The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-10-04
OTHO THE "GAUGER"
Story of the Sad Evolution of
the ''Gideon."
He Has Become Mckinley Office holder and
Accepted lob That 0ffends His
Sensibilties.


columns, Ohio Wilson, the time boss
Populist is now holding job under the
Mckinley administration
Ohio is a storekeeper and gauger, at
salary of 81 a day when he is at WORK
When not at work he gets nothing, ana
he's not at work now.
And thereby hangs tale.
Ohio is having what his fellow store
keepers and gaugers call "a long run
When he was appointed, some two
weeks ago, he was assigned to dlstlliery
operated by man named Joyner, ABOUT
five miles east of Raleigh. Before the INK
was dry upon his commission, Ohio TOOK
charge.
Things wagged along pretty we'll, ap-
parently, for two days, then Joyner az
nounced that he would close down inden-
nitely for repairs. So, at the end OF the
second day the distillery took Vaca-
ton Since this cold turn-down Otho mas
been haunting the revenue department.
waiting for another assignment, while
the Jokes about his "long run are fur
nishing endless fun in grasshopperdem
His two weeks service as a store
keeper and "gouger" has netted him only
"a in money and much annoyance in mind.
Altogether Ohio has faint suspicion that.
he's been made a monkey of, and that's
why his remarks these days are bit
supplementary.
Once upon time the Hon. S. Ohio
Wilson was the original champion Of our
Declaration of Independence, the jealous
keeper of the American Eagle, and the
unwearied defender of the Dollar of our
Daddies.
That was way back in the tertiary Pc
Rod of Populism, when Ohio wore long
tailed coat and q toad stool hat, and Col
Andrews trains stopped at Otho's Round
Knob eating house a-gwine and a-comin-
for Ohio was then Railroad Commits
sioner, and a power in the land.
In those days the very mention of the
yaller metal made the broad expanse Of
Otho's shirt-front Indignantly heave, like
a tempest-t tossed gourd in mill-race, and.
the whisper of McKinley's name causedi
the long skirts of his proud Prince Albert
coat to hold themselves high in scorn and
contempt.
AS l have said, this was years-and
years-ago.
Then Ohio, the once Grand Gideon and
proud lord of an eating house, lost his,
job as Railroad Commissioner, and oh
what change was there, my country
men The trains no longer stopped
a-gwine and a-comin' and the Southern
Railway knew him no more forever The
tails of his coat lost their princely sweep.
his hat assumed less alarming proper
tions and his vocal organs were not doing
business on the same grand scale as of
yore. But as his paraphernalia contracted, Z
his views expanded and after a retire
ment of months, during which he moult-
ed his old views and put on new ones
Ohio comes forth announcing himself
can Expansion Populist."
This was a new and rare bird Of when
the political ornithologist had never
heard. The records of the Audubon So
cety were consulted, but in vain. No
living man or dead ghost had ever seen
or heard of IAN Expansion Populisi."
So the political doctors examined this
specimen with greatest interest and then
wrote in their records:
Expansion Populist: A rare and PEI
culiar bird of prey, found only in Frank
lin county, N G. 1t is a garrulous cor
void. of heavy build, has a small head
and long tail In early life it was a singer,
but now its notes are coarse and discord~s
ant. This bird has a large, massive
mouth by which it is enabled to devour
huge pieces of pie at gulp. Though
a great number of the genus POpuNst can
be found, this is the only species of Eek
pansion" Populist yet discovered"
The revenue ring, as is it's custom III
such cases, took an option on the speci-
men, and again Ohio retired to the seclu-
sion of his home in Franklin county, an
nouncing that he was "out of politics"
5 When he bobbed into view again he
came, like Minerva from the head of Jove,
full panoplied and ready for battle. Me
Kinley' was his watchword and gold
and Imperialism were the terms with
which he conjured. He would deliver
his party into the hands of Hanna and
the trusts; but when some migrate
full Populist demurred at the trade the
erstwhile Grand Gideon shed the empty
honors with which his party had loaded
him. and declared his hands washed of
Populism.
The rest was easy. Did he not have
the promise of a revenue job? True, it
was not a very explicit promise for it
failed to state the nature of the Job"
But why should it? Is not a job a job?
So at last-some two weeks ago-when
the revenue ring rendered the purchase
price of their option by Offering Ohio
stoIekeepers and gauger's place, he ac-
cepted, but added by way of comment:
ITS a d-n degrading business for
man of my sensbilities."