The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-01-16

non poSSum. 4 can eat crow, but not
possum. "A buzzard would be as palata-
bic, for one is a day scavanger and the
other hunts for carrion by night Not
long ago Mr.. Hale told me at Rising
Fawn that his boy caught three on three
successive nights by setting his steel
trap on dead hog in the woods, and
Mr.. Young told me yesterday that the
last one his dog freed was in the car
cass of a dead horse. Now, II ,possuIn
is kept up in a coop or pen for a month
and fed ON decent food, his oily car
cass might be ftten for a scalawag or
a hungry darby. Colonel Gambler in his
letter sings the praises and the oily juices
OF the north Georgia possum, but turns
up his nose at the piney woods breed.
The difference is that dead dogs and
hogs and mules are far between in the
piney woods, and the 'possums can't get
enough carrion to get fat. But 'possum
is just now the political fad, and a poll
tician will eat anything for office except
crow. They don't like that, DR.. Miller
used to say tlnat he could eat crow, but
he didn't banker after it. We college
boys used to have 'possum Suppers away
in the night, but Hansel, who furnished
them, kept them up and stall fed them.
The chief satisfaction, however, was in
breaking the rules and lodging the pro-
lessons and tutors. Jim Warren and
Chess Howard used to give midnight
suppers and pull up the 'possum and
taters in a basket by a rope and take it
in at a third-story window.
Well, the nation has got a slogan, too
Cuba and Hawaii are still on deck as
shuttlecocks, and the game is long and
uncertain. Cuba is fruit that is about
ripe, and ought to be pulled before It
rots on the ground; but Hawaii is as
green as a gourd. Cuba is 400 miles long
and Is near by, and should be purchased
just like we bought Florida from Spain;
but Hawaii is 1000 miles from our Pa
cific coast, and all the islands put to-
gether have not as much area as a single
county in Texas. They say we want it
for coaling station. We have it now
for that, and can keep it during peace;
but it would take all of our little navy
to hold it during war. 1t looks very like
the whole plot Of annexation is a per-
sonal job for few men. They are try
ing to alarm us with the threat that il
we DO not annex it England will. / don't
reckon England wants it very bad. In
case of q great war it would take
good part of her navy to hold it. and the
game is not worth the candle. Our Boor
little navy wont justify US in annexing
anything, and we can't hurry up any
more battleships under the Dingley tar
if and the pension frauds.
England has 10 battleships, 81 cruisers,
6 gunboats, SO torpedo boats and war
steamers-in all 116 keels. The United
States has 6 battleships, Is cruisers, 15
gunboats, monitors and ) torpedo boats
lin all, so keels. How is that for war?
Japan has more war keels afioat than
the United States, and is now the ac-
knowledged mistress of the Pacific
ocean. But we can beat them all in
brag and buster and jingoism. We are
very like the average young man who
lives on his fathers reputation. We so
back a century or so and bank on the
Constitution and the Wasp in the days
of Paul Jones and Decatur. Those were
gloriois victories. but we were fighting
ON the defensive then, and our great
leaders, both on land and sea. were
southern men-Paul Jones was from
Virginia and Decatur was from Mary
land, and old john Adams didn't like
either of them.
But almost everything that concerns
congress new is political iobbery-and
the pension frauds will go on. They
grow bigger and bigger as the years roll
on. The fifty thousand pension lawyers
up north must be kept fat, and they are
organized and know how to control con-
gressmen. Ten dollars from each one
will place half a million IN Washington
and that will purchase fifty votes at
$4,000 a vote. They defy Commission
er Evans and all his efforts to purge the
rolls will be in vain. Wickedness in high
places still prevails, and the wonder is
that the nation survives its corruption
! 44eard some preachers discussing it on
the railroad and one said the wickedness
was so great it was wonder that the
Lord didn't destroy the capital and all
the great cities. But an old Irish
preacher said: No, sir; no sir! the
Lord wouldn't have destroyed Sodom if
there had been ten good men there, and
l am sure there are at least fifty in
Atlanta and nearly as many in Washing
ton and New York"
No, sir, the cities are safe for some
time to come, but it is we'll enough to
keep your eye on a place in the country. |
In 1S41 Thomas III. Benton made a |
great speech in the United States SEN
ate IN which The opposed the grant of
$4,000 to President Harrson's widow
and said: "a new page has been opened
in the book Of our expenditures and this |
new departure taken which leads to the
bottomless gulf of pensions and gratui-
ties" Verify he spoke like a prophet, !
for $2,000,O00,000 have already been
paid and there are now on the rolls near
ly million pensioners and Commission
er Evans finds 100000 additional pend
ing applications. Good gracious, how
we did fight. John G.. Calhoun said in
one of his speeches: "a power has ris
en- up in the government that is great
er than the people. 1t consists of many
interests combined in one mass and held
together by the cohesive power of public
plumber"
20 all this stealage is no new thing
and 1T wouldn't matter very much il it
concerned the north only, but we down
south have to pay big part Of it and
get nothing back. The wonder is that
! We have been able to live. But our COM
fort is the Lord loveth whom He chast-
eneth. We are getting along pretty well
and our people are in better spirits than
they were two or three years ago. They
spent lot Of money Christmas. and
that's good sign. They tell anecdotes
and laugh more and have more little
parties. We were at one last night-my
wife and l. and there was no sign OF
poverty or distress; no 'possum and ta-
ters; no politics. Sixteen of us sat a.
roaInd thA festive hoard ond oop,nonxo