The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-07-07
CHAPTER III.

A friend OF mine introduced me to
the Coburn payers after the perform
ance OH the state college green of LAS
you like it." Talking with the lady
who played Rosalind and the man
who took the part Of Jacques, 1 re-
marked on the superiority of the
stage we legislators played upon, over
the stage on which they played Our
stage was a real Capitol, and the re-
suit OF our play, written in books,
closed the doors of the jails from
Key West to Fort Pickens. Mr..
Reeves, of Manatee, made argument
on the floor of the house and fifty
thousand people computed interest at
a different rate. Littell wrote a
hundred words on a sheet of paper
which was voted into law and ten
thousand men along the longest coast
line of any state in the union. for
three weeks longer did not wet their
nets. Angle dictated to a stenograph-
err and the typewriter document
changed the system of treatment of
two thousand unfortunate convicts.
McWilliams sent a paper to the desk
of the reading clerk and a great expo
sition began in the Oldest city of the
western hemisphere: the crowds
gathered, the bands of music played.
; the decorated professions moved
down the beautiful streets and the
holiday began. Terrell called a page
! and gave him a piece of paper with
! writing on 1t an storm of moral
wrath blew down to the ground the
race track grand-stands in Jackson
vile and Tampa and Pensacola. Here
was theater from which in a hun
dred directions the stream of power
flowed. Here were troup of actors
"i1Oii4 80 1uul6nIe could HOT ignore
Around the railing of the theater the
agents and suitors gathered, arguing
| and pleading with the actors. Here
was drama, and no matter what scorn
was felt for the actors, they were not
Migrants wandering out of town on a
night train. but players who had a
local habitation and a name, to whom
everyone was polite, however he may
have muttered curses Players whose
feelings were considered by attorney
generals, superintendent of public in
structions, secretary of states. justic-
es of the supreme courts, commission
ers of agriculture, comptroIlers Of
states. These starry beings had the
cornucopia under their arms which
poured increased salaries-if the star
~ beings were treated nicely.
Look at the play" I said, on q
certain weekday night in the theater
or the house of representatives Of
Florida when judiciary committee B.
listened to argument about the Ter
rell race track bill. From every other
state of the country this sport had
been driven. Here was the last stand
Of the race track gamblers in the
United States The members of the
house We're present in their seats, the
hall was crowded. An eloquent and
commanding talker with rich and
powerful voice was pleading before
the committee against the passage Of
the bill; the owners of the horses
We're there really to make a state
ment; million dollars in money was
involved, and far away in a surburb
of Jacksonville or Tampa in a cottage,
under the dining-roo lamp, a hus-
band sat with his wife and children
The husband not yet caught in the
whirlpool of this most intoxicating
form Of games of chance, this family
was gathered unconscious of the
meeting in Tallahassee if it resulted
in ending the evil. would save the
head of the family from a suicides
death. Here the forces of good, each
appearing by attorney, the one by
| counsel paid from proceeds of the
track. the other by a splendid young
volunteer, who the day before, in the
presence of the senators and repre-
sentatives of his native state, and the
governor. with the eye of his country
upon the scence, after one Of the