The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-05-18
JESS PLAIN OLD FEB VANCE"
Splendid Tribute by the Brilliant
Henry Watters0n
Editorial i'm the Louisville Courier
Journal-HOw Vance Compared
With the Great Men of the Senate.
louisville COurier-Jounrnal.)

State, calls our attention-the OBJ
server leaves nothing unnoticedi-to d
case of oversight, not Of neglect, on the
part OF The Courier-Journal.
The Courier-Journal was in a rem
iniscent mood. The past put its touch
upon 1.-THE tragic past-and, a lit
tie tearfully, let US confess, it was
looking backward over the darkling
passageway of the years that will
never come again, piled up with the
beloved and the mighty dead. 1t had
taken a flock of it's younger readers
upon its lap in a caressing, grand
motherly way and was telling them
the story, the melancholy story, OF
the grand "Old ship O. Zion," their
fathers flagship, Democracy
(Brother Caldwell, after our Broth
er Tompkins has led in prayer, will
you please join US in singing that
good old song
She has carried many thousands,
And shall carry many more?"--)
Well, as we were saying, The Cou-
rier-JOurnal was telling how ,Once
upon a time, a wicked old witch,
named Free Silver had stolen aboard
in the dead of the night and had drug
ged the drink of the crew hilst they
slept, so that when they awoke and
took their morning draught they fell
into a state of frenzy; and knowing
o what they did, they rose in nut
my and rage against their faithful.
trained, and courageous officers, send
ing them adrift in a leaky boat to the
inhoSpitable shores of a desert island
to be heard of nevermore, and putting
in their places a number Of new N
tried, and unskillful helmsmen. And
then how, though all of then had been
riding triumphant the safe depths OF
m%id-ocean, the winds came and howl
ed, and the waters Kissed and roared,
and the waves leaped mountain-Eigh,
until the ship, having no pilot, fioun-
dering hither and thither at the mercy
of the elements, the poor sailors, quite
at their wits end, ran at last into the
breakers and upon the rocks. And how
the old pirate-ship, Protection
which people thought had been sent
to the bottom years before but
which somehow was kept af1oat md
refitted and ordered to sea again,
came sailing along that way. And,
how she was we'll. fixed to do the
t~ree-booting of her owners. Messrs
High Tariff, High finance & Com
panyi How che was iron-clad below
the water-line, and steel-plated above
it; how she carried tons of stolen
money for ballast; how her officers
were not naval heroes, but super
cargoes carefully selected from a IA
vored class ana richly paid; how she
was manned not by sailor-men, but
by Q work-people, some of them
GIDed into the service, but most of
them impressed; and how she had
been turned loose to drive Off the
high seas the very emblem Of Ameri-
ca, to warn the commerce OF the world
away for mOur coasts, and to defend
the Chinese wall erected at the peo-
pies expense, for the sole benefit OF
the close-oorporation of spectators
and m~illionaires which had chartered
her, and was running her for all she
was worth, the black flag of piracy
flying at her masthead!
This wretched hulk, Protection" for
underneath the iron clothing and the
steel plating, all was worn out n
rotten, came full of conceit sailing that
way, and spied u pOOr old Ship .
Zion in her most awful plight, water
logged and unprovisiOned, unarmed eX-
cept for the bOws-and-arrOws which
had been improvised out of timbers
yet sound, through and through; but
still brave and full of fight!
These things, the Old Lady at tie
Corner-as here in Louisville The
Courier-Journal is sometimes called
was telling the nice little Demo
cratic boys and girls, who had gath
cred about her knee and climbed in
to her ever-open arms, crying, Gram
ma tell US a story" and "Gram'ma, tell
US some more" And she was already
"gettin' powerful choked and mighty
disforgitful," as Uncle Remus wOuld
say. 1t had been particularly hard for
her to talk about the dead, about Beck
and Wells and Hurd and " the dear
old parsee Merchant" Moore, and the
rest. If she had got to Vance, "su-
perb old Zeb Vance," that would have
done her up 60 sho'." Yet-and, Of
ter this long prelude, here we reach
the matter at issue-The Charlotte o.
server rises up in meeting and says:
in the enumeration of "the giants
of the old debate, Senator Vance should
certainly have been included. When
Senator Beck died his mantel fell
upon Senator Vance, who, by natural
ability and close study of this sub
iect made himself the master of it and
the most formidable speaker and de-
batter in the Senate on the side of the
revenue tariff men"
Hark'ee. friend and fellow-stu0ent
did'st never ask a hundred nobodies &c
a party, and forget your next-doOI
neighbOr? Well, that was lt-only
that and nothing more;for TO omit
from the list Of the Giants of those
Days, the name of Vance, were 10
leave out Sidney from the age of Eliza
beth. Rupert from the Cavaliers, who
fought Cromwell, and Nathaniel Green,
from the Field Marshals, that surround
ed Washington in the War of the Rev
OIUtiOn.