The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-08-16
RREEZEs FROM THE BLUE RIDGE
Asheville, n. c., August s, 1912.

In pursuance OF our promise to keep
the stay-at-homes in a fair measure
of enlightenment as to our goings and
doings, and in view of the fact that
everybody reads the Banner, for the
benefit of any who may be inter
ested, we submit with the modesty
becoming TO press correspondents our
first installment.
1t was just our luck to catch an ex-
cursion train for Jacksonville, on the
afternoon of the 9Th inst, and to en-
JOY CD seat standing up for con-
siderable portion of the distance, in
the vestibule end of day coach, pre-
fering this to a sardined relationship
to the inside jam and its concomi-
tants of booty and boisterous boys,
bound for the bad city" and a big
time"
OF course the train was late-eX-
cursiOns always are-but the seen
cry" was refreshing, as our line OF
travel was bounded on either side by
two elongated sheets of freshly-fallen
water for many miles of the Journey.
At several stations, as Island Grove,
Lochloosa, Campville, Baldwin, etc,
impromptu frog concerts" relieved
the dull monotony of travel We had
reservations on the Southern, but our
delayed Seaboard caused us to miss
connections, and hence we contented
ourselves with luxurious ''uppers" on
another line, putting us into Columbia
in time to intercept the Southern for
the point of final destination. To be
rudely and ruthlessly aroused, how
ever, at a. m, to Chamber down a
step-ladder from an almost sleepless
night, was not conducive to a gentle
frame of mind, but the crisp morning
air revived our dropping spirits, and
as we were whisked across the his
toric capital of the Palmetto state in
an auto, under the shadow of her
state house, we are reminded of her
present gubernatorial disgrace, and
comforted at the reflection that there
are even worse things in this world
than a Pullman upper, bad as that is.
Just why the American travelling pub
lie tolerate Pullman car miseries is
ineXplicable on any other hypothesis
than that the Pullman company is
trust" and the aforesaid public has
learned to live in servile subjugation
to trust conditions all the way from
sugar to sleeping cars.
Speaking of South Carolina, we are
reminded of Blease. Anybody pass
ing through the state will be remind
ed of Blease. Her state papers speak
of him fervently, quote him, apologize
So And little wonder, for if the Ian
guage attributed to him is correctly
reported, he is the most monumental
moral monster who ever (dis) graced
southern state house The boon
companion of grafters, the friend and
ally of booze, the abandoned cess
pool of vulgarity and blasphemy,
what has South Carolina done to be-
so afflicted? What? Blease is sim
ply the climax OF evil to state which
voluntarily went into the liquor bust
ness for profit. Dispensary booze,
spells state-house Blease. "Whatso-
ever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap"
The Charleston News and Courier
says editorially, in its issue of August
eth: Governor 'Blease himself is but
an excrescence upon the body polite
He is political accident"
He may be an "eXcrescence." but
he is not an accident" He is the
normal, the logical outgrowth and
product of a political system based
upon unrighteous and dishonest col
fusion with a giant evil. In proof of
this We quote further from the same
editorial: --~
The News and Courier does not
believe that the defeat of Governor
Blease will go very far toward putting
our politics on a sounder basis unless
the defeat is accomplished by a
square lineup OF the forces which
make for political righteousness
against the forces whose sympathies
and whose activities have been and
are with those at work for political
unrighteousness.
But enough OF Blease. God grant
that Florida may never be cursed by
such political conditions as would
make "Bleaseism" remotely possible.
Our train is off to the mountains.
We are crawling up the Saluda gap.
between two mogul engines. and they
make TOO much noise to think, much
less write.
Cordially you-s,