The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-04
|HEFLIN ASSAILS WALKER
 AND BOOKER WASHINGTON

activity in political affairs. If The truth be told, MT. Hefiin devoted more of his remarks to Booker Washington and President Roosevelt than to all other subjects. He went for both of them in his own oratorical style and | expressed contempt for the men who were suing for political favcrs to come through the hands of Washington. These assaults. although made almost within the hearing of the Tuskegee In- stitute. were received with applause and cheers
 Congressman Hefin was plainly aroused and incensed by the charges Captain Walker had made against him. In an oratorical way he resented them in the style of a mediaeval duelist, arm ed as to one hand with a sharp, two edged sword and grasping poinard in the other for use in close quarters. He waded into the business that was be- fore him, cutting and slashing. Ills way was short fight, a bloody one l and no quarter. | The White House Dinner. 1 He probably let his fierceness lead him l astray and opened his guard for an | attack he did not expect. In contempt uously describing the dinner at which President Roosevelt and Booker Wash Fington sat down together. he said: There they sat. Roosevelt and Booker. and If some Czolgosz or one of his kind had thrown a bomb under the table, no great harm would have been done the country" Mir. Hefiin took a radical stand on the negro question. Cover nor Vardaman in his famous campaign for the Governorship of Mississippi. never took q more extreme stand upon 1t than did the Fifth District Con- gressman.
 In his speech Mir Hefiin made no di- | rect allusion to his Sunday fight with | Captain Walker at Opelika. The only ! indirect allusion to 1t was brought about by the interruption of an enthu- | siastic supporter. The Congressman | had just declared that he would re- flute and answer the charges that Wal ker had made against him ''to the ut termoet."A
 A friend in the audience called out You answered them yesterday" Only partly was the response of | the speaker.
 Mir Hefin declared that Captain Wal ker was making the race with no other purpose outside of and beyond the hope | that he could throw contest in the House. where the Republicans would | overthrow justice to add a new member to the Republican side. He said fur ther that Captain Walker was pinning his faith on the help that Booker Washington would be able to give him in the Congress. And" said Mir. lief | lin, If Booker interferes in this thing there is way of stopping him. We | have way of influencing negroes down | here when 1t becomes necessary" The speaking was, in the venerable and time worn court house, begirt | with trees in the center of the public | square. It began as speakings have I G. a-N l was court day and Judge N. D. Denson
 a towsman of Congressman Heflin had come down from his home in La Fa- yette to open the circuit court of Ma con Caunty in due and regular form. | The Usual Bell Ringer. On the streets there were scores of 1 people from the country who had come in as witnesses, as jurors and to mar ket their cotton. They gathered in the court house square in knots and dis | cussed the dry spell Fifth Dis trict politics and the fight in Ope- lika.
 MT. HeflIn was cordially received by l these citizens of Macon County. There may be as there ls said to be some op- 1 position to him in that county but the | men who were at the court house and | who were at the speaking were warm
 in their greetings and their bearing in- dicated that the Democratic nominee | would receive their support The average Fifth District voter
 would probably say that the present | campaign is mildly interesting and ex-
 citing. The Fifth District man Is used
 to strenuous politics. He has grown
 accustomed to fighting and slashing
 and only that sort of campaign attracts | any special interest.
 The Fifth District was the scene of
 many of the most exciting incidents
 which accompanied the independent
 political movements of fifteen and
 twenty years ago. The town of Tus-
 kegee was itself the theatre of some
 exciting incidents and Captain Wal ker the present Republican candidate
 was an acter in some of those scenes.
 The whirlwind campaigns between Hon. Willis Brewer and Congressman Charles W. Thompson are fresh memor-
 les in the minds of the people. A
 campaign therefore, in which one
 of the candidates Is called "a black and tan serpent, and an assassin of char
 acter" is rapidly approaching the Fifth l District standard of liveliness.
 Judge Denson organized his court
 formed his juries and went through
 all the necessary court preliminaries
 within thirty minutes, he then an-
 nounced that there would be an ad- | JOurnmenC or the court TOT uHhher 0ur-
 ing which time Mir. Heflin would ad-
 dress the people.
 The negro boy and the hand bell
 was waiting 1t was the same boy and
 the same bell that had rung for the
 Republican meeting of three weeks
 previous The Advertisers account
 of the Republicanmeeting had made
 the bell and the overgrown ringer fa-
 nous A smile travelled around as
 the boy walked about the square earn
 ing his fee and jokes with more or less
 point to them were swapped and ex-
 changed about the bell and the bell
 boy.
 Hefllm on Poe.
 In his speech MT. Heflin alluded to
 the bell ringing for the black and tan
 gathering He deplored. .ne bae use
 to which the honored hand bell had
 been put to on that occasion and twis-