The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1907-12-28
''Siik Stockings" and .sShert
Hairx.v

The terms silk Stockings and
''Short Hairs have been in con-
slant use in the city of New Or
leans {and other cities also) for
the last forty or fifty years. They
are terms used to designate the
business interests of the city as
opposed to the machine politicians
and their henchmen, who live by
the dirty tricks of fraud which
they perpetrate in campaigns and
elections to control the city adj
ministration.
The silk Stockings" are COM
posed of all good citizens who live
by their steady legitimate trades,
callings and professions, aud who
usually take very little interest IN
politics unless aroused to action by
the outrageous administration of
city affairs. Bankers, merchants,
lawyers, clerks, brick masons, tin
ners, printers, carpenters. and all
industrious trudesmen. working
steadily for living aud depending
on their trades and professions for
that living, constitute the "Siik
Stockings" The inference is that
their steady employment and con-
slant income enables them to wear
silk stockings if they see proper
to do SO.
The Short Hairs" are recogniz-
ed as the political leaders, or
"hosses," as they are generally
termed. and their following who
do their bidding at every beck and
call, in order to pick up the crumbs
aud share the plnms the bosses
give out to their faithful bench
men. Bankers, merchants, law.
yers, etc, may he Short Hairs"
and bosses, but they are generally
too busy in their Legitimate call
ings aud above engaging in poll
tics as business. That business
is left to those who have a liking
for 1t, and SO the "Short Hairs"
are generally composed of the idle |
and irresponsible class. As rule |
they include the saloon men and |
harkeepers, the gamblers and the
bawdy house frequentcrs, the lonf-
ers, the dndes, the buns, aud the
host of street sweepers and gutter
snipes who are content in the great
cities to live and move in the
sphere of a henchman. The infer
ence with them is, that in their
dirty business they must weartheir
hair short in order to keep it free
from filth.
Thus "Short Hairs" strictly
speaking, rs political term, means
the professional Politicians
those who live by running with I,
the machine. Their stock inj
trade consists in referring to the
"Silk Stockings" as aristocrats,
blue bloods, etc, and trying to
show that the laboring classes !
have no interests in common with
the capitalists and business leaders |
Of the community. A good por- G
lion of the time they succeed in SO q
prejndicing the clerks and labor
ing classes as to either keep them
from the polls, or succeed in secur-
ing their votes to help the ina /
thine" along. Every few years, II
however, the rule of the "Short {
Hairs gets 80 outrageous that all I
good citizens are forced to unite :
'gainst them, and then there is a u
political landslide, and the ma b
'hine is overwhelmed. v
These two classes, the industri. u
nus and respectable and the indo- ),
ent and vicious, wage perpetual "
var in all of our cities. AS a rale "
he silk Stockings compose by T
ar the greatest number in the
1tIes. just as the steady going and
Industrious in the country consti- Fl
ute the greatest number. The 4,
rouble Is. that the banker, the =
merchant, the doctor, the clerk. -
ne artisan. gets SO busy with his &C
industry and calling that he for q
cts to take that active interest in :,
Ity politics he should. The =
boss, however, is always wide !"
wake, and his solid phalanx of 81
enchmen are duly registered and CO
rilled to vote in body for the fr
ne machine candidates, and his no
'achine votes will always control =
nless the business men are prompt Ca
nd united in their efforts to r,ra WI