Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-09-12
The ReYerend6D Sam Jones.

from his professional labors for a
length of time Sufficient to give the
Money Devil a friendly lift by meaus
Of an interview furnished to the secu-
lar press. The following is the inter-
view as it appeared in the Globe-Denp-
ocrdt of a recent date:
81 feel sorry for the Democrats. The
Republicans have let them down in a
well and pulled up the ladder. As
long as the Democratic party has lead
ers like Tillman and Altgeld they will
have to take deck passage on the ship
of state. There amt a state-room in
any decent ship that would give them
quarters. They have got to put the
brains in front and couple the brains
to the mouth of the party DR. the Re-
publicans have a cinch on this govern
ment for a hundred years." Mr.. Jones
declared that the people would take a
hand in Georgia and bring forth new
leaders there.
The history of this clerical gentle
man is something unique. Some years
ago he was a Methodist preacher I'M
known to fame, riding a backwoods
circuit. His preaching had certain
peculiarities that attracted the atten-
ton of educated people. His ermon
were neither better nor worse than
those of other ministers of the gospel,
but they were clothed in language the
like of which had never before been
heard from the sacred desk. His die
ton was new to the pulpit. 1t was
evident that he had. fund of sarcasm
aud a very mixed rhetoric. People at
tended his services in order to be sur
prised at the unexpected things he
might say, and to observe the liberties
he might take with the mother tongue.
He had the faculty of so framing his
sentences that they fell just short of
the obscene while they touched upon
the vulgar. Many relished his dis
courses as the seasoned gourmand rel
ishes Frenched duck or tainted hare.
Good Christians generally threw the
cloak of charity over his i~ndecencies
of language on the ground that he was
sincere. Belief in his sincerity was
the only thing that gave him prolonged
prominence before the public. People
went to hear him preach very much as
they go to see the educated pig play at
cards. They thought that his slang
phrases and faulty grammar might con-
ceal a vein of pure gold and not be al
together the expression of a gross ma
ture.
About the years 1885 and 6 he de-
veloped into a sensation. Crowds
fiocked to hear him. Whole pages of
the newspapers were filed with his
limping English and undignifed bill
lingsgate. Men, anxious. for n~otoriety,
paid him the compliment of imitation.
His provincialisms appeared in the
public prints all over the land. He
was often at rich mems tables and sell
dom in the rural districts, unless at a
camp meeting. Prosperity quickly
exhibited the dross of his character.
1t soon became evident that he had
the vanity of a peacock and that he
knew a dollar when he happened to
meet it. He found that his peculiar
methods of reproving sin were a source
of evenu to him. After a while his
drawing power began to fail. The
newspapers devoted less and less of
their space to him. He vas in danger
of being entirely submerged in the
waters of oblivion, when the approach
of the campaign of 1896 enabled him
to regain a portion of his lost notoriety
by playing Judas to the political party
to which he protested to belong. He
came valiantly to the rescue of the
men who carry their souls in their
pocket and who help to swell his bank
account. In that campaign he poured
his evil English and evil epithets upon
the heads of the gallant men who
fought for the man and against the
dollar, who upheld the banner of hui
man liberty against the forces Of or
ganized greed, as rain is poured from
the thunder cloud. Since then the
public only hears from him when the
interviewer picks him up, as in the
above case. What have John P. Alt
geld and Ben. Tillman aver done to
cause them to be rejected from the
state-room of any decent ship? Has
Governor Altgeld been making some
of his millionaire friends bear their
fair share of the burden Of taxation;
and is it this that vexes his righteous
soulp William j.. Bryan, Governor
Altgeld and Senator Tillman are among
the brainiest men in the Democratic
party. 1t is this fact and the further
fact that they are men of incorruptible
integrity that causes them t be so bit
terly hated by his %plutocratic friends.
An honest man who will sacrifice his
personal interests for his convictions
is always an object of detestation to
the servants of the Money Devil. We