The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-10-17
TIE OUTLOOK.
Sam Jones on the Uncertainty Of
the Political Situation.
He Doesn't Believe There VIII Be Whole
sale Robbery blythe Gold Bugs Nor
wholesale Reputation by
the silver Bugs.

have been more or less disturbed by
what l see and hear as relates to the
culture of Jul great country, know not
how much a d~isordered liver may have
TO do with these forebodings and dis
trustful anxieties at times. Some days
the outlook is gloomy; other days 1
feel that there is a chance yet for our
country. Some days it looks like a
revolution; some days it don't. Some
days it looks like financial disaster and
absolute bankruptcy to the whole
business; other days it looks like com
merce and agriculture and the govern
ment will move on in the even tenor of
their way.
We have now before us three months
of agitation with its declamatory and
infammatory speeches. This is said
to be a campaign of education. If the
blind lead the blind the whole business
will fall into the ditch. After a hun
bred years Of experience with their
succession of successes and failures,
triumphs and defeats, mistakes and
miscarriages, still we survive. I be-
lieve this country will survive McKin-
ley, advocating the gold standard and
protective tariff, can do at least as well
for us as Harrison did the four years
lie was in, though the people may be as
much dissatisfied with him and the
things he advocates at the end of four
years as they were with Harrison and
his crowd. Bryan, with his agrarianz
ism, free silver, ETC., if they should
come into vogue in November by voice
of the people, I doubt if they will ut
terly ruin and disrupt the country.
AS much as / am opposed to the free
and unlimited coinage of silver sixteen
to one,y yet I am sure we have had worse
things than these to contend with in the
past history of this country. lam u
of this fact, our barns are full with corn
and wheat, our fields with cattle, our
pens with hogs. The election of either
candidate will not affect the quantity or
quality of corn and wheat and oats and
cotton and cattle and hogs, and really
these. are the things we live on. We
cannot eat gold or silver, o wear green
backs and clearing house certificates.
1 believe in the personal integrity Of
both Mckinley and Bryan. I believe
the crowd running with Mckinley have
the money, the experience, and largely
the brains of the country on their side;
while Bryan and his hosts have oratopy
and theories and debts and dissatisfae-
ton on their side. No living man can
predict with any certainty the result of
the November elections. It seems that
fusion with the populists is Bryan's
only chance. The. outlook is not first
class for fusion. Ibelieve the pOpulist
party is the most heterogeneous, IN
mixable, anti-stick-together crowd in
the universe. 1 would sooner attempt
to climb a ladder with an armful of cells
and get to the top with all of them as to
try to fuse anything with the populists.
The populists will have the last word
and the last say in every argument, and
are as dogmatic as the old negro preach
er who declared that immersion was the
only true Scriptural doctrine, and look
ing over at the Methodist negroe in
his audience, he said: "You look at me
as much as to ask me how does YOU
know it is, and I tell you OATS none of
your business" lam at this time spend
ing a week at a Methodist camp meet
ing near Boston, Mass. A week ago I
was at the Chautauqua at Salem, Neb.;
a week before that in Louisiana. This
tour takes in a good scope of our coun-
try. The more I see and know, the
less 1 know as to results. Fred Will
liams is stirring up all New England
with his logic and statistics with Sewall
in the procession.
Gordon and Talmage, SO the pa
pers say, have declared for Bryan and
in favor of free silver. Tammany New
York is joining the procession with Hill
and Whitney as dumb as g, dead oyster.
and Mr.. Cleveland off fishing; while
the business interest of our country is
suffering from ocean to ocean. Stock
and bonds going down. Bears to top.
Prices depressed and business almost
at a standstill, but still there is plenty
to eat and wear in the country, and
while the three months of discussion
and education are wearing away, we
will eat and drink whether we shall be
merry or'not.
A stoical will, a cheerful mind are es-
sential in these times. We need to
keep cool; we need to keep down pas
sion; we need to keep in a good humor;
we need to have little to do with the
orator who throws mud and calls all
people bad names who do not agree
with him. Reputation on one side and
robbers on the other, if we listen to the
orators of the day and believe them.
I do not believe there will be whole
sale robbery ON the part of the gold
bugs, mol wholesale reputation by the
silver bugs. 1 do not know what a
change will do for us; / simply know
that most anything will beat what we
have now. We can but swap the devil
for a witch. 1 don't know which is
preferable.
SAM P. JONES.
E-A-A