The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1898-03-01

EYDerienco is q good SchOolmaStef. L
was rumnating about the schemes and
tricks of the politicians who banker after
office and my memory went back to the
old know-nothing party during the Dos,
and how the politicians pulled the wool
over my eyes and iuveigled me in.
was young then and easily fooled. But
] was dreadfully in earnest, for really
feared that foreigners We're about to
take the country and that Roman tatho-
lies wOuld soon get in power through the
Irish vote and the Spanish inqulsltlon
would be revived and the devil be turn
ed loose for 1000 years. And so |
Joined and they made me an officer
and gave me long sword and | guard
ed the door and my insignia was
white regalia with the motto: Put
none but Americans on guard tonight.
! tell YOU | felt proud and | felt reSpOn-
Sible for the preservation OF political
and religious liberty. | would have
fought panthcrs and wildcats and gorll-
las In fact wanted TO fight something
for the know-nothing press and know
nothing oTatonS and know-nothlng
preachers had got us aroused TO desper-
ation and | could hardly keep my hands
Oft an Irishman when | met him i'll the
street Every preacher in town Joined
and Brother Caldwell and Brother Still
we'll We're made chaplains, and they
prayed long and earnestly for our cOun-
Try and its hallowed institutions Oh,
it was solemn and serious. But one
night it was proposed to choose dele
gates 10 go 10 Il convention To nominate
Il candidate for Congress and it leaked
out that q man was to be nominated
who had no moral standing in the COM
lnunity. but he WAS ricn and had used
n
a mice. About that time Alex Stephens
took the field against our order and |
never heard such Il speech in my life.
He cverlaStingly lambaStPd our leaders
for trying to fool the people and he
made us democrats feel as mean as Il
dog for ever having fallen into the trap.
Before that l really thought [ was doing
Gods service in helping good patriots
to save the country. One dark night |
told my wife lie about having urgent
business at my office and wouldn't be
back until late, very late, and | went
out six miles in the country to an old
milihouse on Silver creek. Half dozen
officers went along with me and we
instituted Il branch lodge up in the gar
ret of the old mill and got covered all
over with cobwet4S and flour, and next
morning my wife got up first and looked
1T my clothes. She ruminat"d for
minute and then remarked: Had 10
20 to mill last night | see. | didn't know
that the -four was out" For some time
/ had been a suspect with her about
this office business at night, for every
time a knOW-n0thing meeting was cali
ed little three-cornerer red papers were
.=scn on the sidewalks about town and it
was nOrated around that the know
nothings were 10 meet that night. The
II
found out that nearly all the men had
business down town that night. Can
fool these women. They don't like Sc
cret societies no how. y good 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 hcr. Not long after
we We're married | joined a secret socie-
ty. and when she got TO looking over
my under garments to see if the but
tons were all right, she discovered that
the buckles We're gone, and | couldn'
explain it to her satisfaction. But she
found out from some other woman, and
whenever / got a new pair Of dra wers
she asked me if | didn't want the buck
les cut off
Well th" lnow-nothing party died ear
ly in these parts, for the people found
ont thar il was a political scheme To get
into Office. Just 80 th" politicians got
into the Farmers Alliance and took
charge of II, and they got up an Ocala
platform and big sub-treaSuIy scheme
whereby great warehouses were to be
built by tn" government in every con
gressiOnal district where the farmers
could store their cotton and corn and
oats ana sorghum and potatoes and
pumpkins, and draw money on them and
l.x1, a ,h,. IL a.
price went up. One of the leaders de
clared in a public speech 1T Macon, that
they were going to hold the cotton until
it went TO - cents. and he made the
people believe it. and they rolled him into
congress by a tidal wave. The alliance
looked upon lawyers as suspects and not
tit TO hold office nor tittcn to get tiitten.
and so one lawyer sold his lawbooks and
burned the bridge behind him and joined
tildpOn,S band and swallowed the Ccala
platform, Sub-trcaSury and all, and the
confiding people rolled him into congress.
But he suffered Il relapse in due time and
bought more law books. and now the
HdSt condition Of that man is worse than
ne hl'st- Another lawyer swallowed
ihe platform bones and skin and ran for
congress on it and got awfully beaten
anu anu mas never been elected since to any
'nNe hE the people, and to my opinion
never will be- Ii is inst as old Abe
Lincoln said: You may fool all the
be"ple SOME Of the time, and you may
fool some of the people all the time.
nut YOU can fool all the people all the
time
Now, the common people. the farmers
and mechanics and toilcrs are generally
unsuspecting and credulous. and when
smart. shrewd politician talks sweet
and nice to them they are inclined 10 be-
heVe him. but what lawyer of any pre-
tensions or reSpectability ever believed
Ill the Ocala platform or the sub-treas-