The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1908-08-20
No Truth In 1t.
Canard About Fried Chicken
Being Served by Mr.. Bryan
to Negro Visitors at Fair
view-a Lie That Has Been
Duplicated in Every Cam
paign Since 1868.
News and Observer.

News and Observer.
Some days ago a committee of
negroes in Lincoln, Nebraska, went
out to the home of Mr.. Bryan and
through their spokesman told him
that they had organized a club of
negroes who had decided to vote for
him for President. Mr. Bryan didn' t
kick them down the steps but treated
them exactly as Mr.. Cleveland did in
1892 when negro clubs in the North
volunteered their support to the New
York candidate for the presidency.
After the negroes made their call Mr.
Bryan returned to the work OF the
day and the negro delegation boarded
the car and returned to Lincoln.
From that incident, which has
been duplicated in every campaign
since 1868, in which some Northern
negroes have supported the Demo-
cratic candidate for President, the
Radical leaders in North Carolina
and certain other opponents of
Democracy have sought to niure
Mr. Bryan with Southern voters by
coEcocting a lie out of the whole
cloth by declaring that ''Mr. Bryan
served fried chicken to the negro del
egation," and that he was associating
Adams, Duncan, Hildebrand and all
the North Carolina Republicans asso-
| ciated with the negroes of North
Carolina prior to the adoption of the
| constitutional amendment. Not con-
tent with the PRONUNCIATION of the
lie that Mr.. Bryan furnished the
negroes with fried chicken, other
Munchausens have manufactured
and sent out an equally false story
to the effect that the negroes we're
given lunch on the lawn. TO top the
climax of falsehood Tom Watson
paper prints a cartoon labeled "Pink
Tea and Fried Chicken Social at
Fairview," caricaturing Mr.. Bryan
by having him attired as Il waiter,
smiling obsequiously on thick-lpped
negroes to whom he was serving
lunch. When the public understands
that there is not a word OF truth in
the statement upon which these car
ICONS and falsehoods were based, and
that the negroes who visited Mr..
Bryan's farm we're not given any
thing to eat or drink, these attempts
to injure him in the South by Repub-
licans, Tom Watson, and their allies,
| will recOil upon the heads OF the fel-
lows who stoop to invent falsehoOds.
In 1892 there were thousands OF
negroes in the North who voted for
Mr.. Cleveland, most of them because
they had been offended with Mr..
Harrison. This year some of them
! say they will vote for Mr.. Bryan be-
cause Mr.. Taft does not please them,
| and a committee went to Mr.. Bryan
| and volunteered their support, as
they did to Mr. Cleveland in 1892
Like other Northern Democrats, Mr.
| Cleveland and Mr.. Bryan said they
would be glad to have the support
OF all voters who reposed confidence
in their character and in their poll,
cies
The attempt to traduce the mem.
DRY of Mr. Cleveland by intimatine
| that he was unworthy of Southern
support because he didn't refuse tC
accept vote from a negro, and the
ISLANDERS about Mr.. Bryan for follow
ing the same course Mr.. Cleveland
pursued in his three campaigns
shows the depths to which North
Carolina Republicans and their allies
have resorted in an attempt to make
voters believe a falsehood about 6
man who lives in the public eye AND
whom no truthful statement can in
| iure.
This latest lie is parallel to that
recently sent broadcast that when il
Congress Mr.. Bryan refused to vote
for Mr.. Crisp for Speaker because
Mr.. Crisp was a Confederate soldier
| The evidence showed that Mr. Bryan
did vote three times for Mr.. Crisp
for Speaker, that he Was signally
honored by Mr.. Crisp, and that they
were warm friends and greatly ad
mired each other. 1t turned out
that Tom Watson, who made the
charge, though q Georgian, refused
to vote for Crisp and voted for him
self for Speaker! In 1892, at the
time Mr.. Bryan was represented az
opposing Mr.. Crisp because he was {
Confederate soldier, Mr.. Bryan rec
commended for appointment as post
master at Lincoln, Nebraska-his
home town-the editor of the leading
Democratic paper there who hac
been a Confederate soldier. And il
1904 Mr.. Bryan incurred the hatred
Of Mr.. Hearst because in the St
Louis convention he placed in nomi
nation for President Senator Cocker
ell, of Missouri, who had been a dis
tinguished Confederate soldier. l
any man has lived in America who
has been wholly free from sectional
ism, that man is Mr.. Bryan. He mas