The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-10-04
All the Fusion Candidates at
Auburn Yesterday,
THEY HEDGE AND DODGE
AND TALK OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
AND FUSION ECONOMY.
LoGE HARRIS IN THE ROLE or BIG Gun
The Crowd Refused to Get Enthusiastic. Ham
Jones Makes Characteristic Speech.
Democrats Make Gains in
Fusion Stronghold.
Fusion Stronghold.


The Wake county mongrel ticket ap
pealed yesterday to the sovereign peopl'
of Auburn township for their suffrage
They did the appealing in the vicinity
of 100 people, of whom about sixty
were negroes. seven Populists an,
twenty-five Democrats, the rest beini
white Republicans. l say the speak
ing was in the vicinity of one hundred
people because a number stayed for ;
few minutes and then went away tc
one or the other of the tive
stores to sit on nail kegs
and white white pine shavings
Some remained in the stores and whitfield
throughout the performances without
once coming near the speakers. few
old-tine darkies sat in front
of the speakers, smoking old
corn cob pipes shining and
redolent of use, but there was a no.
ticeable absence of the ''yes boss" 'dat
so boss and talk white folks which is
usually in evidence and which makes a
crowd of darkies the easiest audience
i'm the world to talk to. The old darkies
sat and placidly smoked and blinked
in the October sunlight that splashcd
in patches of gold foil through the
scraggy limbs of the dwarf oaks under
which the dispensers of eloquence stood.
There was no enthusiasm among either
speakers or auditors. The occasion was
not very suspicious for it in more ways
than one. The wind swept cross-wise OF
the speaker and the spoken-to and his
periods, if he had any, reached his lis
tener in fitful bursts mingled with
swirls of dust. Then too the ticket
was not exactly one to fire the pulses OF
shoot the soul through with patriotic
thrills. Even the ring of old darllies
were dimly conscious of the inucongruity
of it all, and so remained silent. There
is nothing like a fight for principle to
put verve and go into a political meet.
ing and those speakers who referred tc
fusion frankly admitted that so far as
Populists and Republicans were CON
cerned there was no principle involved.
The Popuists who were present
lounged on the roadside directly behind
the speakers and Ham Jones, who spur
round and round like q weather vane
in a variable March wind, was the
only speaker who addressed a word to
them. The rest confined their attention
to the negroes and half dozen whites in
front. The whole ticket was present and
all appeared before the crowd, but only
Loge Harris and Ham Jones made any
real attempt at political speech Guy
barnes walked about all the morning
with book under his arm that looked
like a ledger, and when his time came
he read lot of figures about how
much money was paid out to the various
State institutions, and about how many
people used to vote the Populist ticket
in California and Colorado. Neither he
nor anybody else had the faintest idea
what he was driving at. 10 10 Rogers
faced the crowd with look more watery
and palely vacuous than usual, and said
for ten or fifteen minutes
nobody knew or cared what and nobody
breeches like the spinal ridge of a razor
back pine-rooter and shirt as loud and
boisterous as the wearer, was master II
duu EdiIfu Oul Int 8uDuiudltS
in order. Loge Harris being better
equipped with brains and viscera than
the rest, and pretty well off in the way
OF lungs, made the first speech. Harris
made an exceedingly adroit speech
There is no man in the State who can
discard the truth with greater facility
and more untroubled mien than ]. c.
Logan Harris. Yesterday, recognizing
n, L. L.,
he ignored its existence and confined
himself to saying those things that seem
ed most likely to win votes. and he did
it with depth of sincere belief that his
auditors would not know the difference
that was simply masterful. Knowing
exactly what the fusion crowd are and
what they have done. he calmly pro
ceeded to state that they are and have
done the opposite. 1t was plainly evil
dent then why there is to be no Joint
canvass in Wake this year. Loge Har-
ris is to do most of the talking for the
whole lay ont, and does not wish to be
hampered with facts or with an opponent
who will cast them in his teeth.
Harris began by declaring that he did
not propose to go down in the mud in
this campaign. He declared that all the
Democratic nominees are honest men
and gentlemen. With grNbt JUNCTION he
said I'VE and the PopWfsts propose to
conduct the campaign NJ high plane
this year" After gFeat deal of this
sort of stuff to deeply iMpress his hearers
with the fact that JgNC. Logan would
never, never. misrepresent anything or
anybody perish the thoughtl-he branch.
ed on to State matters. He de
clared that there is but one issue before
the people and enunciated what every
smaller dog yelped after him, viz: That
the Democrats will disfranchise all H.
literate voters il they carry the Legisla.
ture this fall He admitted that the
constitution forbids anything of the sort
but he laboriously evolved a scheme by
which the Democrats would do it any
way and divided his disanisition into as
many points as Scotch sermon. M
illiterate man could possibly understand
his drift and could therefore only accent
it as true-if he happened not to know
Mr.. Harris. snow, what can the Demo
Gratis doT' said J. &C. Logan. pa,lsina
with dramatic effect. Tn the midst Of
the halt one long, lanky old negro rose
from the ground and pointing a six-incf
finger at decrepit bag-of-bones grazing
on the road side, said as impressiyely