Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-08-18
FACTS AND FaNCIES.


The report in THE ENQUIRER of Sat-
urday gave the scenes and incidents of
the meeting rs they appeared on their
face. The facts here related refer to the
current beneath the surface, the wiles OF
the politician-the lively game of bat
tledoor and shuttlecock that is constantly
going on among those who are either in,
or trying to get in, the swim. In every
political contest there are those who be-
lieve that the victory or defeat of one or the
other of the contestants will have IA
vorable or unfavorable effect, as the case
may be, upon their own political standing,
and whether or not they are correct in
such view, they feel inpelled to, aud do,
give full sweep to every resource Of wit,
brains, shrewdness, deception, patriotism
or other attribute in their possession, to
carry their point. 1t is the development
of incidents along this line which appear
to be of at least passing interest.
That the crowd in the courthouse last
Thursday would be for McLaurin, was I
pretty generally anticipated. To foresee
this did not require shrewd guessing.
Evans had already twice been before the
people of the county as a candidate, and
the last time was repudiated. Irby never
has stood high in York, and is generally
believed to stand lower now than ever be-
fore. Maytield was not very well-known,
and what was known of him was not es-
pecially favorable. McLaurin had not
previously been before the people here;
but he had been heard from in congress,
and hundreds in this section had read
his able and patriotic speeches in the
house and senate, and had been favorably
impressed. In almost every section of
the county, therefore, in which the can
didates had been talked about, it had de.
veloped that McLaurin was the favorite,
and that is why people generally antici-
pated the probable composition OF the
crowd.
Evans, too, had friends. Everybody
was also aware of that fact. He has been
factor in state politics for several years.
When he ran for governor in the Reform
primary, he had the benefit of the "wheel
within wheel" machine. After his elec-
ton as governor, notwithstanding the
fact that he disappointed many Of his,
constituents in this section, he managed
to greatly strengthen his machine in this
county, looking forward TO his race for
the senate. Here he drew around him
quite number Of politicians, who con-
sidered it wisdom to link their destiny
with his, and many of these, on account
of entangling alliances then formed, were
naturally expected to continue with him
still. So, under these circumstances, to
anticipate that there would be more or
less division in the audience, was not at
all unreasonable.
One of the most common campaign
tricks nowadays, is the organization of
squads of "rooters." By "rooter," is
meant man who makes it his business
to hurrah for his favorite candidate, and
it is customary to scatter them about
through an audience in squads. The OBJ
ject Of the device is to guard against
cold reception for the candidate, by Civ
ing him what is intended to have thu ap-
pearance of enthusiastic applause, wheth-
er he does anything to deserve it or not.
1t stimulates the candidate, and then it
makes the uninitiated think he has lots of
friends. Well, small crowd of these
"rooters" were organized in the interest
of Evans, and some of McLaurin's friends,
finding it out, got up gang of rooters also
to help him.
But notwithstanding the fact that they
were on hand on either side, ready to do
business, the rooters were at discount.
They scarcely figured. 1t was because of
a development Of the unexpected. The
dramatic withdrawal of Candidate May
field produced all effect that knocked the
rooters off their feet and caused them to
forget what they were there for. All that
Mr.. Mayfi had said was in strong op-
position to McIaurin. 1t had command
ed respect, if not approval. The audience
did not like it much but appeared to be
i'm a mood which was willing to concede
that if he desired to entertain such views,
he had right TO them. 1t was just what
might be expected Of any sensible au-
dience. But when after all this, Mr.. May
field went on and admitted that he had
outrageously slandered Mr.. McLaurin in
regard to the Populism matter, and on
that account and for personal reasons felt
it due to himself to withdraw from the
race, he produced an impression that was
profound. The impression found vent in
a spontaneous outburst of genuine ap-
plause. 1t was the first applause Of the
day. It was not for Mayfield exactly;
but for his apparently generous action,
and il was obvious also that it was based
on deep sympathy for McLaurin. 1t was
80 unanimous, and at the same time so
thrilling, that the organized rooter could
not help but feel that his intended Office
had become useless. For a man to at
tempt to manufacture applause in an au-
dience which knew so well how to pro-
duce the genuine article, seemed ridicu-
lous. Anyhow, it was only to limited
extent that the rO0ter afterward put him
self in evidence. Most Of the applause
which occurred during the balance of
the meeting, had the ring of the true
metal.
The stage at which the rooter showed
up most conspicuously, probably was
during the colloquy between Evans and
Mayfied. When Evans tried to make it
appear that Maytield was reilecting upon
the veracity of either McIaurin or Strait,
the rooters essayed to sustain Evans.
But Maytield's answer was so clear anu
satisiact Try as to elicit another salvo OF
applause from the whole house. This
was soon after repeated with even more
volume than before, and it was then that
the governor resorted to the time-honored
campaign expedient of telling the audi
ence that he could talk as well to his enc
mics as he could to his friends. Had he
tried to pursue the controversy, how
ever, the Indications were that he would
have soon found himself in still deeper
water. With thought, however, he