The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-05-05
SHOOK LISTENING FOR THE
CALL.

make the whole course ana come uhuei
tho vre of his heart in mountaineering
time. after what happened yesterday.
Tn the Washington Post Of yesterday is
an onen letter to President Mckinley,
printed in another column, from the
muscular hand of Hon. J. Wiley Shook,
of Pigeon River.
We will not trife over the fact that
Mr.. Shook affects a certain conventional
coolness in beginning his letter, TO the
President"-whereas he knows in ms
breast that the only natural way for
him to have addressed the President was,
Dear Maige"-such things are not ma
terial-for after all the Utmost me- re-
Iations between Mr.. Shook and the
President are too sacred snap to De
Haunted about as if in the mere long
buster of the public prints.
What we rejoice at and are glad at
is that we have citizen through whom
we can get voice at the White House.
Georgia has her Buck.
North Carolina has her Shook.
There come times when such men are
States common heritage. This is one
of the times Let the waters of Nola
Ch,lcky laugh aloud and the hills of
Hanging Dog clap their hands, and
Rhamkatte roar nightly!
hoI of Ia
ago to note the vanishing Of Shocks
name in connection with the Western
Collectorship-tha he loved SO well
Since then, Shook seems to have been a
changed man. Time was when his heart
had the plumpness and comfortable glow
of horse-chestnut of his hills; now.
forsooth, his horse-chestnut seems to have
been roasted in the hot Goals of civil
service to which he and the Mage stand
pledged. Can the Mage consistently pull
his chestnut out without getting his own
fingers burned? With what muscle did
Shook denounee the party of Bryan as
the party Of spoi1s. We do not cautiously
rake up these issues of a gone October.
Were the man lesser one than Shook,
we were but clam. But Shook, whose
voice is the voice Of his mountains, whose
outcry comes now cotemporaneously
with earthquakes, whose seismic emotions
have caused whole neighborhoods to
rock, for Shook to get tumultuous shows
that there is hot stuff within him whose
escape may endanger the fundamental
principles of his party.
But enough Of objective simile-if
Shook would be known, let him be APP
preached subjectiveiy Like California
river, Shook runs deep. The sweet, cool
current of his nature runs underground.
Shook, the outer man, is to Shook, the
Inner, as the sand-bed OF the San Diego
river to the low chanting stream be-
meath.
Therefore. Shook was right thus to adj
dress the President. Although he piolat-
ed one of the commandments of Oliver
Wendell Homes in letting the President
into him by the side-door, what else, pray,
was he to do? Was he to stand or fall
by an audience with the President on
his face, as 'twere? Didn't Walter Hen
ry play that reckless role? And didn't
he fall?
No, Shocks letter has that twilight
plant, to which his face lis stranger, of
those dark-voiced birds Of the mountains
that are evidently in for making a night
of it. Shall we extract a few minor
notes? Is it not Dissertation equal to that
of photographing the human voice?
After referring with tinge of the old
bitterness to the recent defeat of the
Republicans in the Western towns, he
drops back into his real self of triumph
ant sweetness.
Hear the message" SEE he, (which the
wire brings from there ii. e., North Caro-
lina) tonight announcing that victory
has been further adj d to conquest, and
Charlotte, Asheville, and all her best CT
ties have this day passed their NUM-
cipal governments into the hands of the
party of progress and prosperity. IKE
the old, old story, you came to your
own and your own received you not, but
the stranger opened his gate unto you"
What is the matter with that for a
Schubert's serenade? At the brutal risk
of gloating on gloom let us proceed:
"Now, with this light before you, what
may we not ask at your hands?.'
Mckinley may have thus far controlled
himself, but behold upon the brow OF
the Presidents heart the blood beads of
sweat when he reads this:
"Give us of your bounty and our
final perseverance in the good work
of Republicanism is assured"
HE that putteth his trust in me, him
will mot forsake." That line for shad-
ing purposes might have somewhat broken
the jar of the close.