Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1901-02-06


blazing brand and RETAINED the
hearts of it's white people against
the Infamous representation to
which they had long submitted.
Afterwards in Washington be
lived in ths same house with
George Til!man for many months
and in the frank and cordial in.
tercourse of that time grew to
know him intimately - his
strengths and his weaknesses, his
foibles and his sterling merits.
The friendship then contracted
was never effaced, and in 1890
when the two met again on the eve
of B. R. Tillman'G Inauguration as
governors climax which one of
the two had striven hard to pre-
vent-George Tillman saluted him
with clasp about the shoulder
and words as hearty and kindly as
if they he'd never been opposed.
This man was a remarkable
character. In his youth he must
have been fercely passionate, but
in his gray years he held this pas
sion in check and only rarely did
it manifest itself, with CLEAN as
instant as lightning and as soon
suppressed. He had q big head
and big heart. The store of mis-.
ceilaneous knowledge he carried
was prodigous, but he had diff
Guilty in arranging it for uee. he
used to say, my brain is like an.
old lumber oloset; I'veg got every
thin11sii sys4Is1uus,vrtI tnay
on one occasion he spent month
preparing speech OIL the census
when the question of reapportion-
ment.came up in the Forty.seventh
congress, and accumulated pile
of manuscript six inches high;
but when he entered upon his
speech and warmed up to his sub.
jecs he forgot everything he had
prepared and spoke extempora-
neously for hours. Then be sat up
until daylight trying to fit his
ipoken words to hib manuscript,
only at last to give up the impossi.
BILE task in despair. He was very
kindly and very charitable. and
unobstrusive in many good works.
Dnring his service in congress he
exerted himself particularly to
serve those who appealed to him
from Beaufort county, the weakest
in white population in his district;
be remembered, he said, how those
poor people on the coast had suf-
fered during and after the war,
and he would rather help Beau
fort woman to government place
than an Edge6eld politician.
We recall something he said to
us away back in 1882: GIVE got q
brother at home who's a heap
smarter than I am. Did you never
meet Ben? Well you'll hear of
him before many years; he's
studying politics very hard and
when he does get before the public
he will make a hit" 1t was the
irony of fate that the rise of this
brother, to which he had looked
with such confidence and pride,
should be the signal aud the occa-
sion for his own downfall. The
thought of this did did much to
embitter his last years.
Not always a practical man he
was always profoundly thought
full one; man of thoroughly good
heart, he dearly repaid in
silent suffering all errors of his
early life; man of physical and
moral courage, he dared stand not
only against the common foe, but
almost single-handed against Ills
own side, and to fall in the fight
for mental Independence at time
when mental slavery was in de-
mand; a man of great vigor and
spaciousness di brain and of odd
yet winning personal character
istics, George D. Tlllman was a
character LA4que in our public
life. He will be long remembered
and long deplored because he stood
in a troubled time for certain
ideals of character and courage
which all men respect even when
they oppose them.-The State.