The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-27

Rather an odd issue, I should say
That's what the kurne1 said. 1t
was big and odd and would go like
smoke. He could figger out that the
state of Tennessee would make ten mil
lyon dollars a year clear profit. Can't
nobody beat the Kurnel on figgers artar
he has taken about To- drinks. 1 didn' t
keer much to be governor, but l did
want the state of Tennessee to be right
on top with them snipe and hawgs.
The Kurnel, he called a public meetin'
at Scottsville, and I went over. I
couldn't do no talkin', but I furnished
the whisky and the Kurnel addressed
the meetin'. Thar was so patriots, as
he called them, and 1 furnished six
drinks apiece. The Kurnel said it was
my idea about the snipe and hawgs,
and after each drink the patriots cheer
ed me- All of 'em jest whooped and
cheered over the issue, and when the
meetfn' broke up it 'peared as if L was
a good as elected
Then what happened?" asked.
I'VE had another meetin' at Jack Hill
and another at Piney Grove 1t was
jest the same as at the other meetin's
Everybody took six nipS of whisky at
my expense, and Kurnel Jackson did the
talkin Mighty good hand to talk, the
Kurnel is He jest made everybody see
millyOnS of Snipe and haWgS flynn and
walzin' around and waitin' to be killed
and sent to market, and thar was heaps
of men who got mp and swung their
hats and cheered. Thar was only one
thing about it / didn't understand. The
KurneI kept sayin' that if he was 'lected
to the Legislature he'd do so and so.
He was gwine to give EN- better roads,
less taxes, cheaper whisky and all that,
and things sOrter looked mixed up to
me. I spoke to him about it and he
said:
'Zeb White, nobody kin run a po-
litical campaign without two things.
YOve got to have an issue and yo've
- e~fr Too ,sr-I,
ed the issue in the snipe and hawgs, and
I'm furnishin' the strategy in wantin' to
go to the Legislature to be yo'r right
hand man. If the Legislature don't
support yO', yo' can't borrow the fifty
millyon dollars to lend out to our peo-
pie"
That was good reasoning said.
% Feared that way to me, sab, and it
kurnel Jackson. he reckoned I'd better
git bar'l o whisky and treat every
body who went by. and about once a
week I logged into town and asked all
hands to ticker up. On top o that 1
held a. barbecue we're at home Had the
biggest kind of a feast, with ten gallons
of whisky to wash it down, and the
kurnel he spoke fur over an hour. He
got in them snipe and hawgs purity
often, and he had a heap to say about
genius and patriotism and uprightness.
Sich heap o fellers cum around to
shake hands with me that I was all
tired out On the way home that even
in the Kurnel said that I'd be the next
Governor by a majority of fifty thous-
and-maybe hundred
We'll, did it turn out SOP
Did it? don't remember that it did -
But what was the matter2''
The matter was them snipe and
hawgs, or al least the Kurnel said So
The people fggered that the hawgs would
eat up the snipe and that pork was
bound to go down I didn't git one single
vote fur the nomination. sab, but the
Kurnel went in with a whoop and was
elected by a big majority I was mighty
sore about 1t, and bimeby 1 sent fur him
and asked him to explain. He took me
by one hand and the old woman by the
other and says:
= -Zeb White, We had an issue and we
/ had strategy. but the trouble was with
the issue Them snipe was bound to in
| crease, jest as we fingered, and one hawg