The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1899-05-12

The courthouse last Friday even
ing was well Allied with Representative,
Democrats from various portions d
the county, as well as a fair number
OF ladies' from this place and neigh
boring towns TO hear Hon. John NJ
Allen, Congressman from the First
district and candidate for United
States Senator In opposition to Gov
a. j. McLaurin. About 100 voters
were present. Mr.. VIM. s. Woods. in
a neat and appropriate introductor,
speech, presented the speaker to the
audience.
Mr. Allen was greeted by tremen.
dous applause and gracefully bowed
his acknowledgement. He started his
speech with a little joke on a gentle.
man who once introduced him as a dis.
tinguished orator but who had for.
gotten his name. Mr.. Allen then
waded into his subject and incidental.
ly into the McLaurin administration,
and he fairly riddled and ripped up the
remarkable Governor ana his Senate,
rial aspirations. He did not engage
in mud-slinging. He dealt In facts.
1t was the general opinion among his
hearers that II the speech they heard
was ii fair sample OF what Mr.. Allen
had said IN previous occasions. then
the McLaurinitcS have another sin &c
answer for, and il is one that will ad.
NIT Of no denial. He referred to the
Governors proficiency in eating greens
with Il knife and the contention
that the goldbugs and railroad attor.
news were opposed to the Governor
because he was Il railsplittcr.
After arraigning the Governor for
his puerile claims that the goldbugS
and railroad attorneys were fighting
him lie said:
"lf he were here to-day, and | wish
he was, as ] am fond of him, he would
endeavOr to make you believe he was
a victim Of persecution by the gold
bugs and railroad attorneys because
he insisted on the payment of the
railroad back taxes, and gentlemen,
he had absolutely no more to do with
it than | have"
He spoke Of the charges made
against the Governor by Chas. Scott
and SCOTS challenge to disprove the
statement that he, McLaurin had
written the famous Bolivar Demo
craft editorial in which the Governors
Senatorial abilities were lauded be-
You'd the skies. He SAID that the
Governor had treated Charley Scott
very disc0urtcouSly in failing to an.
swer that letter. He paused at inter-
walls to make comments on the edito-
rial, at n time as il in answer to the
statement that as a Senator, McLaur-
In lowered above every man in the
United States Senate, III | am elect
ed to that body ! am willing to admit
that there are others IN the same
class with me, and that do not tower
so far above Senator Hoar, of Massa.
chusetts, Davis and great lights of
the Senate chamber"
Mr.. Allen said that McLauriD
sought to establish the claim that he
was the father Of free silver in this
State, whereas free silver had been
advocated in Mississippi long before
McLaurin was a g%ubernatOrial posi-.
bility. He said that according to Nc
Laurin all the goldbugs who are for
him are good goldbugs, but all who
are for me are bad goldbugs. and they
are prosecuting him. Rcverting to
McLaurin's charge that he is being
opposed on account of splitting rails
in his early youth, he said: II was
born in Mississippi. married Mis-.
woman; my children were all
born in Mississippi. l hope to be
in Mississippi and have more
patriotic pride in Mississippi than to
wish to see such an exhibition of pet
ty demagogism as to make the eating
Of greens with a knife or rail-splitting
an issue OF a mans competency to I'll
high Office in the State of Mississip.
pi."
Mr.. Allen said that he read in a
newspaper that his speeches were
helping to elect McLaurin. lie said
ii this exposure Of McLaurin and his
methods will elect him TO the Senate
he did not want a single vote. He
took the remarkable Governor to task
for overriding the constitution and
other things too numerous to men
tion. He related a story to the effect
that a criminal in a silver community
out West had acknowledged to having
run the gauntlet Of the criminal cal
endar, but confessed to having advo-
Gated the free and unlimited coinage
of silver at a ratio Of 16 to | and on
this account he was acquitted.
McLaurin, he said, had debauched
politics more than any nan ever en-
gagged in public life. Allen said he
went into this campaign to destroy
his influence, the same as he shoulder
ed his gun in the war OF the Confed-
eracy TO do his share OF the fighting
and for what he deemed to be the
duty of his countrymen.
Mr.. Allen was applauded through.