Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1880 — ONE-SIDED FIGHT. [ARTICLE]

ONE-SIDED FIGHT.

The Republicans Struggle for Troops at the Polls—-Sunset v ox’s Speech from “Georgia Scenes” Pittsburg Tost, April 14. The debate on the amendment to the army bill, prohibiting troops at the polls as a police force to preserve order, was concluded in Committee of the Whole on Monday, and the bill passed yesterday. The Republicans had the debate tc|themselves, and fifteen of their most gaseous orators made speeches against the proposition which they voted for and which Mr. Hayes approved last June. They waved the bloody shirt high, butfai |

ed to • licit a response. They had the fight to themselves, except for this little interlude introduced by Mr. Cox to show the oue-sided character of the struggle. Congressional Record, April 11. Mr. Cox—l do not intend to debate. I want to have a descriptive scene to illustrate this afternoon In the House read from the “Georgia Scenes,” written by Judge Longstreet, to show what a one sided v flght we have. Mr. Frye —How much of it? Mr. Cox—Not very long, but it is interesting. Mr. Frye—l wish to yield my remaining time to the gentleman from Wisconsin. Mr. Cox—But you yielded to me. Mr. Frye—l yielded to the gentleman for a speech. Mr. Cox This is part of my speech. Mr Frye - Thejgentleman can speak so much better than a book I wish to hear him. [Cries of “Read! Read!”[ Mr. Frye—l now yield five minutes to the gentleman from New York to make a speech by proxy. Mr. Cox —The “gentleman from New York” prefers to make a speech by Cox-y. [Laughter.] I send my speech to the Clerk’s desk. The Cleik read as follows: Rapt with the enchantment of the season and the scenery around me, I was slowly rising from the slope, when I was startled by loud, profane, and boisterous voices which seemed to proceed from a thick covert of uudeigrowth ab ut two hundred yards in advance of me, and about one hundred to the rignt of my road. “You kin, kin you?“ “Yes, I kih, and lam able to do it! Boc-00-oo! Oh wake snakes, and walk your chalks! Brimstone and fire! Don’t hold me, Nick Stovall — The sight’s made up. and let’s go at it; my soul if I don’t jump down his throat and gallop every ehitterling out of him before you can say ‘quit! ” “Now, Nick, don't hold him! Jist let the wild cat come, and I’ll tamo him. Ned’ll see me a fair fight, won’t you, Ned?“ “Oh, yes; 11l see you a fair fight, blast my old shoes if I don’t.” “That’s sufficient, as Tom Haynes said when he saw the elephant. Now let him come!” Thus they went on, with countless oaths interspersed, which I dare not even hint at, and with much that I could not distinctly hear. In mercy’s name, thought I, what band of ruffians has selected this holy season anti this heavenly retreat for such pandemonium riots? I quickened my gait, and had come nearly opposite the'thick grove whence the voice proceeded, when my eye caught, indistinctly and at intervals through the foliage of the dwarf oaks and hickories which intervened, glimpses of a man or men who seemed to be in a violent struggle; and I could occasionally catch those deep-drawn, em phacic oaths which men in conflict utter when they deal blows. 1 dismounted and hurried to the spot with all speed. I had overdome about half the space which separated it from me, when I saw the combatants come to the ground, and, after a short struggle, I saw the uppermost one (fori could not see. the other) make a heavy plunge with both his thumbs, and at the same instant I heard a cry in the accent of the keenest torture, “Enough; my eye’s out!” I was so completely horror-struck that I stood transfixed fora moment to the spot where the cry met me. The accomplices in the hellish deed which ha 4 been perpetrated had all fled at my approach; at least I supposed so, for they were not to be seen. “Now, blast your corn-shucking soul,” said the victor (a youth about eighteen years old), as he rose from the ground, “come cutt’n your shines ‘bout me again, next time I come to the Court House, will you? Get your owl eye in again, if yon can!” At this moment lie saw me for the first time. He looked exces-ively eml arrassed, and was moving off. when I called to him in a tone emboldened by the sacredness of my office and the iniquity of his crime, “Come back, you brute, and assist me in relieving your fellow mortal whom you have ruined forever!” "My rudeness subdued his embar- . rassment in an instant, and with a ta mting curl of the nose he replied: “You needn’t Rick till you’re spurred. There a’nt nobody there, and ha’nt been nother—l was jist seein’ how I could ’a’ font.” So saying, he bounded to his plow, which stood in the corner of the fence about fifty yards beyond the batte ground. I went to the ground from which he had risen, and there were the prints of his two thumbs, plunged up to the balls on the mellow earth, about the distance of a man’s eyes apart, and the ground around was broken up as if two stags had been engaged upon it, [Great laughter and applause.]