unscrupu-
lous fabrications of this campaign,
this is one of the choicest little speci-
mems. 1t has the pure and unadul-
terated flavor of the Banner; in
other words, it is "Banneresque."
If we did not know that this Was just
the kind of stuff the Banner wants,
we would have thought that this
correspondent had played grim
and CHASTITY joke on his paper. How
the fresh young Banner man, in one
short half day, managed to ingrati-
ate himself into the confidence of
NEARLY all of our business men,"
and confidentially and in a whisper
learn their political opinions, it
is not easy to see; especially when
he had those "crowds" at the depot,
hotel and opera house to look after.
This report to the Nashville Ban
ner is sample of the despicable
methods of misrepresentation,
which is abundantly resorted to by
such miserable journals as the Nash
vile Banner. There is hardly a
coloring of truth in it. The plain
unvarnished facts are that Messrs.
Palmer and Buckner came to Co.
lnmbia Wednesday morning, were
quietly received by some seven or
eight gentlemen, and spoke to an
exceedingly quiet audience in the
Opera House, and that evening they
folded their tents like the Arabs,
and silently stole away"