The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1916-10-06

pound you a few lines ere seeking my
downy couch.
| am glad you have acquired the
calendar and dictionary. If you will
stick to them you will be all right.
Heretofore, fear you have been inn
bibing information from the dream
book; billyparker's dreambook at that,
which he probably inherited from
Titus Oates.
/ admit / am faded, also frazzled
and somewhat bugeaten, but if I had,
ar your age, began to take on the
kind of CUFF you have been loading up
with lately the grass would now be
growing over my little grave in the
cemetery near the state asylum. But
cheer up; you are young yet and will
be whole lot wiser, perhaps, than l
am before you die.
am sure don't know why you
cant find the church pennant of the
navy, for it is in Webster's unabridg-
ed dictionary, the encyclopedia, and
other standard works. Next time you
come in to see me / will show it to
you. / always refer to dictionaries,
encyclopedias and other works re-
garded as authority, and that perhaps
is the reason why am not guar
dian of liberty. Some of you boys
have called me liar and other pet
names, but none of you have refuted
me yet to any great extent.
1t is very ungratefu1 In you to ask
me why wasted so much time and
space in giving you information on
the flag. It's the most ungrateful
thing you have done since you tried to
carry off quarter of Marion county
last year. gave you the information
because you seemed to need it. If you
went into crowd of naval men and
spoke of the church pennant as the
pope's flag they wouldn't think you
were a statesman from one of the
most enlightened sections of Florida.
They would think you were gink
from the east side of New York city,
and give you the horse laugh. Also, a
good many educated people who are
not sailors know the same thing, and
il you was to mention the "pope's
flag" in speaking to them they would
think you were as badly informed as
Mr.. Cats, which would be a great in
justice to you.
/ am afraid / can't tell you about
the pope's flag. 1t used to appear In
the lists of flags printed up to about
forty years ago. But as you probably
know the pope lost his temporal power
when the kingdom of Italy annexed
the papal states, since which time the
pope hasn't had any use for a flag. If
you will hunt some atlas or some
other work published not later than
1875, ] think you will find the pope's
flag. l will bet you years subscrip-
tion to the daily Star that you cannot
find any authority for the statement
that the pope's flag has ever been
hoisted over any warship of the Unit
ed States. / seem to remember there
was no cross on the pope's flag, but it
has been SO long since saw picture
of it that can't say for sure.
Most of the people I am in touch
with doubt that there was any fraud
in Madison county; and we all know
that Cats and most of his supporters
have declared there was fraud in
everything that did not go his way.
They claim there was fraud in the re-
count in Marion county, by which
Knott gained 35 votes. am not GO
ing to argue that question with you. I
simply invite you to come over here
and interview the men who did the re-
counting and satisfy yourself If there
was any fraud or not. AS for Madi-
son county, you do not know any more
about it than / do.
/ have had many friends among the
northern people, nearly all of them
well informed, and many of them
Protestants, yet they do not seem to
be so worried as you are over the
hierarchy. I do not think there are
3,000,00 Catholic voters in this coun-
try. They have not more than H.
100000 communicates, and 5000, 900
voters is too big proportion There
were about 100000 votes cast in
the election of 1912. The Catholics
have considerable influence in the
larger cities, tho I do not believe they
control every city of over $4,000 peo-
pie in the United States, nor anything
like it. That's anothes of your delu-
sions. Many cities of $4,000 and over
have not enough Catholics to form a
church. On the other hand they are
weak in the country districts. The
Congressional Directory shows that a
large majority of our senators and
congressman are Protestants Nearly
every member Of the Florida legisla-
ture is Protestant, and doubt that
Mr.. Bitch can find half dozen Cath
Ole governors in the United States. I
have considerable doubt about there
being any concerted move by the
Catholics toward state church. Most
of those know look on the matter
just as other Americans do. At any
rate, they have not the power and
never will have. / don't think you are