Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-11-28
SOME SOUTHERN PROBLEMS
The South is Parting With Past Traditions
and Has Started on a New Life.
MANY INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS

Believing hat your readers would be
interested in a brief resume of the con-
ditions which confront us in the south,
| ask the use of your columns to pre-
sent my views thereon. l used to re-
gard the weird incidents in Turgees'
Fools Errand, and Bricks Without
Straw" as mere Pigments of the au-
thor's imagination, but they fall far
short of the actual facts as related
to me by participants in the terrible
tragedy which has been enacted almost
without our knowledge ever since the
fateful day at AppamatoX. | have sat
for hours listening to the recital of
scenes of horror which have put my
credulity to the severest test, and were
it not for the fact that the REALTORS were
actors therein, | would be inclined to
doubt their veracity.
Here is one instance out of many. A
gentleman of high standing in New Or
leans, informed me that he had eleven
gun-shot wounds in his body, all of
which We're received in political feuds.
One day this gentleman was walking
along a street in his home city, when
without the slightest provocatiOn, two
men opened fire on him; looking around
he saw an open door into which he re-
treated, at the same time drawing his
pistol; just then a bullet entered behind
his left ear and came out at the back
of the neck; then by a lucky shot my
informant laid one of the assassins dead
at his feet and the other escaped. On
another occasion the same gentleman
was riding in the woods at night, when
suddenly his horse stopped, seeing no
cause for this he sprang out of his bug
gy and found that a rope had been tied
to two trees across the road, just high
enough to trip the horse and probably
throw the driver from his seat. Know
ing that the cowardly wretches were
lying in wait to enjoy his discontinue,
meet him like men, but they declined
the invitation, and he continued his
journey.
An Alabama gentleman who was one
of our speakers, related me many Incl
dents in which he participated, which
made me wonder how he and his fellow
Republicans managed to escape alive
out of such a continuous reign of ter
ror as they passed through for an entire
generation. Nowhere in history can we
find men. aye women, who have given
nobler examples of stern and invincible
devotion to principles as the heroic Re-
publicans of the south. 1t is one thing
to stand by our party in the north,
where in the full protection of the law
men vote as they please, and have their
ballots counted as they cast them, but
it is entirely another matter to vote
ones life in his hand and have ones
ballots either ignored or counted as
Democratic exigencies demanded, with
out hope or expectation of redress.
Among scores of like instances relat-
ed by my Alabama friend, I give you
one. A certain thinly settled district
was noted for abnormally large Demo-
cratic majorities; feeling certain that
these were largely fraudulent, the Re-
publicans sent a committee to watch
the polls: by actual count eleven Dust
men voted, and yet the honest
(?) Judges of election returned a ma
jority of 511. Now presuming that a
Republican candidate for congress in
that district (who was as honestly cleo
ted as Governor Taylor vas in Kentuc-
ky) contested his seat, every Demo-
cratic member of congress north and
south, would vote In favor of seating
the Democrat who was not elected.
With these facts staring them in the
face, it may be asked why the Repub-
Iican national committee went to the
expense of sending speakers south.
There were several s. After IS
year of persistent effort, the indomita-
Die Republicans Of Louisiana have u c
,eeded in securing one representative
,n each election board, this Is a great
point gained as up to two years ago
hey had no representation at all; then
here were three districts in which the
majority was so small as to
rive hope Of carrying them or at least