The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-09-18
NAMED FOR LEGISLATURE
HE'S BEEN A SoLoN BEFORE AND
MADE A RECORD.
DRANK WHEN HE WAS NOT DRUNK
And Preached When He Was Not Drinking
Drew -Four Dollars a Day and Mileage
for investigating Mrs.
Arlington.

Two questions and answers for consld-
Grafton by the people of Pitt county;
When mother tells her oldest daugh-
ter to mind the baby, and the Oldest
daughter goes off and leaves the work
10 her younger sister, who tells a younger
brother he must do it, and the brother
also goes off and leaves the baby with
the dog. who is to blame that the baby
isn't cared for!
Why the dog, of course.
When a people elect a representative
to the Legislature and he gets gay ana
goes off on a lark, leaving the interests
of his people in the hands of a colleague
and that colleague finds he has as much
as he can do to attend to his own knit
ting and commits TO the whole leglsla-
five body the matters turned over TO nm
nv his festive friend, who is TO blame IL
the people of that county ger nothing thae
they want and much that they don want
from that Legislature?
Certainly it is not their representatives
Perhaps the most surprising political
news of the day is that which comes
laundering up from the county of Pltt:
1.-THE Populists met here to-day to hold
their county convention. The attendance
was very small and there was
an almost entire absence Of the enthu-
siasm that has marked their former con-
ventions. Nomination for representa-
tive being in order, ex-Representative j..
II. Phillips, of trunk riding fame, was
nominated by reclamation"
Now the Rev. Phillips was member
of the Legislature of 1895 and resided
among us some three months, as refer
ence to the records of the police court
here and the accounts of local bar
keepers will show.
But since that time VIC have heard
very little of the anti-prohibition parson
and it seemed only reasonable to suppose
we would never hear of him again. 1t
appears. however that people OF the good
county of Pitt are not willing to allow
their Legislative Tank to hide itself I'M
der bushel or any other common place
vessel
So on last Thursday they met in
solemn conclave at Greenville and named
him as their choice for representative IN
the Legislature. AT least some of them
did: the meagre returns fail to state ex-
actly how many. The inhabitants as a
whole may favor Rev. Juice Taker Phil
lips' return to the legislative halls, or il
may be very small proportion of the
population. But. at any rate, he has
been nominated and the election in No
vember will furnish us the figures.
The Rev. Phillips is not an obscurity.
He has been in the public eye many
times and in the calabOose mJny more.
The police here know him well and when
he comes back. if fortune should chance
to so favor him, they will regard him
with a kindly indulgence similar to that
accorded to the fair members OF the
other-half who happen to stray from the
dry paths of sObriety and fall by the
wayside.
BIT just why the Rev. Phillips IS chosen
at this particular time to lead the fusion
hosts / cannot. for the life Of me, imag-
inc. The newspaper reports of the
convention say it was a Populist gather
ing that nominated the Rev. Phillips. Is
he the best man among them that they
chose him as their representatives Are
there no sober Populists in Pitt county
men who have been sober and stood by
the. principles of the party first, last ano
all the time? If there are, consistency
would seem to call for one of them t.
lead the host forth to battle and theI
make laws for them, instead Of a maj
who stands for nothing but remarkable
ability in destroying moonshine liquor.
We have always advocated the supe
riority of the sober man as a Taw-maker
N,
brilliant, at times as his taked-up con
temporary, and certainly ne is not al
susceptible of nasal establishment o.
decoration, but he is safer steadier ant
less liable to shy at the wrong moment
Nobody watches his zigzag course dowr
the street and says ''What pity" No
body pulls him out of the gutter at nigh
or out Of the guard-house in the morning
He is merely sensible and serviceabl'
fellow, who attends strictly to business
and is content with a consciousness o.
virtue and duty well performed.
Such views may be old-fashioned anC
puritanical. The people of Pitt may no
endorse them. Whether they do or no
is nobobdy's business but their own.
they want to adorn themselves with
volatile and gaudy parson, who insists OF
well and good
As we have stated above, it is a matte
with which nobody except the people o
Pitt can have anything to do, but w
take it upon ourselves to call their atten
ton to few facts cleaned from TIL
previous legislative record of this pas
and future Scion. Perhaps among then
they can find a peg on which TO han
few salutary reflections.
Many a time during his Solonic caree
here did the Pitt preacher disgrace him
self and his constituents by getting o
protracted drunk and appearing in pull
lie in that condition. His duties as
representative were neglected and hi
conduct became a public scandal
Once he sent to the papers n motto
that he would preach Sunday afternoo
in Metropolitan Hall. Everybody is il
vited," he wrote ESPECIALLY ministers.
Some member of the Legislature &C
hold of the notice on the way to til
newspaper office and added: "P.
The Rev. Phillips will preach il he's NJ
too drunk"
But it is not for this that we kno