The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1905-09-29

tended to all females over the
age of eighteen, and unless a man
proposing to retail could get a
! majority of all legal voters in
I the prescribed district and all fe-
males over eighteen, he was not
allowed to carry on his business.
On this bill Owen made very
fine speech in advocacy thereof,
and painting the picture of the
wife, and mother in their sorrow,
desolation and woe consequent
on the use of intoxicants by the
husband and father, and describ-
ed the drunkards' wife with her
wan cheek and wasted form and
anxious hours and tear-dimmed
face, and threw upon the can
vass such a woe-begone picture
of suffering and want and grief
and sorrow and death, that came
near sweeping the legislature off
. its feet. When Buck Owen stood
for reelection in the foil Of 1855
politics had gotten to such fever
heat, the Knownothing craze hav-
ing come in, and Owen being on
that side Of the question, he was
defeated, Notwithstanding there
was nothing against him. In the
meantime he he had studied law
and been admitted to the prac-
tice, and formed a partnership
with his brother, B. L. Owen. Il
remember very well hearing him
deliver an GRAFTON at the Fair
Ground one half mile east Of old
Richmond in September, 1859.
He was married then and his
wife was sick, and he could only
go hurriedly and make the speech
and then was compelled to re-
turn to the bedside of his sick
wife. The speech was mag
nifcent and even a magnetic one,
in which he painted in glowing
colors and brilliant language the
advantages Of the contented, hap
ply life of the farming people,
with their happy homes and love-
ly scenes; their broad acres or
little cottage on the hillside, with +
the valley blooming in beauty in
sight; the glad hearts of the wife
and children, as the laborer wen
ded his way up the flower-be-
decked walk to meet them after
the toll of the day was over,
ready to lie dow and dream of
better things on the morrow; and
then showed, in his iilimitable
way, that the hope of the per-
petuity of our great country was
in the virtue and intelligence of /
the common yeomanry of the
country. There was very fine
audience, and it might be truly :
said that old Richmond and her
vicinity had gathered there her
beauty and her chivalry, and
among them many of Buck Ow-
ems best and staunchest friends
and associates, and they were
very anxious for him to remain
with them and enjoy the festiv-
tiles Of the occasion. But when
he completed his speech he re-
ferred to the pressure made up
on him by his friends to stay
over during the. other exercises
'of the Fair. But" said he,
II hear voice you cannot hear
That tells me not to stay;
see hand you cannot see
That beckons me away.
With that he descended from
the platform and hurried home
to be with her who as the hope
and JOY Of his life, then sick att
| old Fulton. also heard him de-
| liver school Grafton at the close
! of our school at Mooresville that
! | think was a masterpiece Of or
atory, and which was to have
been published at the request Of
the school, but some drunken
printer lost the manuscript and
4 it was thus lost to the world.
Buck Owen delivered the
fourth Of July Grafton at old Ca
MARCO in 1856. It was a very
Jorge gathering, many having
come from Fulton and Richmond.
The orator sustained his reputa-.
ton Of former years, and almost
lifted the audience off their feet
by his flights Of eloquence, and