Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-10

tie hatred in the south for the north today
and 1t finds room only in the breasts of
men of sixty or over, and those men are
dying off. 1 myself am fifty-nine and
have none Of 1t. 1 was all through the
old reconstruction days. 1 knew of all the
old bitterness that the war left in its trail.
Today there is none of 1t within me. And
/ can safely say that 1 speak for the peo
pie of the south, excepting a few of the
old men. On the other hand, my observa-
ton and experience tell me that in the north
there is little of the sectional feeling left.
have been among the people of the north.
have talked with them; 1 have tested
/ them. Nowhere have / seen indications OF
hatred for the south as the SOUTH With
Mason and Dixons line removed there
should be cooperation in all things for the
public good. There should be cooperative
legislation against the power of money"
+
This, then, is Tillman's method. AS to
the madness or the sanity of It, let the
reader judge. In the beginning of his career
Tillman, 1t may be said, had no method
He studied when he was boy and young
man because he loved study for the sake of
knowledge. His uncle, who was famous as
a cock fighter and reader, left to his
nephew one of the finest libraries in the
south. Young Tillman applied himself to
this library, continued to apply himself to
1t he grew into manhood, and still ap-
plies himself to it. and so he has the repu-
tation of being one of the best-read men in
the Senate, and it is probable that he re-
members better than any other man in the
Senate what he has read. 1t is a wise man
who questions his English literature or his
history. When the war broke out he was
not quite fourteen years old. His mother
sent him to an academy to prepare for
South Carolina College, but he did not get
further than the academy. But it was dur
ing his stay in the academy that he applied
himself so assiduously to his studies that
h ic hno1 a. o,d fhnr
that he lost the sight of his left eye as the
result of an abscess. But all this time there
was method in his work. There was no
technique in his life.
cally boy. and still an invalid, took COM
plete charge of his mothers farm and then
the method in the man began to assert
itself, and by his good management, his
economy and his knowledge of agriculture
he added to the acreage and the income. At
twenty he married. For eight years he had
children. His wife shared the pleasure
of his books with him, and counseled with
him in the management of his large estate.
She was his constant companion and his
business partner. He was concentrated al
most within the limits of his own farm;
certainly within the limits of his own
county He paid little heed to what was
going on in the state beyond him; no heed
to what was going on in the world
But one day they had a farmers conven-
ton at Bennettsville and farmers from all
parts of the state attended it; orators from
all parts of the state addressed it. On one
of these days it was whispered about that
on the morrow the convention would be adj
dressed by a green, gawky chap from the
backwoods of Edgefield, and that he might
say something out of the ordinary. The
gawky chap was Benjamin Ryan Tillman.
1t was his first speech. 1t was certainly
out of the ordinary. After that Tillman
was invited to speak at other gatherings in
the state. He always spoke, he always said
something to which the people listened.
Years later in the Senate, when Foraker
asked him on what particular subject he
was speaking he replied: NO particular
subject. l am just making a few remarks
on the general cussednesS of the situation"
And ever since that first day when he laid