The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-10
AT HOW MUCH A LIFE,
 DEAR SIR, DID YOU SAYp
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ing fall price for their goods and got up mighty stir about it.
 The poor Populists first discovered this decline of virtue in the railroads and wanted to buy 'em out and run the business something like the postoffice and send flour and meat and Wniskey and other household necessities with two-cent stamp or larger one. ac- cording to circumstances. but we didn't have the money. and the Government was only lending money to the rich at the time, and we couldn't borrow red cent, though we offered per cent. ana the usual crop mortgage,
 And so the matter went on from bad to worse, that even bad men began to take notice that the railroads are not in business for accommodation, though the Populists had "sorter" quit talk ing about 1t, and it came to pass that any kind of fellow, Democrat. Re- publican, Anti-Saiooner. could jump on the railroads with impunity, like the ass kicking the sick lion, and make a mountain out of mole hill in the diff ference of freight rates.
 am almost sorry I ever had any thing to do with offering to "buy out therailroads and running 'em on cash basis (which is strictly. the postofflce basis) since 1t has raised such hue and cry or the part of lot of fellows that no good Populist can associate with without contamination, for some of those fellows will appropriate to their own use anybody's platform that has something they haven't got and never did have, in the broad open daylight, from free silver to Government, owner ship, which Is almost as had as cru- cifying labor on a cross of gold. Our platform and great wisdom. like the nigger's adultery and a little cot ton seed. were all we had and had be- come to us the very proof and hulwark of our political house and when the ones who had villified us and made all manner of fun of our whiskers Just walked in and asked us to take back seat, I felt right then like free silver was Host balr' and Government own ership an iridescent dream.
 But, from a mere human standpoint, can't blame those who had nothing good of their own for stealing some
 thing that is good, whether they ever
 mean to use it or not. Once a poor
 ungodly wretch entered our meeting house. laid violent hands upon our pull
 pit Bible Gin sort of vi ct arnis man
 ner) and. carried 1t off against the peace and dignity" etc, but l was not
 Inclined to be hard on him--if he meant | 1t for his own use he would dnd food | for reflection; If he meant to sell it.
 somebody would get cheap Bible, for
 a thief has a conscience, at least, and
 never charges full price for his goods,
 and so the good work would go on. You may have noticed a sort of re-
 vivial in Populist religion all along
 the line. from Roosevelt to Tillman' which goes to show a sort of Hard shellism in politics-that you cant es- cape when your times comes to be saved-and the spread has, perhaps, been hastened by that Pentcostal theft contemporary with an inspirational crucifixion of labor on cross of gold"
 The Lord moves in a mysterious way
 His wonders to perform
 Sometimes He makes an ass's bray Sound like a coming storm.
 He uses thieves as means of grace,
 And blatherskits as seers-
 Then puts the lashes on their back,
 Intensifies their fears.
 Henceforth, He lets em take, by wire
 Their mutilated creed.
 And laughs at their new kind of prayer
 Of megaphonic breed"
 But. He has Ills eye on 'em all the
 same and don't mean for 'em to get into Abraham's bosom till they re
 purged themselves, no more than He
 intends for Brother Adams to get i, in
 did go of, at all, unless 1t was at
 some time when his arm was hurting