The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-10-19
Up Jumps This Agile Ego
at POu.
Continued from Page One.l

for our commerce to sail the sea in
wade the foreign land, rear for itself a
great name. Here on the threshold IF
the Twentieth century. the questions
that are crying for settlement are Of
vital importance and deserving. eff in
dicious hearing.
LET hi mwhC turns aside for smaller
things" said Mr.. Meekins fervertIv
'lct him be himself consumed there,
With!''
There was certainly nothing small
about the succeeding remarks Of NJ,
Neekins. With the beauty of diction
which l have inadequately ATTEMPTED
to describe above, he turned the bat
teries of his verbiage upon the high
tariff, upon expansion, upon prosper
ity that followed always in the wake
OF Republican success. confidently
and with wealth Of metaphor aud hv-
sonal, and afterwards forsook his ar
gument TO make Il fierce attack on his
Opponent for Lieutenant Governor
Francis Winston by reference to the
| old Geo. White story anG the exhibition
| CT the disfracCful cartoon which Is be-
! ing distributed by Chairman Rollins.
Mr.. Pou, IN his closing speech of
| five minutes. spoke with heat, saying
| that he was not authorized nor could
he be drawn into speaking for Judge
Winston; that the cartoon was a slam
der and q le-MeekinS here irving in
effectually to break in and explain his
production Of it-and closed by saying
that If Judge Winston had in the past
been guilty of the charge preferred. it
only showed to what depth a good man
would sink when he forgot himself SO
far as to affiliate with the Republican
party
With the exception of the goading of
Meekins to indiscretion by Pou's reply
and the heat of the latter in closing
the debate, the discussion was through
cut, bright, well argued and well sus-
tained by both speakers
\ Running Sumarmy.
The speech making was to have be-
gun in the opera house at | o'clock,
but for some reason there was Il mis-
understanding which delayed the
crowd Hearing that Pou was going
to speak the Republicans-eVerYo
in the county was said to be on hand,
and especially the negroes were, as is
their habit, very cautious Of coming
under the spell of Democratic oratory.
AS the negroes surged around the front
OF the court house waiting orders, one
old darkey we'll expressed the reason
Of the delay when he said
Il Go2n't like dis fusion nO-hoW: da.
man Mr.. Pou is de man what done
throWed us befO."
When the debate finally started at
perbole, he traced the pedigree of the
Republican rarity back and back
through Lincoln to the Wing and
thence to the Federalist party, 1Vcrg-
ms az the end of a brilliant sentence
with a firm hold on the Quene of the
msuspecting Washington, who was in
trCduced not only rs the Father OF his
Country. but also as the Pa of Repub-
.; a lHNFlN
when great events were marshalling
themselves upon the stage Of action.
he declared. the Republican party had
been Johnny on the spCt--(that as the
most terse substitute for what was Il
bit Of really poetic rhetoric)
1.-The country" he declared, stands
today at the eliminating of progress
on which breaks the effulgent wave OF
ciNiliza ton
Following this Mr.. Meekins took off
the soft stan and played with cusendo
freedom IN the theme of the country's
greatness. its progress, its wealth,
"one arm stretched to the East, the
other to the West'--boldly embarking
upon the sea of commerce and cXpan-
sion. the Democratic party to the con-
trary Notwithstanding
He attacked the Democracy general
~ as the "ominous gatherum'' OF odds
| Bryan. Parker. Hill. Tillman and Pou
---Zebusites Hillites, Parkerites, Pou-
ties.
he turned on Pou: did you believe
in Bryan and voter for him, you be-
lieved in free silver; if you vote for
Parker, you vote for gold. If silver
was right then. it's right now; if wrong
then, wrong now. lie challenged an
explanation of q vote for Bryan fol-
Nv T.
The Democratic party, said he, had
been crazy for eight years, and was
now having a lucid interval. The
Democratic party, said ne. had always
stood and voted for free silver.
Taking u pthc tariff, Mr. Meekins
showed MS ability as q memori"er of
figures. He compared the population
and the wealth of countries with a
fuency that took away ones breath.
He juggled with sums like the 100 bill
lion with easy nonchalance, adding
the final cents to the total with IN i'm
pressive wave of finality from be-
tliamoned finger.
Prior to 1892, said he the country
Drospered under protectinn. In that
year the country came to consider the
atyiff "an old man of the sea to the
Industrial Sinbad." He attempted to
saddle the Wilson-Gorman bin with
oil the evils of the period of depres-
sion from 1898 to 1898, spoke feeling
" of the distress of the WOrkingmen
in those days. of the spirit of anarchy
abroad, of the 2,000,0 0G men feeding
at soup houses, of oCXey's army, the
five hundred thousand trampS, pray
ing not fer salvation, but for soup
He dWelt on The failures ana the
liabilities. contrasting them with those
of the last few years, attacked CleVe-
land cor his bond issues charged TIL
man with voting for the Dingley Dill
again attacked Cleveland, calling nm
one standing IN his apex tapping with
his heels at the sun, and--a 2eW
charge-stated that he was an Hitter
ate, knowing nothing OF Homer or
Virgil--a man who would define the
siege of Troy as a strike IN the steam
laundry
OF trusts Mr. Meekins spoke canGld-
ly. He charged the Democrats. south
ern cotton seed men, cX-Cnalfnlaf
Jones. Mclean, Croker, Van NEke
We're in trusts. One party. he SAID, is
as deep in The mire as another me
trust did not spring from any party,
! it came out Of human nature. Gam
is the object of man: increase IS ms
Watchword. Ee raced trusts TO AeSop
fables to Joseph and Pharoah ana the
first corn corner He declared that
people were in favor of trusts, because
1 h