Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-07-27

What tears?
Voice: Then crocodile tears they say
you shed.
l shed tears, crocodile tears?
(touching his eye.)
Voice: The papers said so.
Tillman laughs and continued:
Well, that's new to me. / didn't hear
about that. I shed tears to see the
president of the United States allow a
lady to be dragged along the street In
the hands of ruffianS until her skirts
were torn and bedraggled and her bare
knees, torn and bleeding upon the
rough cement walks, while he, sitting
within fifty yards where he could have
heard her distressful cries, permitted
1t to go on. / have still got some feel
ing of respect for womanhood. l re-
collect the tender love of a mother and
have some affections for my devoted
wife. And allow me to say right here
that whatever / have accomplished,
and whatever / may be In this world,
Is due to the fact had good mother
who took care Of me and taught me
in my youth and gave me my ambi-
ton. She Is dead and sainted now.
And to the further fact that at the age
Of twenty before / became my own
man. / married a good woman and I've
been under petticoat governmental all my
life. And 1 want to say just here that
love all the women and give Roose-
velt the pitchfork.
Voice: How about the men, Ben?
Tillman: What?
Voice: How about the men? Don't
you love them too?
l honor them, | admire them, res
pect them, but when 1t comes down to
love, there's got to be a petticoat
somewhere about
But let me get back to the legisla-
ture. What Is the matter? This amt
| the only county that's got cattle down
there for representatives. Some OF you
old fellows recollect 1890 and what
had to say about things then. / want
| to recall 1t to your memory and tell the
young ones about 1t. The last legisla-
ture reminds me of what I used to tell
you fellows about the Columbia club
and the News and Courier running the
the state government. To illustrate.
We will take some man, (well say
his name Is Smith) who comes from
out here on Fishing creek some where
He's a good clever kind Of farmer
and always had a good reputation for
honesty and Is fairly we'll educated.
Well, Mr. Smith wanted to go to the
Legislature from York county. He
would make the race, would be elected,
|
the second day, he would meet one OF
these sharp, shrewd railroad lawyers,
who would step up to Mr. Smith and
after a few fiattering remarks, would
congratulate Mr.. Smith in behalf OF
| the county, that the county had elected
| him as its representative. The next
day, he would take Mr.. Smith up to
| the Columbia club, introduced him to
few fellows, give him few drinks,
and In weeks time, Mr.. Smith be-
longed to him absolutely, and didn't
know how Ii came about, but was
ready to do just whatever the railroads
told him to do.
| Now, they go down there and get a
little notice in the State about as long
as this, Indicating on his finger) which
says, THE Right Honorable Mr.. SO
and So, who represents York county
with such signal ability is In town.,
and from that time on, the Right
Honorable Mr.. So and So" Is owned
by the Columbia State, and what II
says goes, and they call 1t self-govern-
ment. / call 1t Lizard Government"
You have seen these little lizards
these chameleon.
| Voice: Yes, scorpion.
o, you go wayi A scorpion Is a
long striped fellow with a red head.
Il
/ mo, no sand runner either. l know
what a sand runner Is. He can out
run a race horse-call him race horse
can out run forty race horses. Be-
| fore you can bat your eye he makes
bee line and is gone under COW itch
vine forty yards away. Then there Is
another lizard. One they call rusty
back--runs along the fences and brush.
| The kind I use to gather up rocks Tor
and when l could see him, I'd yell,
"Give me your money or your life, and
j I'd let fly and sometimes I'd get his
1 life. None of these kind of lizards
am speaking about. / am speaking
about these little fellows that turn the
color of whatever they are on-green
on green, yellow on yellow, brown on
brown and so on. Now, these legisla-
tors are just like those lizards. They
are the color Of the last man they
touch.
| Now why didn't Brice and the others
make a resolution that would hold wa
ter when they introduced resolution
to investigate the dispensary? They
were lawyers, and 1t won't do to say
thew didn't know, for that would make
them out mighty poor lawyers. am
cornfield lawyer enough to know that
a Joint resolution could not give pow
er to a committee to bring witnesses
and papers. The committee went into
the investigation. They couldn't go
far but they kept going until the mon
ey gave out They didn't stop as long
as the money held out. They then got
the legislature to give more money and
lmore power and at II they went again.
They had a lot Of witnesses brought
down from Newberry for the purpose
Of having them tell about the property
Hub Evans had accumulated on this
$4OO job. Then they took notion
thew didn't want to hear what these
witnesses had to say, and again they
backed off, Next we hear about
threats on their lives and the sergeant
at arms Is appointed and all that sort
| Of stuff Then we have Parker They
| took him to the supreme court and the
court said he had to tell what he had
heard, and just at the moment when
he had told all but the name OF the
man who represented Lanahan after
Boykin had failed to secure business
| in accord with Lanahan's wishes, the
investigating committee again threw
up their hands and ran backward
working their fingers like this Qndi-
cating) [Laughterl Why didn't the
state, then pull hair and the News and
Courier below? 1t might be friend,
and they didn't want it told. And the
Richland Distilling company. Why
don't the State press for an investiga-
ton in that? The most Of the stock
in that company is owned In Columbia,
and l believe a lot Of it in the State
newspaper. Now, l don't know this.
am only throwing a rock in the dark
hoping some dog will howl"
| am ready to acknowledge that 1t Is
rotten. In Saluda l saw forty drunk
men, and I was told there was enough
blind tiger in the woods around the
stand to make the rest of the thousand
drunk. That's the prohibition they are
having over in my old county-a part
of lit Is now Saluda.
There are but four issues possible
now. 1st. State dispensary cleaned out
and purified. End. Prohibition as blind
tigers like you now have. 3rd. High
license with restriction thrown around
lit 4th. County dispensaries. You
must make your choice and you must
do it by your vote.
| The editor of the Columbia State
was powerful jubilant, and danced
around a few days ago when the
friends of Senator Tillman in confer
ence in York county adopted resolu-
ton for compulsory education.
| Now, what is compulsory education?
| Voice: Drive the editors to school.
| Tillman: They are not children.
| Voice. No hut they need educating.