The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-03-17
HIGH DEATH RATE
Among the Junior s'enatsrs
From South Carolil IA
The SENIOR SEN ATOR

Senator TilIman has Had Five
Colleagues in Fourte en- Years.
Charleston, March,. 3. The
Charleston Post says in the senate
the other day eul' ,gies were pro-
nounced on the late Senator A. C.
Latimer, who di ed a year ago, after
five years in Service as a member OF
that body, having previously for ten
years been a member Of the house of
representatives. AS the senior sena-
tor from the State represented by the
departed senator, Mr.. Tillman pro-
nouneed the first expression of sor-
row at the death of his late colleague.
He remarked an interesting record
as follows:
1T is a little more than fourteen
years since l was sent by the people
Of South Carolina to be one of their
representatives in this chamber. AS
things now are that is about one
third of the average lifetime Of a
man, and while during the time there
have %transpired many events Of nat
ional Importance, it seems but a brief
period after all. Yet during this
comparatively short span I have
served here with five United States
senator's from South Carolina, and
after the fourth of March my sixth
colleague will have taken the oath
at the desk. 1t is a strange coinci-
dence that all of these men who have
come and gone save one were young
er in years than 1. Three of them
have answered the roll call on the
other side of the river. First In
service, John Lowndes Manning
1rby, bright, brave, witty and genial;
neXt the knightly and courtly Jo-
seph Haynesworth Earle, forceful,
logical, %chivalrous and in every way
well equipped for work in the forum
or on the bench; last, Asbury
Churchwell Latimer, who, while de-
MED in youth those advantages of
education possessed by the other two,
was in some respects the superior of
either Of them"
By designating none but those of
his colleagues who have passed from
| life, Senator Tillman avoided the
necessity Of naming and of charac-
terizing the Il with whom his as
1 ISOLATION was most strenuous, John
Lowndes McLaurin. It would have
been interesting to have had his es-
innate Of McLaurin pronounced in
this calm mood and upon this solemn
| occasion.
When Tillman took his seat in the
senate in 1895, succeeding M. G..
Butler, who had had three terms
IN the chamber, he found J. l.. M.
1rby as his colleague in the represent
tation of South Carolina in that body.
A little more than a year afterwards
Joseph H.. Earle was elected to sue
coed 1rby, who did not offer for re-
election in the primary which nomi-
mated Judge Earle. In December,
1907, Senator Earle was sworn in
as a member Of the chamber, and
within three months he was dead.
Governor Ellerbe, who also died
in office before completing his Sec
ond term as chief executive of the
State, appointed John L. McLaurin
to fill the vacancy, and the Demo-
Gratis of South Carolina confirmed
the appointment by nominating Nc
Laurin at the primary held in the
summer of 1898. At the completion
of this term, a service of five years,
McLaurin retired from the senate,
not offering for reelection, and has
since been a negligible and almost a
forgotten figure in the political life
of South Carolina.
He was succeeded by the late Sem
ator Latimer, who, as we have not
ed, lived to serve but five years of
the full term to which he was elect
ed. A year ago the general assembly
elected Frank G. Gary to fill the I'M
expired term, and he is now COM
pleting that brief service, and will
retire to private life at noon on the
day after tomorrow. The general
assembly which has just adjourned
elected e. D. Smith to succeed him,
ratifying the nomination made in the
Democratic primary last summer.
AS Senator Tillman says, Mr.. Smith
will be his sixth colleague in the sem
ate during a period Of fourteen years.
Not one of these has served a full
term in company with Tillman, and
the average length of their service
as his associates is nut a little more
than two years. 1t is a striking rec
ord of mortality-physical and po-
litical-and is we'll calculated to give
rise to melancholy reflection in the
mind of the survivor of so many and
such brief associations in the consti-
t%utional representation of mis- State
in the United States senate.