The age-herald., 1897-11-14
MATT MINOR MAKES .
 A FEW OBSERVATIONS

| up as 10 Wno snail D6 Tecelfeu lHlo eA- elusive circles. The edict has gone forth that the line must be drawn. Some want | to exclude all who are not worth a cer- tain amount of money. This is met with vigorous opposition on the grounds | that the court records will have to be in- vestigated to ascertain how many so regarded monied people have mortgages | on their homes. 1t is argued that this would require a corps of clerks and a brace of legal advisers that would make l things expensive. A man of family may be regarded as wealthy when in fact he | is very much in debt. Society, however, proposes to get down to the meat of it. Get to be worth so much money over and above all indebtedness, otherwise they cannot get into society. Those en- aged in business are going to cut no small figure. Numerous young ladies and young men whose fathers are pro- 1essional men are inclined to look down on others engaged in the various branch es of commerce. Peculiar how some peo- ple dislike those engaged in trade. know absolutely nothing about trade, but I think man who is engaged in trade is as good as anybody else, so long as he behaves himself. If society seeks to exclude this class there would be mighty few people in society in this town. There was a time whsn the aris- tocracy of the south was very hostile to trade. It is hard to tell the difference now between a certain portion of the south and some parts of Massachusetts. Everybody is fin trade. It is the com mercial people who make the world pro- 1,,fI of industries, which gives employma ant to the poor. am afraid society is get ting trlfe too gay. True there are some people who don't aspire to social position, and I have no doubt they are the happiest. Anyhow, the ultra swell people are determined to have the line drawn. If the line should be drawn, I dare say the very exclusive set, so called, would not fill an ordinary sizsd omnibus Too many people in the world imagine they have the bluest of blood in their veins. Lots of the first families boasting about their pedigr;es. Some members of these same families are about the lowest class of people in the country. Many of them are c-mmon drunkards. Others are htghwaymen, and @ still greater part have killed their man." To have killed a man seems to be the highest test of manhood. A community has little use for murderers, yet many of the most distinguished mur- derers cone from the "best famyies.a
 I have been somewhat amused for the past two months in reading Interviews, some of them written by themselves, of candidates for judgsIships throughout the state. Judicial candidates are very vir- tuous at this time, solme of them think ing that the judiciary is too high to de- scend to the level of politics. This is rot of the woist kind. Tlhere are practically two democratic parties in the state of Alabama at the present time. One stands squarely upon the Chicago platform of Hast year, and lhe other inidorses the republican platform adopted at St. Louis, and supplemented by similar declara- ton of a few hundred democrats at h. dianapohis. Politics is going to enter into the campaign. The question now is, Where do these candidates stand? They have got to be on one side or the other. Judge Mcclellan, candidate te for the chief just.ceship, has declared hLmsslf in favor of the Chicago plat tfonm. am told that he supported MT Bryan last year, as he had a per'feict right to do, notwithstand- ing he was cn the supreme berlch. The timid seeker for office is entitled to no consideration whatever. There are some who are candidates now who were not lfriendiy to AIT. Bryan and that wing of the democatio par.y last year, and talked great deal against him and mfany others. These same men who were then judges and now candidates for re- election, did rot hesitate to talk politics when they wanted Bryan defeated. They were not candida tes then. None so vir- tuouss in a. political seEise as they are now. Had no hesftancy then in declar- Ing themselves Doing the straddfing act new. Carrying water on both Shoul- ders. They'll have to come out in the open field and state where they stand. If atm any judge of political move- ments, it is my opinion that the state convention is gcing to rei.erate the prin- lciples of the Chicago platform. and every man who is nominated will be expected to indolSe that document. A man may Have ibeen a democrat all his life. That the people at the present time is this:
  now? Are you a Bryan democrat. or a Mckinley democrat?" There are no Palmer de,nccrats. Palmer was a decoy duck to give some members of the party an excuse for voting flor Mckinley. read a statement in an evening paper yesterday signed by Judge Thomas w. Coleman, who I take f,, after having read his card, is a candidate for place on the supreme bereh. He said he was "a tiamolcrait. I understand he has always been one. What the people want to know is whether Judge Coleman is a Bryan democrat, or Mckinley democrat. He did not make fr plain to the readers. There have been very few instances in this co1rlltry where judges of the high est courts have failed to render decisions contrary to their political views. This alleged virtue of candidates who swell their bellies our. and proclaim that "the judiciary is above politics and that a Ncandidate fowers his dignity in consid- erng political question:" is a fraud