The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1907-02-07
SENATOR TlLLNAN
A STAR ATTRACTION.


when Senator IiiiHtN i announce"
t. speak. NJ o'nrr senator since
the days Of thr arr.d and dazzling
INGALLS, has been abe - draw such
crowds Is h..
Yet Senator Ti!!man isn't 4 great
orator. N the first place his voice i
a bit shrill andsuppleasant until he
GETS warmed up to the shouting
point and then it takes on Il deeper
and more sonorous tim0re.
Again, he speaks somewhat dis
connectedly, sometimes losing the
thread of his argument altogether.
But, like creek " river diverted
from its path, he always gets back to
the nnair. bed of h, 'oIreS> in time.
He sometimes makes his SEN
tences so long that he has to pull up
short and begin again. When he
,eads from prepared manuscript
this is not often-the monotony
of his delivery is tiresome
When he is making speech from
i data scattered about his desk he has
{ prodigious difficulty in finding his
references at criticul juncnres. He
1 gropes all over the Uttered desk and
the desk of his senatorial! nelghbor
, on either hand for the missia'r '''.',:'
of paper, founders around u@.,c!
meath the desks and on the floor,
becomes red ID the face and tluster-
ed and mad all through.
The neighboriug senators make a
great show of helping him to find
what heis looking for, but they real
" don't try very hard, for they are
smiling all the time and apl arently
enioying the spectacle of wlath
which the South Carclinian presents
in these circumstances A snicker
runs around the galleries at such
times and this does not cause the
Senator from South Carolina to
feel himself any more at ease over
| the lost reference.
But always he succeeds in finding
the lost bit of paper III time. he
simply VIII not proceed until he does
find 1t and he has searched for 1T as
long as ten minutes, while senate
! and audieace waited. Then he goes
ahead with his argument.
His gestures are those of a man
wholly unframed in the art OF ora
tolv, but somehow the Hacking ges'
lures seem to belong to and to suit
the fow of words when the Senator
becomes thoroughly wrought up
, For all that he is Il very well read
man the Senator is still a rough
diamond.
He likes to display his reading. be
asked Senator Patterson during the
debate if he had ever read that pas
sage of Buckles "Historv of Civil
cation" which depicts the expulsion
of the Moors from Spain, and the
learned old gentlemen of the senate
smiled IN their boards over the art
lessness of the question. Senator
Tillman is the last man on earth
who might be supposed to admire
Wordsworth and others of the Lake
school of poets, but.he often quotes
from Wordsworth and his contem'
porarles of that school.
He gets in a Latin quotation once
in while, too. He knows Latin,
having instructed himself in that
language as boy and perfected
himself in it in later life with the
laid of instructors. Once learned
senator, a university man, sought to
trip Senator Tillman as to his knowl-
edge of Latin and the South Caro-
linian quickly beat him in to the
ground, proving tc the conviction of
all hands that he really knew more
Latin than his somewhat pompous
Iinterrogator.
But for all his reading and self
education Senator Tillman frequent.
.lv makes little breaks in his speech