People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1896 — A CASE OF YOUR OX. [ARTICLE]

A CASE OF YOUR OX.

MR. WATSON RAISES THE CURTAIN OF THE PAST. And HnkM a Comparison Which Also Answers the Purposes of a Lecture — • 1.000 to an Opera Singer —#21,000 for a Funeral. People’s Party Paper: Do you remember how mad congress . became with me because of the Campaign book in which the drunkenness of members was shown up? Do you recall how the Atlanta Journal and other democratic newspapers assailed me as a liar and slanderer? If you do, you will read with special interest the following paragraph from the Atlanta Journal: “Washington, D. C., Feb. 11.—The death of Representative Crain, of Texas —the first member to die since the opening of the recent session of congress—was as sad as it was unexpected, and has thrown a temporary pall of gloom over the house. “When ‘Bill’ Crain first came to congress—the forty-ninth—he was only 37, rich, handsome and talented beyond the majority of his fellows. He came brimful of ambition, hope and health, enjoying the perfect confidence of his Texas constituency and possessing the elements of a successful and honorable public service. “It is far from my purpose to distress those who loved him or to say aught but good of him —for after all, his faults —whether right or wrong—are those that most men are quick to condone. “Suffice it to say that in the heydey of his youth he fell into the hands of the gilded Philistines of the capital. His talents were soon lying dormant and his money went so fast that he hardly realized that he had nothing left but the confidence of his own people and his congressional salary to live upon. , “The moral of it all Is that Washingtbn is a bad place for young men with money and talent coupled with convivial habits. ”

You may remember that congress appointed a prosecuting committee to try me for slander, and that the evidence I introduced before this committee was so damaging to the prosecution that neither the report of the committee nor the evidence taken by it were ever publishd and circulated. In that record the testimony of the Hon. John G. Otis, of Kansas, is to be found. Among other incidents, he spoke of seeing a certain congressman attempt to rise from his seat and ask a question of a member who was making a speech. Mr. Otis testified that the questioner was so drunk that he fell back into his seat while attempting to ask the question. He is dead now —poor fellow —killed in his prime by the bar-room which runs night and day, Sunday and Monday, just below the hall in which our congressmen meet. • • • Cover him with flowers and burn incense around his bier —you who murdered him! Chant the requiem and bless the grave—you whose cowardly silence let the assassin strike him down! Praise his generous nature, eulogize his talent, pour forth regrets that his brilliant prospects were so cruelly shrouded in the eternal night—you whose base panderings to party flung the weeds of widowhood around his wife!

If that bar-room were driven out of the building the temptation to weak congressman would not be so great. Facility leads to crime. The very fact that the tempting drink is so close by, so convenient, melts the resistance of many a member who would never walk into the city for a drink. % The very fact that the bar is run as a part of the congressional restaurant, is screened from public view, is easy of access, and offers choice companionship as well as concealment, makes the pitfall the more perilous. * * •