The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1897-07-20
A Review.

The campaigncrs are moving steadily
towards the Western parts OF the State.
westward the star OF Empire takes
its way" No new features appear,
McLaurin very seriously defends his
tariff votes; Evans seriously attacks
them; Mayficid makes Il good square
argument in opposition to McLaurin's
record and has some specific to mend
the short comings Of the dispensary;
Irby attacks Ellcrbe for his weakness,
laughs at McLaurin, gals Evans occa-
s~ionally and makes the feathers fly,
ridicules the whole layout, with an
occasional touch of argument as to the
issues sprung by the Quintettc Of
statesmen. The meetings seem to con
tinue small and are attracting little
interest. Public opinion is moulding
slowly-and the indications as yet are
insufficient to enlightcn as to which
way the cat will jump. The great
body Of Democratic voters lie in the
Western Piedmont - ~Spartanburg,
and the satellite counties lying
around them. AS goes the volume Of
voters in these great counties so goes
the great Senatorial plum.
The papers in the State, as a rule,
are notwithstanding the
fence. This, Of course, mn from
there being a field full of candidates.
Now and Their n newspaper hits a
candidate squarely, but as between
the rest no choice is made. You must
read between the lines which way they
are laying their shckcls. The Green
vile News, the Piedmont Daily. makes
no selection, so Of the T~hunderer, Of
Charleston, so OF the Post, an evening
luminary Of Charleston, so of the Reg
lister Of the capital city. The State
speaks out wide mouthed for McLaurin
and SO its evening contemporary, the
Record, each the echo Of the other
and t'other from which is indistinguish-
able. The great weeklie5, the Andcr-
son Intelligenccr, the Abbeville Me-
dunn, the Greenville Mountaineer,
and others of the like ilk we are una.
able as yet to place. In due time they
will place their odds. The meetings
have all been pleasant, but the wire
edge is wearing off and by the time
the speakers reach this latitude, the
campaign will have narrowed dowr
to the real issues and it will be lively
The dog days are here. A foolish
nonsensical suggestion has been urget
Of a combine between Evans, Irby ant
Maytield against McLaurin. But Thu
is plainly absurd. One man could
carry the opposition as well as thu
trio. 1t would look more like an cntr,
OF every man on his own hook with tn,
hope Of each to lead and if he fail tt
get a majority or if nobody get a ma
jority, at least. to be second best anC
in the second and last tug. From tn,
tone OF the country press the co-ntr,
is sounder on the tariff than we haC
hoped for. There is a right stout con
viction that we are all-rcund consum
ers n that We must fight for a low
tariff or as near to Free Trade as We
can g~et-atleast for two generations
until we have manufactures to protect
hllu wv VI " Shi IL VII Icu ulT6 Il Ilds
century to make us anything but con
sumers Of manufactured articles anC
producers Of raw material. Would il
were otherwise.
Dur good readers are entitled to have
a taste of the pepper, mustard, ginger
spices and other condiments that give
relish to the plain every day corn dodge,
style of the campaign. In the way OF
sauce here ia a saucey letter to the
State from Cap. Shell touching CO.,
Irby's reference to him down in Aiken:
TO the Editor OF The State:
I observe in the proceedings of the
senatorial campaign reported from
Aiken that Candidate lrhy in his
harangue at that place, said: "Mavfeld
was poor old Shells baby and Shell
was IL political corpse; so Mayfield is an
orphan" In reply, | will say, that Mr..
Mayield is not my baby" but is the
distinguished son Of a noble sire, a:d is
a gentleman in the truest sense.
The most that | have had TO do in
creating political misfortunes was the
part taken in advancing the possibili-
ties Of a very unworthy blatherskite
and fraud, who for six years misre-
presented the people of South Carolina
in the United States Senate, and his
name il John Laurens Manning Irby.'
1 NAV he Il political corpse" Int
thank God! am not a moral nounte-
back, and to say the least, I nave the
respect and confidence OF all good
christian people wherever known.
The senatorial primary in Laurens
county will determine to what extent
nv political cOrpse haa depaya1 and
how much voters appreciate staggering
swashbucklers.
q. w. SHE'LL.
Laurens, S. G., July 16, 1897.
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