The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1906-07-19
Jess Plain Old Zeb.
Henry Watterson, Editor Of the
Louisville Courier-Journal, Pays
Tribute to the Memory Of Sena-
tor Vance.
Louisville Courier-J 0 ournal.

server leaves nothing unnoticed-to
a case of oversight, not of neglect,
on the part of the COurier-yournaL
The Courier-yournaI was in a remi-
niscent mood. The past put it's
touch upon 1.-THE tragic past-and,
little 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 mighty dead. 1t had
taken a flock of its younger readers
upon its lap in caressing, grand
motherly way, and was telling them
the story, the melancholy story of
the grand "old Ship of 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 will carry many more?"O
Well, as we were saying, the Con-
rier-JOurnaI was telling how once
upon time a wicked old witch
named Free Silver had stolen aboard
in the dead of the night and had
drugged the drink of the crew whilst
they slept, SO that when they awoke
and took their morning draught
they fell into a state OF frenzy; and
knowing not what they did they rose
in mutiny and rage against their
faithful, trained and courageous Off
GERS, sending them adrift in a leaky
boat to the inhospitable shores of q
desert island to be heard of never
more, and putting in their places
number of new, untried, and unskilled
helmsmen. And then how, though
all of them had been riding trium-
phant the safe depths of mid-ocean,
the wind came and hoWled, and the
waters Missed and roared, and the
waves leaped mountain-high until
the ship, having nopilot, fioundering
hither and thither at the mercy OF
the elements; the poor sailors qnite
at their wits end, ran at last into
the breakers and upon the rocks.
And how the old pirate-ship "Pro-
tection," which people thought had
been sent to the bottom years before,
but which somehow was kept afioat
and refitted and ordered to sea
again, came sailing along that way.
And how she was we'll fixed to do the
free -booting of her owners, Messrs.
High Tariff, High-Finance & Compa-
ny! How she 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-car-
goes carefully selected from a favored
class and richly paid; how she was
manned not by sailor-men, but by
poor worked-people, some OF them
duped 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 Amer
lea, to warn the commerce of the
world away from our coasts, and to
defend the chinese wall, erected at
the peoples expense, for The sole
benefit OF the close-corporation OF
spectators and milliOnaires which
had chartered her, and was running
her for all she was worth, the black
flag of piracy flying at her mast
head!
This wretched hulk, 'Protection,"
for underneath the iron clothing
and steel-plating, all was worn out
and rotten, came full of conceit, sail
ing that way, and spied our poor old
"Ship O. Zion" in her most awful
plight, water-logged and unprovis-
ioned, unarmed except for the bows
and-arrows which had been impro-
vised out of timber not yet sound,
through and through; but still brave
and full of fight!
These things, the Old Lady at the
Corner, as here in Louisville the
Courier-Journalis sometimes called
was telling the nice little Democratic
boys and girls who had gathered
about her knee and climbed into her
eyer-open arms crying, "Gramma,
tell US q story" and "Gramma, 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 Hunt and the
"dear old parsee Merchant" Moore,
and the rest. Ii she had got to Vance,
superb old Zeb Vance," that would
have done her up 80 sho'." Yet
and, after this long prelude, here we
reach the matter at issue-The Char
lotte Observer rises up in meeting
and says:
''1n the enumeration of the giants
of the old debate, Senator Vance
should certainly have been included
When Senator Beck died his mantle
fell upon Senator Vance, who by nat.
ural ability and close study of this
subject made himself the master of il
and the most formidable speaker and
debater in the Senate on the side o
the revenue tariff men,"
Hark'ee friend and fellow-studenl
dids't never ask a hundred nobodies
to a party, and forget your next
door-neighbor? Well, that was it
only that and nothing more; for tt
omit from the lists of Giants in thOs'
days the name of Vance, were tx
leave out Sidney from the age o
Elizabeth, Rupert from the Cavaliers
who fought Cromwell, and Nathanie
Green, from the Field Marshals tha
surrounded Washington in the War O
the Revolution.
Vance stood all by himself, a char
acter, a personality, an intellect, al
influence quite his own. He had in
deed studied the question. and ha,
studied it like the thinker and schola
that he was. When Beck fell, an
his mantle, rough when it was new
but old and ragged and worn fe
with him, Vance gently picked it u