The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-24

EXplonaUlOn-Ihe Other Actors.
The gold standard Democrats held Il
regular love feast ut the city hall last
night The meeting was presided over
by John III. Wright. the high priest of
the Mckinley side show in this city. He
introduced Major Kirkpatrick, of Lynch
burg, who spoke for more than two
hours, laboring hard to convert some
wavering voter to his way of thinking
The audience was not so very large but
that fully rs many more rs were present
could have found seats in the hall, not
understanding the fact that the Roanoke
Machine Works Band had been employed
to stir up enthusiasm.
The speaker said that free coinage had
brought reproach on the Democratic
party. Mention of Cleveland S name was
cheered and Missed both. He attributed
the overthrow of Democracy in 1894 to
free silver and said that the so.calcd
Democrats decided then to ally them
selves with the Populists. He denounced
the free coinage proposition rs II modern
revolutionary movement and one Of the
greatest crimes of the times.
At times it seemed as if the major
would get his points mixed and it was
hard for some of his hearers to draw II
rational conclusion from what he would
say, but ut other times he spoke clearly
and to the point.
He went into discussion of the none
tary history of America and told his
hearers many things they had heard
over and over again. He said that il was
madness to undertake to return to the
conditions previously brought about by
the free coinage of silver, and criminal to
advocate it. He appealed more than once
to the colored members of his audience.
and said that the Democratic party had
turned its back on the country
When he said that he was here TO dis
cuss the free coinage of silver the state
ment was literally applauded. He started
oil by saying that it was the most mon
strcus proposition ever offered by any
sane man. He then undertook to make
point of the Gigantic silver trust
and said that the advocates of free silver
propose to give the silver mine owners
100 cents FOR j3 cents worth of bullion
lie worked himself up to such II pitch of
remuneration that he paused Il moment
and said that he professed to be IA Chris
tian man and the greatest temptation he
had to encounter in these latter DAYS of
his life is to refrain from using cuss
words when he thought of the PROPOSE
tion to rcmonetize silver, rs set forth in
the Chicago platform, which he then de-
nounced as most accurscd thing
This denunciation was met with pro-
longcd Missing. He said that free silver
will drive every dollar of geld out of tine
country. 0.aughtcr.) The major then
i'll his excitement declared that the man
who wants to pay his debts in Il debascd
currency is II repudiationist and ought to
have the manhood to stand up and say
Il am repudiator,' but they were not
honest enough to do il. Such talk, of
course, worked up the free slvcrites in
the audience to such degree that when
he inadvertently mentiond Bryan's name
the building was fairly shaken with an
plause, which became uproarious in its
nature. The mention of Senator Daniels
name was the occasion for another out.
burst of applause from the admirers of
the great Nirginan. The speaker was.
considerably disturbed.
at the close Of his address II. a. ellis.
general foreman of the Roanoke Machine
works, gained the floor and stated that
there were II number of shop men in the
audience, and while there were many of
them free silver men they were all gen
tlemen, and were in no way responsible
Tor the discourtesy shown the speaker
The facts in the case are that Mr.. ellis
hau addressed IL meeting of shop men IN
the nall over the pOstOilice and they had
ADJOURNED to the opera house. Mr.. ellis
had taken Il seat down towards the front
and the shop men We're standing in the
rear. Many of them were warm free sill
yer advocates, and the applause, which
was spontaneous and not confined to any
particular part of the house, was heartily
Joined in by II number of them.
The Times does not uphold the advo-
Gates of the white metal in any desire
that they might have had to interrupt
the rights of free speech, but the whole
matter would doubtless have been avertcd
had Major Kirkpatrick been little more
temperate in his remarks concerning the
opposition.
John Hunter, of Richmond, was then
introduced and he went into Il lengthy
discussion of the silver problem. His mr.
guments consisted in rehash of the
editorials contained in such gold standard
papers as the Richmond Times and
others OF the same faith, was rather tea-
ous,and although the speaker is possessed
of splendid voice, his audience had
dwindled to about fifty people mt a few
minutes of eleven o'clock, when he closed.
DuNal Radford, the gold candidate for
Congress, was present, but did not speak
GREEN GOODS.