The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-03-09

was Illuminating about the schemes
and tricks Of the politicians who han
ser after Office and my mon"ry went
eack to the old know-nothing party
curing the sos, and how the politi-
,ians pulled the wool OYER my eyes
ind invciclcd me in. was young
,hcn and easily fooled. But ! was
,!rcadfully in earnest. for | really
feared that Foreigners were about to
take the country and that Roman
Catholics would eoon get IN power
through the Irish vote and the Span
sh inuuisition be revived and the
,icvil be turncd loose for 1000 years.
And so | joined and they made me an
niccr and gave me "A long sword and ]
guarded the c or and my insignia was
/. white rcgalla with the motto: Put
..onc but Americans on guard to-
night" tell you | felt proud and |
'clt responsible for the preservation
:f political and religious liberty, !
would have fought panthrrs aud wild
ats ard gorillas. In fact. | wanted
20 fight something, for The know
.othing press and know nothing ora
;ors and know-notling preachers had
eot Us aroused to desperation and !
ould hardly keep my hands off al
.rishman when met him in the
-trcct. Every preacher in town Joined
md Brother Caldwell and Brother
stillwcll were made chaplains, aud
;hcy prayed long and earnestly for
ur country and its h%alIowcd institu
:ion>. OH it was solemn and serious.
Gut II night it was proposed to
hose delegates to 20 to Il convcn-
;inn To nominate a candidate for Con
gross and it leaked out that Il man was
20 be nominated who had no mural
standing in the community, but he
was rich and had used his money free
~ and We began To smell Il mice.
About that time Alex. Stephens took
the field against our order and | never
heard such n speech in my life. lie
cvcrlastingly lambastcd our leaders
for trying t fool the people and he
made us Democrats feel as mean az Il
log for ever having fallen into the
trap. Before that i really thought |
was doing Gods service in helping
GOOD patriots to save the country.
Cine dark night | told my wife a lie
about having urgent business at my
rficc and wouldn't be back until late,
very late. and | went ont six miles in
the country to an old mill house on
Silver creek. Iialf u dozen officers
went along with nc and we instituted
a branch lodge NJ in the garnet Of the
old mill and rot. cnvcrad all ever with
cobwcbs and -four, and next morning
my wife got UP First and looked at my
clothes. She ruminated for a minute
and then remarked: Glad to 60 to
mill last night [ see. | didn't know
that the flour was out. For some
time I had been a suspect with her
about this Office business at night: for
every time = know-nothing meeting
was called little t~llrec-corncred red
papers were seen on the sidewalks
about town. and it was noratcd around
that the know-nothings were TO meet
that night. The lei day our wives
compared notes and found out that
mcarly all the ncn had business down
town that night. Can't fool these wo-
men. They don't like secret societies
nohew. A yo,d, faithful wife doesn't
like anything that gets in between her
and her husband. She has no secrets
from him and he ought not to have
any from her. Not long after we were
married | joined a secret society, and
when she yot to leaking over my IN
der garments TO see if the buttons
were all right, she discovered that the
buckles were zone and ! couldn't OK
plain it to her satisfaction. But she
found II from some other woman,
and whenever got Il new pair Of
drawers she asked me il i didn want
the buckles cut Off.
Well, the know-no:hinr party died
early in these parts, for the people
found out that it was Il political
scheme to yet into Office. Just so the
politicians got inte the Farmers Al
lance and took charge Of it and they
got up the ucala platform and i big
subtrcasury scheme whereby great
warehouses were to be built hy the
government in every Congressional
district where the farmers could store
their cotton and corn and oats and
sorghum and potatoes and pumpkins.
and draw money on them and hold