Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 40, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 6, 1898 Page: 7 of 16
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October 6, 1898.
IS IT THERE?
Recent exposures made by accident
are causing the people all over Texas
to ask two questions: Is there any
school money left, and if so, how
much? Are the Texas officials getting
pay from favorite banks, as exposed in
Pennsylvania and recently exposed and
reproduced editorially in the Dallas
News?
The facts already proven on the
Ausitin ring make these questions reas-
onable and pertinent. Eminent Demo-
cratic lawyers in Texas have already
stated publicly that "false in one
thing, false in all," is a legal maxim
as old as the law itself. These same
lawyers who are not afraid of the pow-
erful Austin machine, say that the
governor's disregard of the constitu-
tion and laws in drawing and keeping
that contract is ten thousand times
worse on government than the money
involved. These lawyers say openly
that when the plain people find that
the officers of the State don't regard
the constitution and the laws, then
they will reason that they are not
bound by them either.
Talk to your lawyer just this way,
no matter if he is a Democrat. Talk
this to the people and they will say
you are right. The Lord help the sa-
cred constitution and the sacred school
fund.
THE SOUTHERN MERCURY.
A REPUBLICAN VIEW.
The Texas State Journal says: "Mr.
Gibbs would undoubtedly inject some
gingerinto the campaign If Major Say-
ers would only agree to meet him, for
Barney is nothing if not amusing. He
is the court Jester of Texas politics.
With his cap and bells, and mock he-
roic air, he would doubtless win the ap-
plause of the populace and make Major
flayers an object of ridicule. On ac-
count of the prohibitory tax placed on
circuses by the laet legislature, the
people will be denied that species of
popular amusement, and the Journal
therefore hopes that Barney muy suc-
ceed in inveighling Ms opponent to pull
off the ten joint discussions with him
in> order that the people of the State
may have an opportunity to have some
fun." Just let her rip. But Joe will
never agree to the joint discussions.
HIS VIEWS THEN AND NOW.
In Gov. James S. Hogg's message to
the State Legislature in January, 1891,
is found the following recommendation
as to the best disposition to be made
of the surplus school fund. His words
repeated are pregnant with interest
to the people of Texas now. Gov.
Hogg says: "Doubtless it would seem
wise policy in various ways beneficial
to the public, to authorize the invest-
ment of this trust fund (the surplus
school fund) in bonds to be issued and
secured by first mortgages on railways
hereafter to be constructed in this
State. In doing this it would be well to
prescribe a statutory lien giving the
fund so invested a precedence over all
other indebtedness upon the railroad
and to limit the amount of the invest-
ment to not exceeding one-third or one-
half of its value. Such a law was en-
acted many years ago, and the school
fund under it was invested in such se-
curities. They have proven to be of the
very best class, now yielding an avail-
able income to the school fund to the
amount of $80,000 per year. Notwith-
standing some of the roads on which
that law fixed a lien in behalf of the
Investment, have been sold and chang-
ed hands, yet the security in behalf of
the State for this fund remains Intact
and unshaken."
The above shows that Col. Hogg fa-
vored investing the surplps school fund
jn railroads before he became a corpo-
ration attorney and general compro-
miser of railroad cases. How this
mighty reformer has fallen!
IN 1900.
The Senator from Ohio had just
emerged from the White House gates
and was accosted by a portly gentle-
man from Texas arrayed in a pair of
eye-glasses and a limp.
"Ah," said the Senator. "Is that
you, Ned? How are things down in
the Lone Star State? Any chance of
carrying it for McKinley in Novem-
ber?"
"None in the least," replied the port-
ly gentleman from Texas.
"Why, how is that?" asked the Sen-
ator. "Let me see (reflectively). Yes,
we gave you $50,000 of a campaign
fund."
"A mere bagatelle," replied the port-
ly gentleman from Texas. "These fel-
lows down there (the Democrats) have
a $100,000,000 school fund and a cash
surplus on hand of $10,000,000 which is
constantly accumulating to draw upon
as á campaign fund, and going down
there with $50,000 against a $100,000,-
000 school fund is like rpnning up
against a 6-foot stone wall, like the
ones that walled in Babylon or Al Ky-
ris in the far erstwhile or when Solo-
mon, who was a gold standard man,
made silver as cheap as stones in old
old Jerusalem or like It will be in the
New Jerusalem when we goldites get
there. Why $50,000 wouldn't buy pea-
nuts for the voters while the Demo-
crats with their big school fund can
buy diamonds for the women and pine
apples and whisky for the men and
then have money left to throw at the
woodpeckers."
"I see," said the Senator from Ohio.
"But are there no Republicans with
principle in Texas, who care more for
the party of Lincoln than they do for
Texas school money?"
"Yes," said the portly gentleman
from Texas, "but they are all 'po'
white trash, the real Republican party
in Texas are the negro school teachers,
but they are only Republicans in the-
ory and Democrats in practice. And
the way the thing works is like this:
The Democrats hire these teachers at
$50 a month for ten months in the
year, count in their yaller dogs as
scholars and pay them out of the big
school fund, no, not to teach the dogs,
but to round up the niggers at elec-
tion times, and the system works like
a charm—for the Democrats."
"I see," said the Senator from Ohio.
"Then we must concentrate our bat-
\
teries on Arkansas. It's got no d—n
school fund."
When Joe Sayers at Giddings wanted
to compromise his goldbug views for
a free silver congressional nomina-
tion, the goldbugs accused him
of "apostacy," and the Galveston
News said that "the watchdog of the
treary had proven himself to be a cur."
But he was a "cur" for the time being
only. There was a bone that he wanted
at Washington City, and we should al-
ways remember that George Clark says
that he never had the free silver dis-
ease very bad anyway.
JOE SAYERS' BATH TUB.
General Nelson A. Miles is a soldier.
Joe Sayers, it is said, used to be a war
horse himself. Gen. Miles, physically
speaking, is a "clean" man. So is Joe
Sayers. General Miles has a "bath
tub." So has Joe Sayers. General
Miles bath tub is a rubber affair, and
the General used to carry it about
with him on his tours of inspection^
and when he was fighting the Span-
iards in Cuba. Joe Sayers' bath tub
however, is made out of no such mean
material. It is built of the finest mar-
ble, and is a fixture "in society" at
Washington1. General Miles curls his
mustache. So does Joe Sayers. The
General manicures his nails. So does
Joe Sayers. The mudsiller washes his
body in creek or tank water at his own
expense. Joe Sayers immerses his
"corpus" in rose water at the public
expense. Joe is a remarkably clean
man, but he is no fighter. The Clarks-
ville Times has said so, and the Clarks-
ville Times knows.
When M. M. Crane thought he was
a candidate for governor ,and before
Joe had had an "understanding" with
Culberson and Hogg about that $10,100
fee, this is the way the Times was
wont to talk about "our Joe," and you
Democratic mudsillers can rely on it,
for it is as true as the Gospel, and it
couldn't be more true than that. The
Times was in the habit of "opinionat-
ing" this way about Joe:
"Major Sayers is a clean man," says
one of his organs. It is true; he is a
clean man. He is smooth and plausible,
too. He has grown sleek and prosper-
ous off of $5000 a year and his "per-
quisites." He has been in Congress a
long time. He has enjoyed himself.
Good cigars and well-cooked dinners
are his. His marble bath-tub occupies
his attention an hour every morning.
He is a clean man, for which he de-
serves to be praised. He wears clean
linen, for which he deserves respect.
He is careful of his clothes, which is
commendable. He never soils his
hands fighting other people's battles.
He was in his marble bath-tub at
Watshington when M. M. Crane, of
Texas, was bloodying the nose of the
Populist party. He was having his
nose manicured at the Washington
massage parlors when1 M. M. Crane,
dust-covered and dauntless, was chas-
ing uncouth Cyclone Davis all over the
State. He was having his moustache
curled at the Capitol barber-shop at
Washington when M. M. Crane, of Tex-
as, was in Red River county electrify-
ing audiences with his oratory and urg--
ing wavering, despairing Democrats on
to victory over the unwashed Popu-
listic hosts, whom he helned to over-
throw—horse, foot and Jragoon. He
is a neat man and was donning two
freshly laundered shirts every day,
while M. M. Crane, of Texas, was jerk-
ing Stump Ahsby's hair, gouging Je-
rome Kearby's eyes and mashing Bill
Farmer's mouth, politically, far from
the jurisdiction of manicurists, tonso-
rial artists, and steam laundries. Mr.
Crane is clean when' he has time, but
for the past six years he has hardly
had time to remove the dust of one bat-
tle before being called on to fight an-
other. If Mr. Sayers is cleaner, It is
because he has had more time to spend
in his bath tub. He has had leisure
to make daily visits to the manicurists.
He has had opportunities to embrace
at the barber shop. He ought to be
clean. He is clean now; but wait a
bit—wadt a bit, honey."
Joe did wait; just long enough to get
the Democratic nomination for gover-
nor. He was keeping himself clean
while Crain was dabbling in the gore
of Cyclone Davis. Crane had no time
to draw that $10,100 contifect; but he
had lots of time to extract, blood from
the probosis of an- "unwashed" Popu-
list. And yet, this man of marble bath
tub fame, who has $5000 and "per-
quisites;" who lives in a French hotel
at the National capital and bathes his
exquisite form in rose water, talks
about Barney's three-story house in
Dallas. Gee whizz!
A PERSONAL STATEMENT.
"I do not propose to deal in innuen-
do, as Mr. Foster has done, but will
frankly declare my own understanding
of the position of Mr. Sayers. As is
known to some people in Texas, my
connection with the fight for silver be-
gan prior to the first nomination of Mr.
Cleveland, in 1884. I opposed him be-
cause I believed he was in sympathy
with Wall street ideas of finance. I
opposed his nomination again in 1888
for the same reason. At the Lampasas
convention, in 1892, I fought for anti-
Cleveland instructions and anti-Cleve-
land delegates to the National conven-
tion and predicted that if nominated
and elected he would cut loose from
his party and go over to the Mug-
wumps before the expiration of a
year. I think my opportunities for
keeping in touch with the silver sen-
timent of the State, and for knowing
its friends, have been fairly good. If
Mr. Sayers ever stirred a step or utter-
ed a word to encourage or aid the sil-
ver fight in Texas, I never heard of it.
It was my understanding that his clos-
est friends were ardent advocates of
the gold standard, and that he was not
subject to call to keep the party in
the State out of their hands. My ad-
vices from Washington were that he
was in close touch with the Cleveland
administration, and that he was one
of the few representatives from Tex-
as in Congress whose recommendations
for Federal office were of value. I was
told that he was an intimate friend and
counsellor of Sec,y Carlisle, and that
he secured several positions for his
constituents, both white and black,
Democrats and Republicans, as late as
1894 in the treasury department. This
information, at a time when it was
well known that the strong friends of
silver were tabooed by the National ad-
ministration, and most of them had
ceased to pay social visits to the Pres-
ident because of his bitter fight against
silver and its representatives, caused
me long ago to put Mr. Sayers in my
own "doubtful" column, and I am
frank to say that he is still there. Pos-
sibly I may be wrong, but the experi-
ence of twelve years of Clevelandlsm
taught me to look for antagonism of
silver wherever his favor rested. I be-
lieve that the alluring Influences he
commanded, and the strong personal-
ity he undoubtedly possessed, cost the
South, and the cause of genuine Demo-
cracy, not a few of their ablest and
most promising statesmen."—E. G.
Senter.
Put this and that together; that is,
put Senter's "personal statement" and
Affleck's sworn testimony together, and
you have Joe Sayers located on the
silver question.
ÉM
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Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 40, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 6, 1898, newspaper, October 6, 1898; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185773/m1/7/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .