The Canton times., 1902-03-21
ARP'S EXAMINATIONS.
Tells What He Thinks of the Till
man-McLaurin Fracas.
Says Senior South Carolina Senator
Is a True Man, but Neither Great
Nor GoOd-SOme SchOoItime
Reflections.


body has the right to talk about it..
Tillman did wrong in jumping over
three desks to strike McLaurin.
About one desk was the limit of pro-
priety. Three desks gives man
time to cool and that makes it
against the law to fight. AS to
the time and place, that is of no
consequence now. There was time
in the days of Webster and Calhoun
and Tom Benton and Henry Clay
when the United States senate was
as sacred almost as a church, but
now large majority of its mem
bers got their places by conduct in
finitely more disgraceful than fight
ing. Bribery and corruption have got
so common that man can't get
there without using Il big pile of
money and making lot of prom
ises. Of course, | do not include our
southern senator's, for they haven't
got the money. If we had some mil
lionaires in Georgia, Clay and Bacon
would have to step down and out.
And am not SO disgusted with Till
man for fighting in the senate cham
Der. He had reason to believe that
his partner had received promises,
and | reckon he had. He certainly
had great expectations or he would
not have hoped over to the repub-
licans SO suddenly. Politicians have
to be paid for their votes. Tillman
is true man, but he is not a great
and good man. L admire him for
some traits in his character. He
cannot be bribed or intimidated. He
dares to say what he believes and he
uses his pitchfork with impunity. He
is impetuous and combative, but he
is sincere, and everybody admires a
sincere man. Sincere is one of the
strongest and best words in our Ian
guage. 1t literally means unsealed
without wax-for in the olden times
letters were sealed with wax, but if
it contained no secrets it was not
sealed at all, for wax cost money.
Tillman is a bold, defiant, stubborn
man, but he is not great. a great
man like Webster or Calhoun would
have said to McLaurin: 'Well, sir, if
| am liar, | deserve the epithet. If
am not, then you deserve it, but |
shall not stoop to give it," l wish
we were all that great. This thing
of resenting the charge of lying with
blow is a strange perversion of
propriety. A man may gain his ends
by cheating, swindling, over-reach-
ing, hypocricy, bribery or concealing
liar.
He may break all the command
ments, but don't call him liar,
though that is not in the Decalogue.
All l regret about the fight is that
Spooner did not call Tillman a liar
and get mauled for it before McLau-
rim came in. / want somebody to
whip Spooner. He was the teaser
that brought on the fight and was
delighted that it occurred between
the two South Carolina senator's.
With his party it is no crime to shoot
down 10000 Filipinos, who refuse to
give up their country, but it shocks
them awfully to have a little fracas
in the senate chamber.
well, there are some great men
and there are many good men, but
greatness and goodness are rarely
Addison says it takes
both these to make a man complete.
Such. for example, as Washington
and Robert Z. Lee. Job says great
men are not always wise and he
might have added most of them are
mean, selfish, heartless and ambi-
tious. Lord Bacon, for instance, who
took bribes while on the bench, and |
Cromwell and Napoleon. Webster |
was a very great man, and long has |
been my ideal of greatness. He was
called the Godlike, but sometimes his |
human nature overcame him. And |
so with Henry Clay and Bob Toombs.
The great weakness of the people is
Partisan or sectional or re-
igious idolatry. Every man who |
limbs high up where the people can
see him is either saint or Il sinner, |
to our politics, our section,
1ur creed. One man idolizes the
character of Lincoln, or of Grant, an
,ther holds both of them in con-
empt. I suppose that three-fourths
If the northern people pay homage
% the memory of old John Brown
or what they call his good inten-
ions, and every northern history and
apologies for him, and
ven so good a man as Mckinley ex-
used himself for not attending the
einterment of his bones on the
round that the pressure of official
uties would NOT hermit him to