The Monticellonian., 1899-11-10


 tie Rock Gazette, tells how he once turned down a company of prominent gentlemen who were disposed to twit him about Arkansas. 1t will be found of unusual interests:
 At the recent state fair in Dallas, Gov Savers remarked in spirit of badinape, sThere are only two persons in Texas who will own they came from Artansas' The party addressed, q prominent citizen of Arkansas, had been invited to Texas to deliver an ad- dress, and he replied: Yes, but gov ernor, when we invite citizen of Texas to speak in Arkansas, he is not inter- rupted, as 1 have been. by jackra ebit race.
 "The writer came from Georgia, his native state, to Arkansas boy, in ls43, and desires here to put on record that in long and varied experience with men and things, he has never seen the day, the time nor place when he was not proud of the state and its people.
 My first visit to Little Rock was in January. 1s46. had letters to some of the citizens of Little Rock, and among them one to F. ". Trapnall, who gave an entertainment to some visiting friends, and l was permitted to be of the party. The impression made on my mind by the gentlemen I met on that occasion is still vivid and distinct, and upon 1t 1 formed my estimate of what Arkansas was, md what it was destined to be. My memory recalls Chester Ashley. Daniel Ringo, Albert Pike and c. P. Bertrand as quartette who sat with others around that hos ptable board, and no one who knew those representative men then-knew them and Sever and Cummins and Fowler and others, their compeers and associates afterward- feel other wise than proud of the state and it's people
 "What Arlfansan who remembers that Chester Ashley entered the United States senate, a statesman full grown and equipped, and as champion of the judiciary committee during his first session. was the peer of any of those assembled there. Sevier, statesman of national reputation, entrusted with the delicate and responsible duty of negotiating a treaty of peace with Mexico: Ringo and English. by their learning and legal attachments, illus. trating the jurisprudence of the state; savant in his investigations into the mystic lore of the past; Hrapnall and Cummings. touching at will the deep est sensibilties of the human heart and holding listening audiences entranced by the power of their matchless elo- duenee; Fowler, the lawyer in the true sense that q thorough knowledge of that altruse and scientific profession implies; the Johnsons, who impressed their personality on the early history of the state for the states upbuildinE and it's permanent good; or, nearer our own time, the peerless Garland, whose
  ion that required it's display, and whose mission it was to go about doing good and blush to find it's fame. What ArkanSan who knew Arkansas as it then was, great in the intellectual en- dowment of it's sons, can feel otherwise than proud of it's people and his slate.
 Not long since 1 visited Savannah, and in that historic city, the conner eial capital Of Georgia, met socially d party of gentlemen, and, as usual. when it was known l was from Arkansas. an effort was made to make the state the butt of jest and ridieule, in which our pronunciation of the states name the Arkansas traveller, and Opie Reid all bore their share. l finally said: Gen tlemen. the statute of limitation has run against that kind of stuff with well-informed people for a generation. l. is the counterpart of the Georgia scenes with you then said: Let us run parallel and see where we stand. Were you aware ef the fact that the democratic leader on the floor of the United States senate and leading member of its greatest and most inn portant committees, k senator from Arkansas, and that he is chairman of the national democratic committee, the most honorable and responsible political position the great democratic party could Eestow? Did you know that the other senator from Arkansas was the senior democrat on the three great committees on appropriations, commerce and public lands, and that he is perhaps the most influential, as lie is certainly the most popular, mem Der of that body? Compare them with the senators from vour empire state, and to the inquiry, where are they in their assignments for senatorial hon ors. echo scarcely makes reply.
 Did it ever occur to you that the leading democratic members of the house on foreign relations, committee selected presumably with reference to it's broad culture and knowledge of punllc aHalls. WAS ueAhoefdl rom Arkansas? That the first democrat on the judiciary committee, al assignment that is guaranty of a high order of legal ability, is an Arkansas Democrat2 That an Arkansas democrat has the eecond place held by the minority on he great committee on appropriations, that he k on conferences, and the sen. ior on the two most important sub- divisions -sundryt civil and fottifica- lions; that an Arkansas man k the first