Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-12-15

fered.
Cooper, of course, was giving his
support to Patterson. In a sense he
had been the Col. House of Patter-
sons administration and his keen brain
was aiding Patterson's campaign. But
Cooper was making no speeches. He
was no mere orator. He pulled the
wires and watched the puppets dance.
Carmack became incensed at Coop
er's activities and began to openly
berate him on the stump with that
peppery tongue. Day after day he re-
ferreG to the man who had given him
his start in journalism and even went
so far one night as to ask whether
"baldheaded angel Dune Cooper was
an angel of darkness or Of light, or if
there is not the smell Of sulphur in his
feathers"
That sunk deep. Cooper was moth
ing If not dignified. Carmack was
forty nine Cooper sixty-five, and feel
ing his age. Word went to Carmack
that Cooper was touchy about his
badness. The colonel felt he was
responsible for his own individual acts,
but as far as his physical appearance
was concerned, "the Lord hath given,
and the Lord hath taken away, Blessed
be the name Of the Lord"
The Vulnerable Spot.
But Carmack had found the vulner-
able spot. Achilles didn't have ten
der heel, but he had bald head-Oh,
joy on the stump.
Time and again Carmack referred
to bald headed angel Dune Cooper"
He went further. He began to en-
phasize the question 'fs bald-headed
Dune Cooper an angel Of darkness or
of light" The Colonel's father had
owned many slaves.
There are some epithets. that fight
ing men will not take Of God or the
devil. Poking fun at an old mans
bald head was the height of bad taste,
but to make the yelled insinuation
that was the objectionable Of
fense.
Carmack was made editor Of the
Nashville Tennesseean and went gun
ming for his enemies. His defeat had
made the anti-Saloon league far more
militant. Sermons were preached in
churches faying Patterson as the
scion of the devil. Carmack became
the leader of Lost Cause admired in
defeat.
The Tennesseean's new editor con-
sidered "bald-headed angel Dune" as
the chief cause of his downfall. He
began to attack him in his editorial
columns.
One day Carmack poured an extra
portion Of vitriol into his inl;-holder
and wrote this editorial, entitled
THE DIPLOMAT OF zwETBUND.
ITO Major Duncan Brown Cooper,
who wrought the great coalition, who
achieved the harmonious confluence OF
incompatible elements, who welded
the pewter handle to the wooden
spoon, who grated the dead bough
to the living tree and made 1T bloom
and bend with golden fruit, who made
playmates of the lamb and the leopard
and boon companies Of the spider and
the fiy, who made sod and vinegar to
dwell placidly in the same bottle and
who taught oil and water how they
might agree; to Major Duncan Brown
Cooper, the great diplomat Of the poll
tical Zweibund, be all honor and glory
forever"
Cooper read that editorial-and saw
red.
That was Sunday morning, Nov. s,
1908.
Monday afternoon at 4:SO o'clock
Senator Carmack, was walking on
Seventh Avenue. At Union street
Col. Cooper and his twenty eight-year
old son, Robin. hove in sight. There
was shooting.
Carmack fell dead with one bullet
under the heart, one in the left shoul-
der, and one in the neck. Robin
Cooper was wounded in the right
shoulder. Duncan Cooper had not
fired a shot. though he had drawn his
revolver from his pocket. He was un-
scathed.
There is no use trying to explain
who shot first That point is still
argued in Tennessee.
"Carmaek-the Martyr"
Nov. Il, 1908, the Coopers and John
d. Sharp, an ex-sheriff with them at
the time of the shooting, were indict-
ed.
In the spring of 1919 the Anti-Sa-
loon league, determined to avenge the
death of Ned Carmack, demanded that
the legislature pass the statewide
prohibition act. The legislature did so.
All over the south and the midwest
Protestant denominations were de-
manding that the saloon be abolished
as a tribute to Carmack." The North
west Methodist conference at Dallas,
Tex, passed resolutions deploring
Carmack's death, denouncing the sup
porters of liquor interests in politics
and declaring that "Carmack died