The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-03-20

pare its present condition with all its
mast. We can find no period of its his
tory which approaches paralelism with
existing conditions. In contemplating and
comparing it we are OVer-powered by
our emotions. The only approach TO it
is the period when Littlclield and the
carpet baggers ruled the State and stole
it's bonds and its revenues. Lttleheld
was chief butler but he ruled and ruin
ed the State with a bold and defiant
hand, and there is something In holiness
that wins popular approval, even When
associated with infamy. lie once mace
a tour of North Carolina after he had
desItOled her and run her Legislature IN
Raleigh on the bar-rOom plan--a free
pass to the bar counter for vote for
a new issue of bonds. He hOnOred this
town by n cOndescending visit. Scala
wags who were under the ban Of social
ostracism, and carpet baggcrS who had,
like horse leach, sucked up all the
local offices including or near to the
county treasury, crowded around him.
When he smiled they haw-hawed, when
he laughed they Wallowcd in the dirt
and beat their sides and abdomen in
aduation. He carried a big stick as q
badge of intimidation. and he lOrded the
town like an old NOrthman with his
sceptrc of dcSpOtiSm. lie brought DIR.
Hood. of the African persuasion, with
him, to herd the negroes Of the town,
and he had the decent white men down
under the scrOwl of the despOt. But
ton Ehringhause got three drinks ahead,
and having his courage as well as his
patriotism warmed up, went up to him
and made saucy comments ON the big
stick that he carried among n peace
full peOple. when Littlefield gathered up
his stick in n martial and threatening
attitude: but if he had struck Button
there would have been the biggest row
i'm this town known to it's history, and
there would not have been a scallaWag
or a carpet Dagger left 10 tell the
story.
But we passed through that period of
agony with the loss of all save honor.
And now the history Of '6S to 40 is re-
producing itself in '96 and '97, in new
edition enlarged. 1t has already taken
away the good name of the historic old
State, and much of its honor and I'M
less the decent men of the State come
together as one man. rouse themselves
like the strong man, the son of kish, In
his unshOrn might, and drive off the
drunken carOusers at the impOus feast of
Dagon. all will be lost. and the old
State, 80 honOred in its history, in peace
and in war, in it's illustrious names, in
it's stalwart sons of the rank and file;
so dishOnOred and full of shame and dis
grace, under the miserable rule of
PARTY that is foul combination of ne
groec; and low white. a combination that
has never done one act to honor or adj
vance the State, but acts without num-
Der to disgrace it in character and to
impede its material progress.
Now, what's to be done[ We are in
a time that the parrot spoke Of in ref
erence to a monkey. It's horrible. It's
infamy is only equalled by the diabOlical
agents of the infamy. 1t is worse than
infamous. 1t belongs to the kingdom of
One who governs the kingdom of the
damned. The Governor makes the vir-
tuous atmosphere lurid with blasphe-
nous imprecatiOns. He appoints office
holders that are a disgrace to humanity,
politically and personal lepers that have
Violated every article of the decalogue.
It's so. The Legislature that came in
with our degraded Governor has added
infamy to ignorance in their enactments,
and have sent to us a code Of enactments
that are such a puzzle that synagogue
of lawyers could not unravel them.