The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1911-05-11

knew that right behind Speaker
Mackey to his right two white men,
chosen and approved killers, were
stationed, instructed to shoot him
dead at the first outbreak. Mackey
knew it, too, but he was clear game
that Mackey, radical that he was;
and he never moved or finched or
in anyway departed from the strict
formalities of his assumed office and
now and then his laughing jackass
laugh pealed through the house as
something funny occurred. But the
reporters knew that the moment
trouble began a storm Of bullets would
come Mackey's way because Mackey
as a white South Carolinian the en-
tire outfit was most hated Of South
Carolinians and the first thought OF
every man was to get "Mackey first. ~
And many men in the excitement
would shoot low. Also many of the
radicals, especially among the For
ty Thieves" deadliest and bitter
est and most courageous of all, had
it in for the reporters table. There
fore the reporters consulted as they
smoked, who they would "get" be-
fore they were got. One of them had
pistol the like of which never had
been seen before or since that time,
when the ingenuity and most of the
thought of men were bent on de-
vices for killing somebody. 1t was
a section of a Remington rifle sawed
off and fitted to a pistol stock, carry
ing a ball specially assigned to Ca
nary" Miller, it was placed in draw
er of the desk and trained on him
pressed into the bottom of the draw
er during the entire of the night;
and kept cooked, the calculation be-
ing that when the fuss was opened
the drawer would be pulled out, the
trigger cooked and Canary drop
ped as he rose in his place on the
right hand side toward the rear. If
two or three men happened to be in
the way it would be all the better
That cartridge was good for an ele-
phant and all of our fellows were
clear. All this was because Canary
rose every Is minutes and conducted
this colloquy:
"Mr. Speaker!"
The speaker: 'The gentleman
from Beaufort
'Mr. Speaker, rise to a point OF
order"
"The gentleman from Beaufort will
state his point of order"
"Persons are on the floor OF the
house who are not members of the
house."
1.-The point of order of the gentle
man from Beaufort is well taken.
The sergeant7at- arms will proceed to
remove from the floor all members
who are not members"
This was where the trouble was
expected to occur. Orders were that
when the radical sergeant-at-arms
put his hands on a Democrat or al
lied member the shooting would
start. Every time he was ordered,
the foot sergeant-at-arms would walk
up the aisle toward somebody and
nobody knew when with an extra
drink or two or on some signal, he
actually would touch a man. 1t was
trying on the nerves. An outbreak
there would mean not only present
slaughter, but civil war, because 1t
had not been decided whether Hayes
or Tilden was to be the next presi-
dent and the nerves and temper OF
the country were at strained tension
ready to be startled to the fighting
point by less thing than wholesale
butchery in the State house of one
of the pivotal and disputed States.
BY the special mercy of the AL
mighty the country was saved from
that horror, as by the same gracious
means it was saved from so many.
The three nights and days the $50
odd armed and hating men slept and
ate and laughed and taunted and
threatened and locked in the hall to-
gether, passed and the blow that
would have had such fearful conse-
quences was not struck. Canary"
Miller did not get his fight or his
bullet. Gen Hampton got notice that
the United States troops were to
charge on his men and he moved
them out, and next day his Red
Shirts came in headlong and yelling
on horseback and on the dead run
and yelling afoot and swarmed over
the town by the thousands, and the
u