The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1897-02-18
nLLTAsaED wIpHTHssAME sTiCK

one by one the o-calIed middie-of.
the road populis's are showing their
hand. They were loud in their pre-
rentAtions of virtue in the last cam
paign. They@ere 80 yirtuous and Sc
devoted 10 principle that they coulc
not even support the joint electoral
tickets. They prOfessed 10 be such
straight Populists that they could not
vote for any man but true and tried
Populists or for nything that did not
track the Omaha platform, line by line
and letter by letter. Some OF them
frankly admitted that their self
righteous course would help elect
Mckinley, but said they could not help
it-they must stand by their princi-
pies, let the results be what they
might.
One OF the loudest and most self
righteous papers along this line was
the Southern Mercury Dallas, Tex
The editor spent his days in fighting
andmisrepresentiD the National Com
mittee, and in whooping up and en-
d1rsing every wild and foolish thing
that Tom Watson, Chas. Y. Mathews.
Abe Steinberger, Paul Vandervoort,
Il Co. said or did. Present events
have turned a few rays Of piercing cal
cium light on their conduct-cOnduct
which even during the last campaign
IL was charitable to call strange aud
foolish.
Now here comes the Southern Mtr
curry in its last issue rejoicing over
the defeat of a straight Populist for
United States Senator from North
Carolina, aud extending to goldbug
Pritcbard the compliments Of the
season for his victory, won by Hanna'-
Infamous methods. Read the follow
ing paragraph taken from the Mercu-
ry Of February 18th.
j. q. Pritchard was awarded the
Senatorial honors of North Carolina
and succeeds himself In spite Of the
opposition of Mary Ann Butler and
his treacherous tree silver allies.
Now, what does this mean? Does it
not read like an editorial paragraph
from one Mark Hanna's subsidized
sheetst What Mckinley organ could
say anything smaller or more spite
full and partisanS
1t will be remembered that Watson
sent letters and kilograms to Raleigh
encouraging = bolt from the Populist
caucus, and advising the Hanna bolt
ers to vote for Pritchard for Senator,
aud to defeat DR.. Thompon, a strai ght
Populst and the nominee of the Peo-
pies Party caucus. When DIR. Thomp.
son was defeated and Pritchard was
elected, thus giving Mark Hanna,
sherman, and Mckinley majority of
one in the United States Senate, Wat
son went SO far AS to send telegram
OF congratulation.
During the last campaign the few
Watson Populists in North Carolina,
under the leadership of one, G.. Ed
Kestler, tried secretly to elect McKin-
ley, while protesting to be for Bryan.
This same fellow Kestler, backed by
his Watson Populists was down at
Raleigh helping Pritchard and Mark
Hanna and the Southern Railroad in
the Senatorial fight.
There developed during the last
campaign, in every State in the Union
some of this kind and stripe of fellows
who masqueraded as middle f-the-
road Populists because that was the
best way to help the enemy. They are
all tarred with the same stick. We
congratulate the Peoples Party and
the country upon the fact that their
number is small. The people are fast
finding them out. Therefore, they can
do but little more damage. Let the
party in every State make haste to
purge itself of this kind of cattle, and
ten good men from the ranks of the
two old parties will enlist under our
banner and take the place of each de-
serter. This purgipg must be done
elsewhere as it hiss been done in North
Carolina. 1t cannot be done too soon.