The age-herald., 1898-02-06

Yesterday morning there was a meeting of twelve leading populites of Jefferson county held in this city for the purpose of deciding what course they and many of their fellow populists they could in- duce to act with them should adopt Tn the approaching political campaign in this county
 The twelve who were present, and whose names are signe,f below, issued the fol- lowing call:
 To the Members of the Poulite Party of Jefferson county, Alabama: We the undersigned, believing it to be to the best interest of the popuites of Jeff ferson county, hereby unite in a cad for mass meeting or conference of the populist party to be held in the city of Birmingham on Saturday, February 19, 1898, at the court house at Il a. m. We hope to have rep resentaive meeting of the populists of the county for the purpose of mutual discus sion. Each beat shall be entitled to three votes in said conference.
 This meeting is called for the purpose of determining whether or not we will par ticipate in the democratic primary.
 G. w. ELLIS, Beat 16
 NJ C. RAGSDALE, Beat l.
 G. U. BELCHER, Beat 22.
 j. B. MCCORMACK. Beat 2S
 c. P. WARD, Beat T
 R. NJ. INZR, Beat 26.
 T. w. M'DONALD, Beat 13
 w. A J. REED. Beat 13.
 ". F. LAMBERT, Beat 15.
 w H. FITZPATRICK, Beat l.
 NJ A. MCUTCHEON, Beat 1O
 JERE FOUNTAIN, Beat 22
 It is a Surprise
 Tn many respects the call and the names sie.s.s 1 to it is a surprise to those inter estcd in politics in this county. Some Of the signers of the above call have for the past six years been the very synonym of po11ulism and whose names were rarely mentioned except as bitter opponents or organized democracy.
 In this respect their action seems strange. But they argue that there is no longer any cause for the existence Of the peoples' party, claiming that the platforms of the two parties are so nearly alike that to fight over the few differing points is as useless as it is waste of energy. They say the two parties are fighting for almost ex- actly the same prlciples.
 It will be noticed that the above address calls for the meeting on the same day that the Jefferson county democratic executive committee is called to meet Whether they have any idea of influencing the democrats to give them any candidates on the demo- cratic ticket or not, and in other resects giving them a hearty welcome and an easy berth in the ranks of the old party, remains to be seen.
 A Democrats Opinion.
 One gruff old democrat, when asked yes- terday what he thought of the return or the prodgal populists," expressed himself very emphatically "I believe It Is all d-n fake,' said he. "They see that they have no earthly hope of getting any offices, county or state, and they are trying 10 do the democrats for few small offices. They were always the mal-contents Of the party when they were in it, and they'll cause another split as soon as they get in again. It's bad enough for one or two or them to come back, but for the whole lot to come in a bunch is too nauseating dose for me to swallow
 Not all of the populists themselves are in favor of this flop back into the democratic party. It will be remembered that the state executive committee of the peoples party, which met in this city in December, issued a very bitter address to the mem- bers of that party against the democrats. urging them to keep up the fight in munic- ipal, county and state elections, and to fuse with nobody, but "keep straight in the middle of the road"
 Will Put Out Ticket.
 John Shugart, chairman of the county executive committee, stated In an inter- view with an Age-Herald reporter last week that the popusts would put out ticket for some of the county offices, but as to how hot the fight would be made depended on whether the democratic com- mittee adopted the primary or convention plan.
 Osborne B. Collins, an ardent mlddle-of- the-roader, was seen yesterday afternoon by an Age-Herald reporter and asked what he thought of the "bolting populists." "A few of them may return" said he, but