The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-08-08
oHeE he WAS THOUGHT INSANE

>---~-v-v--~ -, $50.
oHcE he WAS THOUGHT lAsAHl
How He Came to Voice his Express
ion ''Where VAST, =. ,...,4
At?''
4, 'w
Thomas e. Watson, the Populist nom
inee for the vice presidencyr is-anoth1 e:
instance Of the young man n politics
He is not yet forty years. Gage, hay =.
ing been born in Columbia county, qa.
Sept. S, 1856. He received common
school education and was then sent t.
Mercer university, Macon, Ca At tnt
end of his sophomore year' ne LETT col
lege, probably because of lack OF funds
and for two years engaged IN scnoo
teaching. Afterward he read Jaw IL
the office Of Judge w. R..~~McLaWs, o.
Augusta, Ca, and was Admitted to the
bar, commencing the practice II the pro-
fession in November, 1876. = . -
In 1873 he was married to miss
Georgia Durham, and several children
were the result Of the union.
Mr.. Watsons political career com
menoed in 1882, when he was elected &c
the Georgia legislature on the Demo
cratic ticket. In 1888 he again TOOK
prominent part in politics as Cleve.
land presidential elector for the state al
large.
congress as Democrat, receiving 5,45e
, votes as against 597 votes. cast TOY An
thony e. Williams, the Repuefcan
nominee. He served only one term IN
congress being succeeded by James q
BLACK. who was elected as a. Demo.
GRAFT. Watson having identified himself
with the Peoples Party He also ran
as a Populist for the Fifty fourth con
press. but was again defeated by MT
Black
The various controversies and forensic
wars that were waged by watson
and Black in the course OF their cam
paign form an interesting page IN
Georgia politics. Both OF these con-
testants for congressional honors are
hot-blooded and bellicose, and both are
possessed of that variously defined quar-
ity supposed to be essential to ngnt-
"nerve." r.
A newspaper account of one OF ne
many Watson-Black encounters SO 1ully
sets forth the politics and character OF
Tom Watson, as he is Familiarity caAleo'
that the insertion Of 1t here Is not map
propriate. The article was pit OF CORE
spondence, dated at Charlottesville, Ca
Sept. 8, 1892. Here 1t Us:
!. The joint debate between Tom watson
and Major Black, the candidates Tor con-
gress from the Tenth Georgia district,
opened here today. People came from III
sections Of the state. Special trains were
run. Farmers drove to town from nifty
miles around, some of them making
three days journey to get here.
The debate was he'd under the great
oaks in the yard Of Liberty hall, the
home of the late Alexander II. stephens
A stand had been erected under the
spreading boughs of one Of ther largest
trees. and crowd of 10000 enthusiastic
Democrats and third partyites croWo o
around.
I Mr.. Watson opened the debate and
spoke for an hour. He pitched. into the
Democratic and Republican parties ana
their candidates, declared that the DEM
ocrats had tried to disgrace Alexander
Stephens, as they were trying to disgrace
him, and eulogized himself
Watson attempted several dramatlc e1-
fects. at one time saying that he would
talk If he was killed for 1t, and at another
denouncing as a. reckless and infamous
liar" any one who declared that:he leaned
toward Harrison. = =
He bounded over the Platform, swung
his arms and exclaimed:
der ah1rcA 1nnor
am going to, and my friends have stood
it as long as they are going to. we pave
been called the rag, tag and bobtaiL long
enough. Here where ann exposed to
every man who chooses to make me his
target, I, who have been denounced as
a ,traitor, Judas Iscariot--I say the nal
man who says have betrayed anybody
is a willful and deliberate liar
B As he said this the high stand, which
had become crowded, gave. way sin the
rear throwing a score Of people to the
y ground, but the front, on which the
speaker stood, remained intaft - .si.;s Z.
The crowd had become very noisy
and soon many of them crowded upon
what. remained of the platform. = With
q great crash it gave way and precfpitat:
ed every body on it to the ground, six feet
i !s-.AA
was injured, and Watson, who asS agile
as a cat, lit ON his feet. Quickly he pulled
table from the wreck, jumped Upon y
and cried out: ~ ~ 49,.
.This was an old, weak Democratic
platform but will now speaketo YOU, from
Peoples party platform, and twill
stand like stone WALL
* Then he went ON intimating that un-
less he had followers at all, the ballot
boxes In November the Democrats might
attempt to count him out.
Major Black spoke for an hour and a
half. Mr.. Watson, he said, had arraigned
the Democratic party. He would defend
the party by impeaching the witness
81 would not" said he, consider myself
honest to denounce a party whose COM
mission hold in my pocket.
Then turning and pointing hts finger
In iWatson's face, he said: : :. =
'.Whatever crime or iniquity the Dem.
Bethlehem.
1, IS