Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1904-04-28
THURSDAY. APRIL 2S, 1904.
"SIk6ED CATS"

ian-Pilot, has created new name for
those Democrats who refused to support
Mr.. Bryan on the Chicago platform in
1895, but who accepted and supported
him in 1900, though he ran on the same
platform. The new name is ''singed cat"
Ii we had given to these changeling Dem
ocrats any such name we would have been
charged with excessive rudeness. But
coming as it does from Irregular" Demo
cratic newspaper and applied to one of its
"erring brothers," it will be regarded by
many as a rugged but appropriate title.
This realistic name. ";inged cat" for q
certain class of Democrats WAS originated
in controversy between the Virginian'
Pilot and the Petersburg Index-Appeal.
The latter had made fling at what it was
pleased to term the "Bryanites," and the
!. Eirginian.Pilot promptly recalled the fact
that the Index-Appeal had been "Bry-
ante" itself in 1900 The Petersburg
contemporary responded to the accusation
with an elaborate explanation of why it
had supported Mr.. Bryan in 1900, after
refusing to support him in 1896. 1t closes
its explanation with the following:
what is the Democratic party going
to do with the BryaDites?' 1t is not going
TO do. without them! 1t is going to con-
vert them into good Democrats by saying
unto item: 'Erring brothers, your sins
are forgiven. Go and sin no more While
the lamp holds out to burn even Bryan
lite may return to the practice of sound
Democracy"
This patroniziug, "we thank God that
we are not as other men," style of the
Index-Appeal caused the fretful porcupine
qullls of our Norfolk contemporary to rise
with an angry futter, and it proceeded to
administer the following singing, we'll
deserved rebuke to its Petersburg brother:
'Of all the impudence The Index
Appeal got chesty in 1896, and walked out
- with its head in the air. In 1900 it came
back looking like singed cat. 1t was
taken in and petted by good Democratic
papers like the Virginian.Pilot, gwen a
bowl of milk, allowed to curl up before
the party fire, that the faithful had kept
burning all the while, and make itself
comfortable. Aud now behold the nerve
and assurance of it! We are the 'erring
brothers
There is gratitude with vengeance
The next time the Index.Appeal bolts, it
can sit on the fence and meow all night
We shall not get up to let it in"
We apprehend that our Norfolk con-
temporary will find that the "singed cat"
contingent, composed of such men as Da'
vid Bennett Hill. Eourke Cochran, Ar
thur Pue German, and that class Of bolt
ers, have gotten control Of the Democratic
house and the Democratic milk pail. They
have slipped in while the faithful regu
lars" we're asleep, thrown them from the
home they so heroically defended, and
taken absolute possession of the party fire
that the faithful kept burning IN 1896 and
1900. The situation this year is likely to
be the very reverse of what our Norfolk
contemporary has pictured it. The faith
full who went through the heated conflicts
of 1896 and. 1900 and came from the party
furnace without the smell of party disloy-
atty on their garments, will, possibly,
have to sit on the back fence and watch
the "singed cats" drink their fill from the
bowl of milk that has been snatched from
the disgraced "Bryanites," the "erring
brothers" The 'singed cats" you know,
are now pointed to as "the safe and sane
Democracy"