The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-24
J. cuLpEppEs
Writes of "Elevated Citizenship,
 Primaries, Etc.

| soou excuse, unless the said people have
 suffered a loss. which makes 1t gray l horse or another color. l may have ,earned It In books or experience or just picked if up. but, however it came,
 am satisfied 1t is much easier to condone
 oilenses that touch others rather than ourselves Shat is l can. forgive a
 Lellow Tor hitting you on the head. or sousing your eye or stealing your pocket
 pook or calling you names much more | Icduiiy than if 1t were my head ringing, l ny eye smarting, my money gone or my reputation suffering. You see, my own Cnrlstian resignation under affiiction is of
 the approved current kind. I am just
 ieadins up. cautiously, to a confession
 oa & &dereIiction; just want the gentle | sympathy with a bameless man. dldnt write last Sunday, which caused
 sore disappointment to many, many | people! To disappoint the readers of sunday paper or the congregation assem-
 bled to hear preaching is breach of puhctuality or regularity and a great
 strain on religious zeal, unless. perhaps, the correspondent or minister be engaged
 in politics on the Lords day. Now, Sun
 gay IS my off-day In politics, unless the provocation be intolerable and, then, I 1 only take 1t in homeopathic doses. The sunday before the primary I intended to
 devote to meditation and prayer under | tne droppings of the Sanctuary but the
 beloved pasture" the devout Deacons 1 except one). the clerk and a whole lot or consecrated brethren were absent en- | gagged in politics and it put me out of all
 heart for writing. I had to do little | serious thinking and all newspaper read | CTS ought to understand that no man is | nt to put pen to paper when under the ! spell of thought l had to wait awhile 1 In patience till the throes of thought weakened I'm all right now and empty
 headed enough to talk and write current politics, approved morals and prevalent [ religion. Really. I'm like Cervantes' gentleman who impressed even, strangers | with the fact of his unfurnished skull | apartments This lack, of ornamentation 1 or the brain is becoming to be a popular l qualification of candidates for Congress
 and. suppose, will be diligently cultI- | yated in the future.
 I know the iod folks used to advise l the young ones to be diligont in improV-
 ing the mind and laying in a heavy stock | of good character and, even now the schoolmen speak and write Interestingly Of cultivating mind and heart but the old folks and the schoolmen have seem- ed to fail to appreciate the desires of the public. He has been q student of events,
 to no purpose If he had not discovered that cultivated talent and immaculate
 character are the equipments that weigh down the aspirant for popular favor The "untutored mind." the ebonlzed, character, the unpublished manners are
 the recommendations that attract and, in
 most cases. assure success in our elevat ing politics. ts
 You may think j. I used that word I "elevating" carelessly, but you're mis-
 taken. A good while ago, when, in the
 face of the wisdom of the ages. we ventured upon the experiment of. doing
 evil that good may come, I, along with
 the good and the wise, lost my head. too
 actually thought 1t was good and right
 to count out the. niggers."
 And, may be so, would have continued to think so if they hadn't "counted me Aflt f hnk hn rterbt ,I
 perfect men who are "counted in do not
 protest against doing '.evil that good
 may come') But for quite awhile I
 have been fearful of the consequences of that perflous experiment Perhaps my
 fear made me think that the moral and
 religious element should be little alarm ed about conditions. This late primary
 has opened my eyes to my mistaken anti cipations. You see, somehow I feared all along that the little wedge of political arithmetic made keen with light touch of perjury would cleave the public moral conscience somewhat hurtfully. Many. many good men seemed to regard theft and perjury as steps heavenward' or. at least, as tending to elevation of char acter. I am. reluctantly. coming to
 their view of the matter. So many plain facts indisputably teach me that our
 people Especially since the viles and purchasable nigger has 5eenEeliI6i atedI. are Beginning to appreciate the dignity of citizenship and the great value of tho elective franchise. You know how stub born am, how hate to give up cherish ed opinions, but Saint Paul can't beat me in suddenness of change when the cir cumstances warrant. And so. I have to admit that the very methods which
 feared would dehase and degrade our citizenship have refined and elevated it.
 l hope it is not too late for me to apollo gizc to our moral and spiritual leaders for heretofore antagonlzing their theories and practices.
 >The pride of citizenship is certainly on the increase and the knowledge of the worth of 'the right preserVatve of all other rights" grows apace. You know I'm not Democrat. but I'm accommo- dating. Two years ago prominent Dem- ocrat Ca mental giant) requested me to make a speech for him In certain Demo- cratic vineyard. made the appointment and went to the place. The intelligent Democrats who met me convinced me that they had taken high Degrees in Democ- They wanted five dollars apiece and wern't agwinG to vote without it." l knew that only a few years before dollar was considered a very fair quid pro quo for vote and the elevating methods of Democracy were becoming apparent even to my beclouded senses. It was very gratifying to learn, recent ly that not only in that bailiwick, but from Dan to Beersheba" votes have gone up faster than the price of cotton. Twen~ ty-five dollars was the minimum price to the first purchaser and, 1t seems to have been considered undemocratic to take less than thirty from the second purchaser. l was told that one high toned Democratic electOr was SO appre- ciative of the suffrage that he held it, to first purchaser al one hundred and twen- ty-five dollars and to the second at one hundred and seventy-fve. These evil dences of appreciation of the "inestima- ble right convince me that the refined methods of Democracy have elevated and exalted our citizenship to the point that no poor man or preacher of righteous ness can corrupt them.
 It Is not surprising that clergymen from such refined constituencies have a burn ing desire to elevate Congress- And, they tell me. that men seeking offices had so much reverence for things sacred and so exalted opinions of the purity and worth of church members that they actually contributed liberally to the churches, One considerate candidate was prolific of chandeliers. no doubt be- cause he had heard somewhere about Flight" in connection with the church One church was the fortunate donee or promissee of a chandelier and Bro. San ders Is in peck of- trouble about get ting somebody to play on 1t.
 I heard. too, that candidates would have no trouble about making out ex- pense account since, fortunately. a Daniel came to judgment" in the person of a resourceful Hebrew who said "Dey will just write 1t down life stchock, so mutch."
 What I want to ask is this: If these Democratic methods and efforts of eleva- l ton and refinement of our citizenship l continue how long will 1t be till impeach- l Inent of witnesses will fall into "innocu- | ous desuetude?" How long till uni | versal nigh character will fit every man |