The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-15
CITIZENS CLOSING RALLY.
LEADERS AIRED THEIR VIEWS AND
SCORED THE OTHER SIDE.

tory and Advocated the Straight
Ticket.
The Osborne Citizens wing of the Coun-
| ty Democracy closed its campaign last
night with a rally at the Fheater, after
which the various district clubs marched
10 halls which had been assigned them
| convenient 10 the Court House, where it
! was expected that a large part of the
members would spend the night in order
| to be on hand early this morning.
As II was the last meeting of the cam
raign, efforts were made TO get out a
large attendance and the leaders certainly
had no reason to be disappointed. The
crowds present even exceeded the Liberal
rally Friday night. The Thsater was as
crowded as it could be, which was the
case with the opposition meeting and in
addition there were fully 200 persons on
the stage, which had been cleared for the
occasion. There were said to be from 200
20 300 on the outside who could not get
into the Theatcr.
The rally began with the marching of
the various clubs, including those from
The First and Fourth districts and the
Souihside. According to the statement of
a member of the Fourth District Club this
organization left its hall with 32S men in
line The First District Club was fully
as large, and the Southside organization
made a very good turnout. According TO
party counters there were 1,100 men in
line with the several clubs. There were
three brass bands. considerable red fire
and a number Of transparencies in line,
and the combined aggregation made
very lively scene around the Theater.
There were several hundred tin horns in
the crowd which ADDED very materially to
the noise and confusion.
When Col. NJ. w. Dixon, accompanied by
Mayor Myers, Mr.. Warning Russell, Judge
Twiggs and others, came upon the stage
the crowd gave them an ovation. When
order had been restored Col. Dixon said
that he was so full of pleasure at the pres
ence of the vast crowd that he was hard
ly able to speak Col. Meldrim had said
that there was not any Liberal Club left
and this was evidently true as the Colonel
had broken it up himself. Che Citizens
Club was still in the ring, he said. the
Fourth district had marched down with
over 400 good voters in line while by ac-
tual count the opposition men had only
1f1 from the same district at it's meeting.
Col. Dixon proceeded to discuss the posi-
tons and statements of some of the advo-
Gates Of the opposition, with his opinion
upon their positions. He received the in
dcrsement of the crowd with such ex-
pressions as Good boy Merritt" and
Give 'em =, Merritt" Gel. Meldrim, Mr.
S. b. Adams and Mr.. Harry Willink were
among those who received attention from
the chairman. Col. MeIdrim, he declared.
\ 11 moi Ir-.1 7 M
but had made his own crowd so mad by
his last speech that they had not Invited
him TO speak again. In conclusion he
read the list of nominations, each name
being received with applause.
Mr.. $. L. Lazaron cCngrai ulated the
committee on the wisdom which 1t had ox-
ercised in making its selections and moved
that the meeting give its Endorsement to
the ticket by rising vote. There were
numerous seconds and the mctlon was
adopted with great unanimity.
IF they want to see Willie, they mus.
hurry, hurry, hurry, for he eats them
alive" said Mr.. r. NJ Hitch, the first
speaker on the programme. Mr.. Hitch
paid his attention principally 10 the pri-
mary scheme and said that he guarlnt- ed
that the people of the community woul1
put the seal of their disapptoval upon the
unfair and unjust scheme which had been
put upon them by their votes at tn. y j.
make long race is an old saying" said
Mr.. Hitch, but he thought that Mr.. Ha l.
ridge was too lean and that the race rad
been TOO long. He had been running three
and half years and must be p ETY. VIII
tired cut He took up the ccarse of
"aliens and Fransents," and said that any
man who, for the sake of winning a few
votes, would endeavor 10 array one ele-
ment against another, was an enemy to
any community Such sentiment, he
said, was allen to the growth, progress and
prosperity of the community. Rslerring 10
the primary scheme he said that he defied
any man and particularly any Savaqn h
lawyer TO come before sava nnah audience
and to justify an arrangement that
gives two representatives. to one side and
only one to the ether. The opposition
speakers had not alluded to il. nor had
they endeavored TO uphold 1t. The people
who are lovers of honesty and fair Play
will condemn such dishonest and unfair
methods. Mr.. Hartridge, he saI1, had de-
clared that he would not go into Q primary
that was unfair to Mr.. Osborne. He
ought 10 stick to his declaration and come
down. He drew a contrast between the
two candidates and said that Mr. Hart
ridge was neither as industrious nor as ca
pable as his opponent. In conclusion he
urged upon all to vote the straight ticket
at the election
Mr., j. s. Collins was introduced as one
Oh tne CanNludLeS. Mr.. COINS SAID that
he had been put in the position Of being
the mustard between the Wilhnk and Sui
Ivan sandwich. He thought he had sue
ceeded pretty wei, as the Purging Com
mittee had decided, after erasing one
name, that 1t didn't care to go any fur
Their. Mr.. Collins said that he was in
the race not for his own interest but in
the interest Of his party. He understood
that certain charges had been made
against him by the opposition. Il had been
charged that as president OF the electric
railway he had paid his employees only rs
cents a day. This was untrue, he said
The facts were that the electric railway
had paid its employees $3.50 a day, while
the rival company was only paying $3.50
day Another charge was that he had
favored the doing of the house drainage
work with labor paid at the rate of Loo
q day. on the contrary he had told Mr.
s. Krouskoff. the labor advocate on the
other SIDE that he favored giving the work
TO our own people, even at $l50 a day. as
the money would be spent In the city and
the community would he none the
worse or Mr. Collins said that