Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1906-09-14
Views of a LOCKER on at
Bristol Democratic
Convention.

/
perusal of Congressman Slemp's ex-
PLANTATION and apology. nt is an at
tempt at both, for his unceremonious
intrusion and rather abrupt and start
ling disturbance OF the good order of
the Democratic Convention held at
Bristol on the 10th of August, 1906
What actually occurred when the
doughty Colonel, filed to the brim,
with red patriotism or wrath, perhaps
both, precipitated himself into. and
raised a disturbance i'm the Opera
House, has been truthfully told by the
Bristol Herald, and can be corroborat-
eel by scores if not hundreds, OF eve
witnesses, of both political parties, and
needs not to be repeated. What we
propose here, to notice briefly, is the
opening paragraph of the Colonies
Marion explanation, us reported by
the press, and which is Il legitimate
subject for criticism, as is also his
apology. Opening the subject 'thusly"
the redoubtablc Colonel proceeds. For
81 years | have lived in this county,
Wise we infer >" etc, land never
in all that time been SO far under the
influence of whiskey why didn't he
say intoXicants) rs TO incapacitate me
from the proper discharge Of my
duties =" etc The Colonel goes
further, and here he treads on thin ice.
sometimes however, it becomes
necessary for me to use little
whiskey. On the day OF the Bristol
convention | had taken some whiskev.
(whiskey again COLI but was not
drunk" OF course not. Now it is
not with the Colonel's use of little
whiskcy for his stomach's sake, or
otherwise, among his friends and
neighbors we are concerned, il is rath-
er his free and somewhat indiscrimi-
nate use of it, since he has been the
honored and trusted representative Of
this great and prosperous Ninth Dis
trict. clothed with all the honor and
responsibilities of the Office, by a
splendid and intelligent constituency.
No, the Colonel's home conduct is with
his home folk. 1t is with his public
life and conduct the voters have To
do, and they are asking, why is this
district to be SO sadly misrepresented,
when there are scores of good men,
sound and tue, in either of the two
political parties, available? and so gen
eral and intense is this feeling. that il
would have been we'll for both the
Colonel and his party, and the great
district he misreprescnts, if he had
contented himself with little whiskey
among his neighbOrs and friends, which
course, would at least have saved from
humiliation and shame his party
friends, and himself from we'll merited
modification, resulting from the redic-
ulous and pitiful figure presented TO
the public, by the "gentlemen from
the Ninth District of Virginia, ION the oc-
casion above referred 10, and whose
conduct himself would have known if
at himself, would bring down upon his
own head, and justly, and perhaps
with equal desert, the most severe
censure and merited criticism of an
outraged constituency, who has had
thrust upon them, as their represen-
tative in the Congress of the Nations
law makers, IA man who habitually
so befuddles and debauches himself
with intoXicants, or is so ignorant, and
that too after 81 years Of experience.
as to be so daft, gulible and soft, that
he becomes an easy victim, as he saws
of a couple of Democrats, and induced
10 make an egregiOus ass of himself.
as he did ut Bristol, at once the butt
and jest of the meeting. Surely the
COnonel must have been befuddled at
least, or in Tam's condition, putting it
mildly, when,
Some might be great,
But he was glorious
DER the ills of life victorious"
and bordering perilously near the verge
of anold time-what we forbear To write.
Drunk or sober, his supporters can
take their choice. Neither horn of the
dialema we predict. will save the Col.
when THE Bruce" presents his temper
ed steel, and unsullied shield, upon the
contested field.
Slemp at Bristol has been done for
it is the incumbent Of the Ninth. the
nominee of his party to succeed him
self, is the party with whom all are
concerned, and in whom we are Just
at this writing most interested Some
N tho EnlOnnI's Sttnnortor., to,-o lo.....l