The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-26
Blue Corpse Of PopuIism
Butler Thinks Real.
OR ISIT APIPE DREAM +?
Major Guthrie IncIines to this View
Holding That All Good Old Pop
uIistic Blood Now Beats
Warm in the Veins of
Democracy.
Democracy,


News and Observer reporter inter
viewed Major Guthrie and here's what
he got:
Reporter-"Major, have you read the
reported interview of ex-senator Butler
written to the Raleigh Post by its Wash
ington correspondent and published in
the Post last Saturday,
Major Guthries-''Yes, have read it, .
Reporter-"Read this part of the inter
view and tell me what you think of it, .
Major reads with smile from the
Butler interview:
How about the North Carolina
Populists?' (Butler): The party
there is very much alive. Should
the organization put out a national
and State ticket We would poll more
votes than did Major Guthrie, our
candidate for Governor, in the 1900
campaign. His vote was $1,000 and
it did not represent the full party
strength by $4,000"
Major Guthrie-"If ex-senator Butler
is correctly reported. I am 1nclined to
think he must have been in the humoT
to pass off an early campaign joke on the
the Post reporter. / have been out of
politics so long now and devoting my
time to other things that / hardly know
how to answer your inquiry. Like a
good many men who have devoted much
time to politics, there are some things
we remember and some we would like to
forget. AS TO the present co34ultiou of
the Peoples Party in North Carolina it
does not lie in my mouth, and ii is not
compatible with my feelings, to speak
evil of. the dead The party died in
North Carolina, as I warned the voters
it would dc in 1896, if the Populists
should forsake their platform and their
principles. l notice that Senator Butler
is reported as saying / was a candidate
for Governor in 1900. / thought it was
in 1896, when the leaders of the Peoples
Party of North Carolina, sold melout and
drew away enough Populist votes from
me to elect Russell Governor. Yes, 1
still believe it was 1896. And if 1 re-
member Alright, it was in 1898, two years
afterwards, the 81 600 good and true
Populists in North Carolina under my ad-
vice and leadership, united with the
Democrats and wiped out the last vestige
Of political leadership OF those self-same
IIOiCSSEQ OJllliSt iC6NCIS WIZ uGSGI tSu
the party and sold me out in 1896. Yes,
I believe it was in 1898 things in the
Peoples Party, in North Carolina got
evened up so to speak, and then the
party died and was so dead in 1909 it
didn't have enough of an organization
to put out a State ticket at all.
Reporter-"So Major, you don't think
the Peoples party will cut much of q
figure in NorJn Carolina this year?'
Major Guthrie--'Well, no, hardly. Elk
Senator Butter, if he is in earnest in
what he is reported to have said, must
have had an iridescent political dream.
He reminds me of an old story used to
hear in Fayetteville An old farmer
named Murphy, who lived on the Fay
etteville and Clinton plank road was in
the habit of going to town, and while in
town he would get drunk and crawl into
his cart and start the horse homeward,
and then lie down in his cart and go to
sleep. One day on his homeward journey
while drunk and asleep in his cart, some
boys on hunting near by discovered the
old man lying asleep in the cart and
stopped the horse, taking the horse
out into the woods, leaving the old man
in the cart in the road. The boys return
ed to the cart and fired off their guns
near by and awoI1e the old man out of
sleep. The old man being suddenly
aroused in the way it was done, was in
a sort of dazed condition at first but
when his senses began to return to him,
soliloquized thusly:
Am | John Murphy? If l am, where
am I at? Well, if l am John Murphy,
I've lost my horse; but If 1 amt John
Murphy III be burned if hain't found Q
cart