Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1905-07-28
PUBLIC SPEAKING COURT DAY.
Senator Martin and Mr.. EggIestOn Ad
dress the Voters of StauntOn
and Augusta County.

dress Inc NotefS OF Sfaunt0n
and Augusta County.
Last Monday morning the count
court room in this city was more crow
: ed with empty chairs than people
hear the address of Hon. Thos. 8 Ma
, tin candidate for re. election to the
s. Senate. The chairs were mute
their helplessness when the speakt
and his coterie entered the hail, bu
his friends set up demonstration thu
seemed to mollify matters aud put th
, happy senator to bowling to right an
left. Mr.. Martin had just arrived i
iStaunton from Newport News, wheI
he addressed mass meeting the Sal
urday night previous, but as be eA
planned 1.-The rain" or something els
had kept them from massing and tn
turnout was small But the good pee
pie of Staunton and Augusta had n
such excuse and must have stage
away from this meeting just out o
pure cussedness. When Governo
Montague spoke here at the April court
when the campaign had not waxed to 1T
present heat. the crowd of yeomanr,
and towns people that filled the cour
room could not be seated, but stood
around in the aisles, doorways. on the
platform and wodged into every avail
able space, but that was caused by the
difference between the speakers.
Bye and bye the voters began to
straggle in until, about $50 had been
seated.
Commonwealth s attorney Richard
5. Ker was on the stand and in an ap'
propIiate but short address introduced
the speaker. He also intrOd uced Mr..
Jos. d. Eggleston, candidate for State
Superintendent of Public Schools. who
occupied seat on the platform and
addressed the meeting briefly after the
close of Martins speech, making a fine
impression. Mr.. Martin after bowlng
his acknowledgements to the audience
went direct to the subject, matter of
his speech and the reporter for the
SPECTATOR, dew forth his note book,
and began taking down the address,
but after few minutes he found that
his later notes were much the same as
those first taken-Mr. Martin was re-
peating himself-swinging around as it
were in a circle in which the ego was
very apparent. Il did this' and 81
did That, so numerously that the re-
porter became discouraged fearing that
his office could not supply enough Cap
rs to put the speech into type. And
when he was done with the rs there
was run on Cap T's, as the speaker
stepped out of the circle he was MAX
ing long enough to begin calling the
name of Mr.. Turk. the editor of the
Then the tired audience
began to wake up and it became appar-
ent that the first real interest develop
ed in the speech was when Mr.. Mar.
tin touched upon popular local inter-
ests. The quiet doing of those who
were attacked with somnOlence caused
by the senator's dizzy whirls around
the ring of repetition, was at last dis
turbed, for the speech if not exactly en-
pertaining was at least soothing,
Mr.. Martins address was largely de-
voted to a recitation of reasons why he
should be returned to the Senate, and
would have been more fOrceful had he
avoided much repetition. The cancel
alton of 81, 723, 900 worth of Virginia
State bonds and the S. so balance, was
gone into and explained. The Rich
mond College war damage claims, the
Appomattox river and Richmond har-
Dor appropriations, the navy-yard bet
terment at Portsmouth, and numerous
other large sums of money secured for
the state as Mr. Martin claims through
his efforts and influence, were-mention-
ed, which evoked applause from
his admirers. The Senator dwelt much
on his capabilities as business man
and declared that the simple requests
of the humblest of his constituents re-
ceived the same careful and personal
as those from richer persons
or even the more powerful corpora
tions. Every letter, however, import
ant or insignificant received proper
consideration and always a courteous
reply Taken altogether Mr.. Martins
speech Was good presentation of the
case from his stand point. However.
he is not considered an attractive
speaker and it is not until he injects
some matter of popular local interest,
that bis audience show much enthusi-
asm. After his speech he was lunched
at the residence of the Hon. A. O..
Braxton. He went from here to Char
lottesville, where that evening be was
called on hV the Martin Club.