The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-03-29

| dOAeH years earlier tnan 1t came.
In 1880 Bradley. Evans and Hunter,
whose mutual hatreds and jealousies
would have furnished raw material for a
platoon of Moloehs were all at Chicago
! and all 306-ers. Bradley made an Grafton
| seconding Grants nomination, and it was
| above the average of convention elo-
quenee. though eelipsed in the dazzling
! splendor of Conkling and the wonderful
| resources of Garfield BY this time Brad
! " was the leader Of his party in the
| state. and at him was leveed more envy
in his own party than any Kentucky
| democrat was ever mark for. In 1888 he
nominated his brother-iu-law for COVER
nor against Proctor Knott In 1887 he
| nominated himself against Simon Bolivar
! Buckner, in 1891 be nominated a Major
! Wood against John Young Brown, and
in 1895 he nominated himself against Wat
Hardin.
Hardin repudiated the sound money
| platform of his party, and the Cleveland
| element left the work of eleeting him to
the 16-to-1-ers. and they failed. Thus
| Bradley became governor. During that
| campaign there were just two men IN
| the state who believed the legislature,
| too. would he republican. One was God
| frey Hunter. chairman of the repub-
| liean committee and the other was an OBJ
| scure newspaper man. When the returns
| came in the republicans had plurality on
| Joint ballot and two pops had the bal
ance of power.
Here was kettle of fish Was Brad
| ley to gain signal victory for w. God
| frey Hunter to run off with the upper
crust of the usufruet? Sooner would the
| elder Brutus have brooked the Tarduin
ITO keep his state in Rome" and sooner
would Bradley have brooked the eternal
devil himself to become his master. Hun
ter was an Irishman, but Orangeman or
Ribbonman, God knows which. He played
both-Orangeman in the Presbyterian
church at huntsville and Ribbonman in
the Louisville and Nashville roundhouse
at Bowling Green, and if there has been
other parts to play he would have acted
them, too. Not only can he cut the eaper
of the distinguished Missourian, VINO
hides the shells of the eggs he sucks,
but he can dance a clog on 1000 eggs
without even SO much as cracking a
, she'll
Jack Chinn, Bob Franklin and Ept
Lillard, the latter a democrat who
elected Bradley a senator the other
day sang and joked and bullied the
legislature into a deadlock, and the
first session was dissipated without an
election. Everybody said Bradley was
done for because he would not aid
called session, the peerless Deboe was
elected, at the dietation of Hunter. The
grand jury scrutinized certain $4,000
cash in hand that played part and
returned an Indictment alleging
bribery, but it fell through.
When the Mckinley Hanna regime
came on Hunter was chosen boss of
the Kentucky contingent Everybody
supposed Bradley was done for. Hunt
er went to Central America in the
diplomatic service. but came back long
enough to run the Kentucky state con-
vetnion that nominated Taylor. He
believed Goebel would be elected and
named the ticket solely to preserve his
boss shi p. The election of Taylor, the
contest, the assassinations of Goebel
and Mckinley followed in rapids Sc
ouence and in the changing events
Hunter lost the primacy. John Yerl<es
got it, and there was no love wasted
between him and Bradley.
And here L may digress to mention
a new element in Kentucky politics.
mugwumps of democratic antecedents.
They elected Bradley in 1895 and car
ried the state for Mckinley in 1896.
They beat GoebeI in 1899. There is N
Louisville a very remarkable man, now
fourscore, Reuben r. Durrett. He is
the founder of the F'ilcon club, that
holds It's meetings in his library, one
of the most valuable private collection
of books in the entire county. Durrett
was a successful lawyer and grace
full and forceful writer, whose rivalry
with George ID. Prentice when they
were contemporaneous editors of an
tagonistic newspapers in Louisville
the Journal and the Courier, since
merged-culminated in a street fight
with firearms, in which one was
wounded, bat have forgotten whether
Prentice shot Durrett or Durrett shot
Prentice.
Nearly all the Kentucky democratic
mugwumps, the ablest of them, are
members of the Ellison club. Now, it
was in Durretts library that Theodore
Roosevelt wrote 1.-The Winning of tho
West" He was there for months, and
learned much of Durrett, his friends