The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1917-02-16
NOTED SPEAKER TO
VISIT UNION SUNDAY

theater: eff that man will just come
back, it will take the courthouse yard
to hold the people."-Paris (Tenn.)
Herald.
Before the Mississippi Legislature.
The State Capitol was packed last
night, floor and galleries, with one
of the most brilliant audiences of law
makers and patriotic citizens to hear
the death. knell of the liquor traffic
in Mississippi. There were strong
speeches by governor, college
president and great lawyer who is
candidate for United States senate,
but the speech of the occasion, every
body agrees, was delivered by Will D.
Upshaw, the Georgia "Orator-on-
Crutches," who was introduced as "the
Alexander Stephens of the Prohibition
movement" 1t was wonderful COM
bination of wit, logic and heart-mov-
ing eloquence. The effect on the great
audience was magical.-Jackson
(Miss.) Daily News.
"In a Class to Himself"
When Will D. Upshaw takes a no.
tion he can come nearer knocking me
off the Christmas tree with big chunks
of fun or making me cry my eyes out
than most anybody know, and when
it comes to a campaign speech for
prohibition-well, there's nobody else
like him. 1 have heard John G. Wool
ley, Clinton Howard, George Stuart
and all that bunch of national leaders,
but for man to sweep an opera
house packed to the dome or put an
acre of people on the town common
in his vest pocket, dig up theiI follies,
break their hearts and make them vote
right, Upshaw stands alone. l posi-
lively don't know his equal for this
sort of thing in all this country
Caleb A. Ridley, evangelist and author,
Atlanta, Ga.
Captures Lawmakers.
1 heard William d. Upshaw IN the
greatest hour l ever saw before
band of lawmakers. The Mississippi
Legislature was in session and the dry
clans had come from all over the
State to ask for Statewide freedom
from the liquor traffic. The beautiful
new capitol was packed. Governor
Noel presided. Several short speeches
had been made covering different
phases of the question. Governor
Vardaman had been detained. Bishop
Galloway Was. announced toei.siek Ito
speak. The crowd began to call loudly
for Upshaw, who had made a stirring
speech at the afternoon rally at the
courthouse. In five minutes the great
crowd was in the magnetic grasp of
the little Georgia orator. Sometimes
sitting in the speakers chair, some
times leaning on his crutches, then
In his marvellous peroration throwing
one crutch away, he balanced himself
on the other and swept that great
crowd into such enthusiasm as have
seldom, if ever, seen. Fit and wis
dom, passion and pathos-that appeal
for saloonless vote in the legisla-
turc cannot be described. Captain w.
II. Ratliffe, the venerable president of
the trustees of Mississippi College,
said: mississippi can never pay the
debt of gratitude she owes to Will
ID. Upshaw for that speech. His ap-
peal for not liquor vote blighting
your name through all the archives
of Mississippi history so completely
crystallized the sentiment not to have
liquor vote, that the House voted
ITO dry and not single wet. Missis-
sippi is Upshaw's debtor forevermore."
] have heard Blaine and Ingersoll,
Beecher and Bryan, but for natural
eloquence and electrifying power over
an audience I never heard the equal
of that impromptu speech by William
David Upshaw before the Mississippi
legislature.-Rollin C. Wooster, Dist.
Supt. Georgia Children's Home, Soc,
Savannah, Ga.