The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-05-05
TOM BAILEY SAYS RUSSELL
STRONACH SAYS IT WAS PARsoN
LEAK AND HIS CROWD.
a NOVEL ELECTION BET PAID
New Officers to be Sworn IN 'o-Oay.-
Democratic Family OF Ten and
Not an Office.Seeker
Among Them.

This was decided on last night by the
old board of aldermen, and is in accord
ance withthe city ordinaces. The old
board will meet at that hour to see the
new board properly installed and the city
affairs turned over TO it.
there were on the streets yesterday
Everybody was rejoicing in the great
yictory-except now and then Brlndle-
Tail who was not satisfied with the
drubbing he had gotten. Indeed most OF
Stronach's supporters seemed 10 De glad
that he had not been elected.
And he was himself glad. If one may
believe him, for the sun had hardly risen
yesterday before he was out on the street
declaring that he was satisfied with the
result, it relieved him of II great load OF
responsibility that would otherwise have
then been resting upon his shoulders. In
short he intimated that he didn't care II
blank If he wasn't elected anyway; he
was lust running for fun. 1t IS to be
hoped that he got it. That is all there
could possibly have been in it for him.
1t is indeed sad-this awful butchery
that Col Stronach suffered. 1t rends my
heart to think upon it, and yet it was 4
necessary evil. There was no other way
out Of it. But am unwilling to let him
go down to such an early grave unwepf.
unhonored and unsung.
He was dear, sweet child when he
was baby and l cannot bear the
thought Of seeing him forever thrown
over the fence, like a battered scare-crOw
that has served it day and generation,
without shedding tear over his bones
and hanging a wreath of dog-fennel on
his tomb.
AS / have already stated-and l doubt
if so entirel creditable a fact can be stated
too often-the deceased. Frank Brindle
Stronach, was a dear sweet child in HIS
early infancy Then he grew into bright.
boyhood and from boyhOod into man.
hood-as most children of the male per-
suasion do if they live. Wealth, influence
and a splendid vocal plant were at his
command. His prospects were bright and
HIS moustache was a dull red.
But these things, which would have
brimmed the cup of any ordinary mortal
to OVERLOOKING, did not satisfy Col.
Frank b. Stronach. He reached out for
higher for greater things. The horse
leech ambition in his heart cried. Public
life. public lfer' and public life it must
be.
As a school commencement marshal he
had the most daintily curled moustache
and carefully pressed trousers of all his
fellows Next we see him on the Fair
Grounds in the same capacity, the cynos-
ure of all eyes Could any reasonable
man have asked more? Col. +. Brindle
Stronach did And they made him chair
man of the county Democratic Executive
committee Here again he distinguished
himself by letting his party suffer the
most disastrous defeat it had known in
years.
But he liked the job: he wanted to hold
on to IT, He had to be choked off. He
swore he was the true. the only original
and positively the best silver attraction
on the road Nobody disputed the state
ment. though some doubted it, but all
united in electing new chairman.
In-this action of the Democracy, Col.
+. Brindle sighted hostile flag and saw
new light. Like bird about to moult,
he sulked in his tent for
days-did this only original dis
ciple of Organism and the
white metal And 10. when he came forth
he was arrayed in the bright colors of the
gold-bug, and could talk as fluently Of the
evils of an inflated currency and the add
vantages of sound money and the main.
tenance of our national honor as could
the most bloated bond-holder on Wall
street
1t must be remembered. too, that after
depOsing Mr.. StrOnach AS county chair
man, and before his conversion to Nc
Kinleyism, tho Democrats threw him
some sop in the form of an aldermanic
election, 10 act as iniment to his wound
ed spirit. But this balm in Gilead didn't
work worth cent There was no balm:
so the Colonel rebelled, he voted with
the Republicans. he kicked his political
heels as high As II Kentucky mule or q
Kansas P0pulist ever dared to sling their
Tribes. Indeed, he planted II plethora
Of feet III the aldermanic stom-
ach. and then bid it adeu. The
rest Of the board wept copious and scald-
ing tears for this UNDERMINING brave, re-
fusilg to be comforted, but he came not
back again.
Thus it was that for several long
months-of from IS to 81 days each
the city was robbed Of Col. Frank Brin-
die Stronach's counsel and kicks. ! mar
this fact, things managed to wabble
along after a fashion.
Then,with Mephistophelian fattery, his
friends came around him-his Brindle-
Tail friends. They told him how popular
he was, how the people were hunger rim
and thlrstlng to have him rule over them.
1t was all very pleasant and he yielded.
In an unguarded moment he consented
to have himself offered up on the altar
OF PATRIOTISM, an unwilling but wholly
acceptable sacrifice, made in obedience to
the commands of such men AS Peter
Cobb, Hal Aver. Geo Tonnoffski. Jim
Young and A. G. Lehman-men in high
places, all Of them.
They crowned him king Of the Brindle-
Tails. They placed upon his occiput a
wreath Of posies culled from Hal Ayers
famous letter placed in his harp hand
George Tonnoffski's political hymnal and
around his neck garland Of Republican
ism, in which Jim Young was the bright
L..