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C. D. JOHNS 
 
T E N N rs S E E ' S 
 
 p;OND OF LIQUOR 
 
 AND 
 
 POOL OF BLOOD 
 
 A COMPLETE AND DETAILED 
 
 ACCOUNT OF OUR SHAMELESS 
 
 CONDITION IN TENNESSEE 
 
 THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY 
 
 BY 
 
 C. D. JOHNS 
 
 Ex-SherifF, Davidson Co., Tennessee 
 
 C. D. JOHNS & CO. 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 
 
 If 
 
 n 
 

 Copyright, 1912 
 
 BY 
 
 C, D. JOHNS 
 
 gCI.A327233 
 
PREFACE 
 
 To have the ability to write a book is a great and grand 
 gift, something that but few possess, and to write a real 
 book is something that few have done. Those who have 
 written books, and who are worthy to be called author, 
 are and have been scholars and devoted their entire lives 
 to the task. 
 
 Aside from authors of great masterpieces of literature 
 that will forever thrill the minds and hearts of the great 
 A^merican people, Tennessee has given to the world's 
 history statesmen, patriots, soldiers, orators, heroes and 
 martyrs. Some of these are: John Sevier, one of the 
 heroes of the King's Mountain, Father of Tennessee and 
 the first governor of the grand old Volunteer State; 
 James Robertson, founder of Nashville, the capital city 
 of Tennessee; Andrew Jackson, hero of New Orleans 
 and the nation, and one of the greatest presidents the 
 United States has ever had; John Bell, United States 
 senator, cabinet officer and candidate for vice-president in 
 i860; Felix Grundy, United States senator, orator and 
 cabinet officer; James K. Polk, president of the United 
 States; Bedford Forest, great military leader; Sam Davis, 
 hero and martyr ; William B. Bate, hero of the Civil War, 
 governor and United States senator ; Edward Ward Car- 
 mack, United States senator, statesman, orator and 
 martyr. 
 
 There are many others who will ever live in the minds 
 of Tennesseeans not only for what they have done in 
 building this great commonwealth, but for the part they 
 have taken in the nation's construction and the forming 
 
 5 
 
6 Preface 
 
 and governing of neighboring and distant states. There 
 is not a state in the Union that has not profited by the 
 valor and guiding hand of a native Tennesseean. 
 
 When our faith in man's manhood, friendship, honor 
 and truth is assailed and wavers, then the life's example 
 of such distinguished statesmen, heroes and martyrs 
 stand preeminently before us and remind us that there 
 are characters that are incorruptible, honesty that is un- 
 assailable, friendship that is undying and patriotism that 
 will sacrifice human blood. 
 
 To the above class the writer of this book lays no claim. 
 He is neither a scholar, author, statesman, hero, soldier, 
 martyr or orator — not even a politician — but just one of 
 the plain, common people, who loves and feasts on plain, 
 common facts stripped of all useless verbiage and pre- 
 tense. 
 
 I have been looking, listening and longing for someone 
 amply equipped to write a book and whose name as its 
 author would be a guarantee to a wide circulation — a 
 man who would throw down the gauntlet, stand out in 
 the open, write up the true situation in Tennessee and 
 ask the people what they were going to do about it. 
 None seemed willing to deal with the facts as they are, 
 though all frankly admit there is something radically 
 wrong in Tennessee. 
 
 This "something radically wrong" pervades the whole 
 state; it fills the home within; it is like the plague of- 
 darkness that rested on the land of Egypt; it veils the 
 political horizon from border to border; it obscures the 
 cheerful light of the domestic fire ; it darkens faces which 
 have never known before the shadow of an abiding sor- 
 row, and if it does not fill the people's minds with appre- 
 hension, it disturbs and distracts them. It is the word on 
 every lip and the thought in every mind, this "something 
 
Preface 7 
 
 wrong/* It is here. I see nothing better to do than to 
 deal with it at once and deal with it frankly. 
 
 Without waiting longer for someone else to speak out 
 and with unvarnished facts deal with the deplorable con- 
 ditions in Tennessee, I shall proceed to do so myself. 
 
 My reason for writing this book is this: I know 
 enough about conditions in Tennessee to fill a book, and I 
 sincerely hope that when these pages have been read it 
 will be a universal verdict that at least one wedge has 
 been driven towards bringing about a better condition in 
 my own loved state. 
 
 To the individual possessed of an extremely sensitive 
 mind and who cannot stand plain talk, my advice is to 
 close this book now. My apology for this is, I can write 
 only as I talk, and I talk plainly. 
 
 Please remember this : I am subservient to no man or 
 set of men ; I represent no political party or faction of a 
 party; I am candidate for no office. Never again will I 
 ask for any office within the gift of the people, united 
 or separated. I, and I alone, am responsible for what I 
 state, and I know what I am talking about and mean 
 what I say. All I have written has been done with a 
 heart full of love and anxiety for my native state and 
 with malice to no one, even though I call names in con- 
 nection with dark deeds. 
 
 NOTE. — In getting together the material for this book I ran 
 across information and facts regarding corruption in Tennessee 
 that I had not dreamed of, and found it impossible to embody it in 
 one volume, both for the reason of its length and the time it would 
 take to prepare it for publication. This does not only concern 
 public officeholders in the state, but is pertaining to the rottenness 
 of the big corporations in the state and their high-handed method 
 of robbery. Not being able to include this in the present book, I 
 have decided to soon publish another, in which I shall completely 
 expose these methods and the names of the parties who practice 
 them. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 "Of writing books there is no end." I have therefore 
 stepped into the arena and in authors' phraseology, "have 
 tried to supply a long felt want." To do so, it was neces- 
 sary to preempt a field but sparsely occupied, if at all, 
 that is, that the data shall be a compilement of "truth, the 
 whole truth and nothing but the truth,'' without respect 
 to person or caste, my book will relate to Tennessee and 
 her principal cities, more especially to her Capital City, 
 to some extent ; but as I shall endeavor to fix blame where 
 blame belongs, for the deplorable conditions which now 
 exist, I must needs deal more with people than things. 
 While maintaining a sentiment of lasting veneration for 
 my native State and regarding her Capital — which is my 
 native home — as "no mean city," strict adherence de- 
 mands that I express the contempt which I feel for the 
 bulk of the crowd that's running it. It is an old and 
 trite saying, that only the "hit dog howls." If I hear no 
 howls, I shall feel that my mission has failed. I will also 
 appropriate another saying, that is, "if the shoe doesn't fit, 
 don't wear it," and if I see no one limping, I shall be dis- 
 appointed. It is also claimed in Holy Writ, that faithful 
 discharge of duty must bring persecution and I shall feel 
 that I have been remiss unless I induce a very liberal 
 condemnation. 
 
 The many industrial organizations are giving the public 
 a world of information, touching what God did for 
 Nashville, when he used to stop off here, and what nature, 
 philanthropy and enterprising good citizens are still doing. 
 It requires no philosopher to tell these things, while her 
 
 9 
 
10 Introductory 
 
 magnificent architectural structures, the object of which 
 is to disseminate the principles of religion, morality, edu- 
 cation and benevolence — invite the admiration of the 
 civilized world. They tell of the rich and the great and 
 of their many wonderful achievements, still "the half has 
 never yet been told" and it is my purpose in this book, to 
 tell — at least — a part of that to show the other side of the 
 picture, to raise the black veil and to expose to view the 
 dangers that lie hidden beneath. Were I permitted a 
 choice, I would not say disagreeable things, or utter 
 harsh words, but I have been unable to find 'mongst the 
 lexicographers nice words that will express my aversion 
 to unlawful and vicious acts. 
 
 When I undertake to tell how the grand old Volunteer, 
 more especially her chief cities, and most especially her 
 Capital City, are held in the relentless grip of a vicious 
 oligarchy (as an octopus holds its victim with its power- 
 ful tentacles), who are not capable of feeling contempt 
 for the courts they create, which are a stench in the nos- 
 trils of decency, how that vice and crime hold high car- 
 nival under the very eaves of the Temple of justice, how 
 that the laws of the State are annulled, repudiated and 
 trampled under foot by the puppets they have placed in 
 authority, and anarchy reigns supreme and unrebuked, 
 even sanctioned by the suffrage of men of prestige and 
 have influence in the commercial world, many of whom 
 are high officials in the ecclesiastical world. I must admit 
 that my vocabulary of nice words is wholly inadequate to 
 express my disgust and contempt and I must resort to 
 language — sometimes more in keeping with the merits of 
 my subject. When the late Sam P. Jones was at one 
 time charged with preaching vulgar sermons he answered, 
 "give me a decent crowd and I'll preach them a decent 
 sermon." Reader, I leave you to make the application. 
 
Introductory 11 
 
 With this introduction, I launch my ship on the sea of 
 public opinion, feeling that it will meet the endorsement 
 of the majority of right thinking citizens, and indulging 
 the hope that it will accomplish the mission whereunto 
 it is sent, by arousing into activity the dormant spirit of 
 the brave yeomanry of Tennessee, who in emulation of 
 their great and illustrious prototype — the immortal old 
 Hickory — will arise in their might and by the power of 
 their ballots declare "by the Eternal" our country shall 
 be free ! 
 
TENNESSEE'S POND OF LIQUOR 
 AND POOL OF BLOOD 
 
 MY LIFE AS A BOY AND SOME LATER EVENTS. 
 
 I was born in Montgomery County, Tenn., near Clarks- 
 ville. 
 
 I only remember having seen my father but once, and 
 that was after he was dead and prepared for burial. I 
 was so small at the time I could not now recall that sight 
 of him had I not been frightened and excited at the people 
 who filed silently in and out. 
 
 I was awed by the quietness of things, and when I was 
 held up for a look in the coffin at the white face I can 
 now so vividly see, I seemed to understand why it was 
 necessary for everything to be so still and solemn. 
 
 I shall never forget that moment — the sobs of my 
 mother as she held her four small children in one loving 
 embrace, praying God for strength to provide for them. 
 
 Somehow I had not gotten father into my childish 
 mind, but mother I seemed to know from the very day of 
 my coming into the world. I was touched by her sorrow, 
 and' the sympathy in my heart for her she never knew. 
 She probably thought I was too young to feel the pangs 
 of sorrow, but when mother suffered I suffered with her. 
 
 There were four of we children — three boys and a girl. 
 My father was poor, the result of drinking whisky. Our 
 home was a log cabin, with more than the usual number 
 of cracks. Weioved mother for her goodness. We for- 
 got our poverty and our wants in our adoration of her. 
 
14 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 With her purity and sweetness she seemed to draw and 
 hold us to her. She taught school, did quilting, washing 
 and ironing to support us. 
 
 In those days it was customary (and a barbarous cus- 
 tom it was) to bind children out to whomsoever needed 
 help so tender in field or factory. Children with cruel 
 parents were given into the hands of heartless taskmasters 
 and their bodies and minds stunted by the labors they 
 were compelled to perform, that their shiftless elders 
 might have the pittance these little sufferers were able to 
 earn. Had it not been for that and other inhuman sys- 
 tems (thank God they have all been abolished by the 
 progress of civilization) this great and glorious nation of 
 ours would be even further advanced than it is today. 
 Binding children out for a term of months or years was 
 a practice born of the rankest despotism, and it is almost 
 unbelievable that it could have been tolerated in this 
 country one day after independence was obtained. 
 
 Up until the last few years the child has been neglected 
 in the world. With a few exceptions, it has been left 
 overlooked and trampled upon as a thing of no conse- 
 quence. No one seemed to think of the child as a tender 
 slip that should be taken care of and cultivated that 
 better and purer fruit might be gathered from the full- 
 grown plant. It is different now. The child is, at the 
 present time, considered the most valuable of the world's 
 products. Children are being watched and taken care of 
 physically and morally, and nobody complains at the cost. 
 They are the future upon which we build our hopes and 
 it is gratifying to see them grow into valuable men and 
 women. 
 
 I have wandered a bit from what I began to tell, but 
 when I say that I am a great lover of children, nov/ being 
 the father of four of the finest, I am sure you will pardon 
 
AND Pool of Blood 16 
 
 me for stepping aside and dwelling upon one of my pet 
 subjects. 
 
 As I said, when I was a child the binding out of chil- 
 dren to shopkeepers, manufacturers and farmers obtained. 
 When my mother's boys began to reach the age where 
 they could run around and do light tasks, she was fre- 
 quently advised by wiseacres of the neighborhood to bind 
 us out. Although she was poor, and she and her little 
 ones had no bread (and frequently we had none) other 
 than that she was able to earn with her tired and withered 
 hands, she had this to say in reply to all such suggestions : 
 
 "Before I would let my children leave me to become 
 slaves, as they would under the contract that has to be 
 given in such cases, I would work my fingers off to my 
 hands and my hands off to my wrists. No, I will not 
 hear to it, and as long as I am able to stand I shall battle 
 for my babies and try to raise them to be good citizens.'^ 
 
 That is the kind of a mother I had. That is the kind 
 of a mother who mapped out the path for me to follow, 
 and would I not be the meanest creature that walks the 
 earth if I should depart one bit from her noble teachings, 
 after she labored and suffered for me as she did ? 
 
 Had it not been for whisky this good woman would 
 have lived in comfort, but, as it was, she lived in misery, 
 and through it all she never forgot her duty to her chil- 
 dren and her God. I promised her over and over again 
 (for, like all mothers who want to impress a thing on the 
 minds of their children, she took advantage of every 
 occasion to repeat her command) that when I became 
 a man I would make an uncompromising war on whisky 
 and all its accompanying vices. When I think of what 
 she suffered and my promise to her it gives me more 
 strength for the battle. 
 
 I remember the long winter nights how all of us slept 
 
16 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 in one bed, while snow was blown through the cracks in 
 the Httle cabin we called home, covering the quilts with a 
 sheet of white. We children didn't understand this, and 
 to us it was fun, and with laughter and glee we would 
 reach out, scrape it up with our tiny hands, and rub it 
 in one another's faces. We couldn't see why mother 
 would lie there and cry with such a fine snow covering 
 everything inside and out. We felt favored above other 
 children — the snow would come right into our house to 
 us. This was in our childish innocence that we looked at 
 the matter in this light, but when we grew older more 
 serious thoughts crowded our minds and we began to 
 realize more and more the condition of things and what 
 mother was enduring for us. We began to look at things 
 differently and wish we could do something to lighten the 
 burden of that poor soul who had so bravely shouldered 
 the responsibility of protecting and providing for us, even 
 at the cost of her life. 
 
 Johnnie, my elder brother, had just turned fourteen, 
 when he began to look about for some means of earning 
 money that he might, as best he could, assist mother in 
 feeding and clothing the rest of the children. 
 
 In spite of mother's battle (and I do not see how she 
 did as well as she did, poor soul) we often went hungry, 
 and Johnnie felt that he should now do something towards 
 helping. I remember how mother was pained when he 
 said he was going to leave home and see what he could 
 find to do. He was still a baby in her mind, and when 
 he offered to take on his shoulders the duties of a man, 
 mother was overcome with emotion, and, after much en- 
 treaty and persuasion on his part, she consented, but 
 would not agree to let him go so far that she could not 
 see him occasionally. 
 
 He and mother began to inquire about the neighbor- 
 
AND Pool of Blood 17 
 
 hood for an opening for him. It so happened that a 
 farmer, a Mr. Grant, living fifteen miles away, and who 
 needed an extra boy on his place, heard that brother was 
 looking for employment and came to our home in search 
 of him. It was agreed that brother should go to work 
 on his farm, his compensation being three dollars per 
 month, including board, with the privilege of visiting his 
 home once every thirty days, the mode of travel to be 
 the back of a mule. 
 
 The trips home were always made on Saturday, giving 
 him until Sunday afternoon with us, at which time he 
 would start again for the farm. I remember how eagerly 
 and expectantly we looked forward to those cherished 
 monthly visits of our dear brother, and mother was as 
 happy over the prospect as any of we children. We knew 
 the Saturday he was to come, and as the afternoon of this 
 much wished for day advanced we gathered at the little 
 gate, and, with straining eyes, looked far down the road 
 to the bend where he would first appear. He always ex- 
 pected to see us there, and, as he first came into view, we 
 could see him begin kicking the old mule in the flanks to 
 urge him to greater speed, while, with his hat waving as 
 high as his little right arm could hold it, he came on as 
 fast as the old animal was capable of traveling. 
 
 At this moment mother would break down and weep 
 for joy, while we children, unable to longer watch his 
 approach without actually taking some part in it, would 
 break away like so many Indians and race wildly toward 
 him. As he would near us he would rein the old mule in 
 and dismount among us. With one rush we would be in 
 his arms„ while the honest old animal that had brought 
 him to us would stand there and look as if wondering 
 what it was all about. The glad greetings over, he would 
 lift each one of us to a position on the mule's back, and 
 
 2 
 
18 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 himself walking and leading the animal, we would begin 
 to cover the distance from there to the house. This was 
 great sport for us, and with our big brother walking 
 ahead of us as he was, we would not have exchanged 
 places with any of the little princes or princesses of the 
 earth. 
 
 As we neared the place where mother was standing 
 in happy anticipation of again embracing her dear boy 
 and helper, she, too, would be overcome with a desire to 
 rush to him, and in an instant she would fly toward him 
 with outstretched arms, and when they met there was 
 such another hugging and kissing as one rarely sees. As 
 we children sat on our high perch and witnessed this 
 emotional greeting we rejoiced, for our mother and big 
 brother occupied a place in our estimations above the 
 world and everything else it contained. 
 
 All was then in readiness for a happy time — brother 
 was at home. We forgot, in our joy at his coming, that 
 he would have to leave us the next day. We followed 
 him to the little stable in the rear of the house, where the 
 mule was provided for. This was always considered the 
 first duty after his arrival. Then we would go into our 
 one-room cabin and gather in front of the old fireplace* 
 where mother and brother talked of everything that had 
 happened in the past month they knew about. This would 
 continue long into the night, and they never finished until 
 they had talked of and planned for the future of we chil- 
 dren. We listened intently (we stayed up until the last 
 moment when brother was there) as these two friends 
 told us what they were trying to do for us. 
 
 Brother's coming seemed to help mother so that it was 
 another reason for happiness among us on such occasions. 
 I remember how he came like a man each time and put 
 into mother's hands three silver dollars, his entire month's 
 
AND Pool of Blood 19 
 
 wages. He never spent a cent for himself, and my mind 
 is often filled with thought of the nobleness of this boy. 
 He never seemed entirely satisfied until he had turned the 
 money over to mother. It made us happy to see it, and 
 at that time we could not understand why the tears would 
 gather in her precious eyes as she held it in her hand. 
 It seemed to us that one with so much money should be 
 anything but sad. 
 
 We looked at brother in wonder as he would reach in 
 his pocket and from its depths extract such wealth. It 
 was inconceivable to our immature minds how one person 
 could amass so much in so short a time. On such occa- 
 sions brother seemed to be as much affected as mother, 
 but his emotion, as I have since thought, must have been 
 caused by the happiness that it afforded him to be able 
 to assist her, however small. This conclusion was reached 
 by me when I began to contribute a small monthly wage, 
 some years later, to the modest family treasury. 
 
 As time passed it began to dawn upon me just why 
 mother w^ould cry when Johnnie handed over his earn- 
 ings. It was because she was grieved at his having to 
 work and slave as he did, when he should have been in 
 school preparing himself for the future; and also she 
 would call to mind the long days he worked and what he 
 must have suffered, boy that he was, in the field gathering 
 crops and plowing. I can see now the anguish the good 
 soul experienced when she dwelt upon this. 
 
 As I said before, we had a good time during Johnnie's 
 visits, and when Sunday afternoon arrived, the time for 
 his starting back for another month's absence and labor, 
 there began to fall upon us a great gloom, and the leave- 
 taking was as sorrowful and heartrending as his arrival 
 and reception were hilarious. He would go back, and 
 each time he left would leave all of us in such a state of 
 
20 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 sadness that it would be days before we could compose 
 ourselves sufficiently to be together without its being 
 noticeable. 
 
 We never failed to watch him as far as the straightness 
 of the road would permit, and when he paused at the first 
 turn for a final wave there was a heaviness in our hearts 
 and lumps in our throats, and had it been that this last 
 signal of farewell should have been a spoken one, we 
 could not have given it utterance. 
 
 That was always an indescribably sad moment, and 
 each time we went through it in this way. 
 
 A few months passed and mother determined that, if 
 she possibly could, she would arrange to move nearer 
 where Johnnie was employed, that we might see him more 
 often. About this time Mr. Grant, the man for whom 
 Johnnie was working, lost his wife, and, as he had a 
 large household and a number of farm hands in his em- 
 ploy, mother conceived the idea of applying to him for 
 the position of housekeeper. This she accordingly did by 
 borrowing a horse and buggy from a kind neighbor and 
 driving over to see the gentleman. She succeeded in get- 
 ting the place, and we were soon bundled into a wagon 
 sent over from his farm for the purpose of transporting 
 us, household goods and all, to our new abode.' We soon 
 reached this new place of residence and were not long in 
 making ourselves at home in the comfortable and, as we 
 thought at the time, spacious, log house. It was some 
 larger than the one we had just left, and a great deal 
 more comfortable. It was situated in a corner of th£ yard 
 and a few paces from the family abode of Mr. Grant. 
 
 Mother's duties were onerous, and she was up early 
 every morning looking after the household of her em- 
 ployer. In addition to his family, there were about 
 twenty-five farm hands to be cared for and made com- 
 fortable. 
 
AND Pool of Blood '^1 
 
 I recall vividly how, with my younger brother, Shelby, 
 as an accomplice, we would steal into the dining room of 
 the "big house," after everybody had eaten, and peer into 
 each cup from which the coffee had been drunk in search 
 of sugar. Shelby would take one side of the table and I 
 the other, and it was considered a breach of established 
 courtesy for one to overstep the fixed bounds and operate 
 in the territory of the other. We were too honorable, 
 and I might add, by way of honest acknowledgment, 
 that each of us was too afraid of the known tattling pro- 
 clivities of the other to forage anywhere other than in the 
 territory allotted by the treaty that had been adopted be- 
 tween us. 
 
 In this way we would go from cup to cup, dragging out 
 the hidden sweets of each with the spoon always found 
 conveniently near. This was repeated three times a day 
 and with great stealth. We kept a close watch on the 
 enemy as it entered and as it went away. Our time was 
 short, and we had to operate with the greatest care and 
 speed. As the last horny-handed tiller of the soil emerged 
 from the building, we advanced to the door, recon- 
 noitered, fearing there might be a lingering enemy, and 
 slipped in. 
 
 Our work had been so well planned that from the first 
 these invasions were made and spoils secured so quickly 
 that one had to be alert to come upon us while in action. 
 We became so expert at this that twenty-five large, white 
 cups could be relieved of their toothsome contents in what 
 is known in modern slang as a "jiffy." 
 
 We felt no more compunction after each of these raids 
 than the negro or average white boy experiences after 
 having invaded a watermelon patch at the hour of mid- 
 night. We felt the same about this as John Trotwood 
 Moore's "Old Wash" did at the time he was caught by 
 
22 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 one of the brothers of the church holding *'Sis' Ca'line's" 
 hand, and his wife away on a visit at that. 
 
 "Old Wash" was brought before an especially ap- 
 pointed committee to explain, satisfactorily if he could, 
 why he had been guilty of such conduct. The brother 
 making the startling discovery gave his testimony first, 
 and it was most damaging, and when the defendant sub- 
 stantiated it in detail it seemed there was no chance for 
 him, and that he would have to be dismissed from mem- 
 bership among such an apparently immaculate body as a 
 man unfit to longer associate with them in religious wor- 
 ship. 
 
 When asked if he had anything to say in explanation 
 of his conduct, he straightened himself, and, after looking 
 each dusky committeeman squarely in the eye until all 
 of them felt that something was coming which would not 
 be altogether as they wished, he said : 
 
 "Yes, I has dis to say an' dat's all: Dar's only two 
 kinds ob folks in dis worl' anyhow, an' dat's de caught 
 an' de oncaught." 
 
 Summer passed and winter was near, and we went to 
 live at a Mr. Felts' place. This was not far from Mr. 
 Grant's, so brother could come often. Mother was house- 
 keeper at Mr. Felts' and we lived in a log house in the 
 yard the same as we did at the place just left. 
 
 My brother worked hard and his health began to give 
 down. This added to mother's already numerous con- 
 cerns and worries. It was cold and he was daily expos- 
 ing himself to the inclement weather. 
 
 Mother was a close observer, and she noticed his de- 
 cline from the start. While she needed his help, she 
 wanted him to rest and recuperate, but he felt that he 
 must keep at his task. He soon began to feel the strain, 
 and one day he came to mother utterly exhausted. She 
 
AND Pool of Blood '23 
 
 put him to bed and called in Dr. Neville. His diagnosis 
 was that Johnnie had contracted a bad case of pneumonia, 
 caused by exposure. He grew worse from day to day. 
 Mother saw there was no chance for her boy, who had 
 been so much help to her and who had given his very 
 existence in an effort to assist her in feeding and clothing 
 her small children. 
 
 There was no hope, and one dark night when every- 
 thing seemed in sympathy with the sad event which was 
 transpiring within our humble home, he died. 
 
 I was a small boy, it is true, but the solemnity of that 
 occasion will ever remain in my mind. As young as I 
 was, my little heart was troubled, and when I saw the last 
 gasp for breath of that noble brother, he who had fought 
 and battled for us like a man, I could not help feeling 
 that he had given his life for those he loved. 
 
 He was carried away, but his memory lingers, and often 
 when alone and in silent meditation, with the thoughts of 
 this world and the burdens I have been called upon to 
 bear in it passing through my troubled and aching brain, 
 there comes a peace stealing over me and into my heart, 
 and everything appears bright and easier to endure — it is 
 the remembrance of Johnnie and his sacrifice, and I 
 realize that his labors and trials did not only furnish 
 food for the sustenance of our bodies, but that in doing 
 so he set a high mark in life for his brothers and sister, 
 to the attaining of which my efforts are constantly di- 
 rected, and in my battle to emulate that ideal which his 
 truthfulness and honesty have indelibly pictured in my 
 mind as the greatest any man could wish for, I am 
 spurred on by the remembrance of how he lived and died. 
 
 I was going into my ninth year when the sad event 
 just related took place. I felt the responsibility keenly 
 that rested upon me. Through my whole life I have 
 
24 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 been blessed with an abundance of self-confidence, and 
 when I saw the finger of duty pointing the way to me 
 at that early age, I seemed to immediately turn from 
 child to man, and it was with more courage than fear 
 that I buckled on the armor of my dead brother and 
 went into the fight; and many a weary year did I fight 
 against obstacles that seemed to me would frighten a 
 full-grown man into laying down his weapons and turn- 
 ing from the fray. 
 
 Even to-day, in many of our cotton mills and other 
 large manufacturing plants, children of tender years are 
 slaving long and weary hours, with their little bodies 
 wasting away for want of proper rest and nourishment. 
 This is another result of selfishness — human brutes sacri- 
 ficing human beings for their own gain. They are not 
 only murderers of children, but are robbing the race of 
 its future. They are unhung assassins enjoying, the ease 
 and freedom of life. 
 
 But this question has been taken up by able writers, 
 and I am glad to say that their efforts and their teach- 
 ings have shown great results, and that a few more years 
 will see child-labor abolished in this and every other 
 country. A stringent universal law against child-labor is 
 just as essential as a world-wide law against murder. 
 
 But back to the days when I was a slave, not sent out 
 by my mother (she would have suffered any hardship to 
 have prevented that), but driven out by necessity and a 
 determination to do my duty. 
 
 I went to a Mr. Fry in search of employment, and he 
 made me this proposition: 
 
 "ril build a log-cabin in my woods-lot and let your 
 mother live in it, but you must work for me free of 
 charge in return." 
 
 As mother had been wanting to leave where she was 
 
AND Pool of Blood 25 
 
 then, I thought this a liberal offer. I went home and 
 told her about it, and Mr. Fry's offer was accepted, the 
 cabin accordingly built, and over we went. 
 
 When I look back now I do not see how I stood up 
 under the strain. I was up every morning before day- 
 light, with something to do every minute from then until 
 dark, my only chance for a rest in the long hours being 
 at meal time, and this was limited. The time for this 
 was short, and my food was more often bolted than 
 eaten as it should be. 
 
 When we first moved to Mr. Fry's place mother 
 thought she could get quilting, washing and ironing to 
 do in the neighborhood sufficient to buy food, but, after 
 going through hardships incident to abject poverty for 
 several months, she secured employment at a place ten 
 miles away and left, taking with her my brother and 
 sister. At the earnest solicitation of Mr. Fry my mother 
 left me with him. I could at least earn my board and 
 lodging, and, while it broke my heart for her to leave me, 
 I kept back the tears and sobs it almost killed me to 
 suppress as I told her good-bye, for I knew that by stay- 
 ing I would at least not be the burden to her the addi- 
 tional expense of keeping me would entail. 
 
 I was constantly on the lookout for a place where I 
 could earn some actual money every month. I longed to 
 assist mother by being able to hand over to her some 
 cash just the same as I had seen my departed brother do. 
 As the days and weeks passed this desire strengthened, 
 and the determination to fight the battle begun by my 
 brother, which took possession of me at the time he was 
 taken from us, never left me, but grew stronger every 
 day. With the courage that this gave me I never missed 
 an opportunity to seek a new place. This I did without 
 Mr. Fry having knowledge of it. I knew he would not 
 
26 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 favor my leaving him, so I decided that when I got ready 
 to make my departure I should take French leave. This 
 might not have been the honorable thing to do, but I 
 felt sure it was the only way to do it without meeting 
 strong opposition. I think my reasoning along this line 
 was good, and I am sure every boy has at some time 
 gotten a license to carry out his heart's desire from just 
 such a source. I knew that if I wanted to do a thing and 
 there was somebody who would likely object to it, the 
 best thing under the sun to do to accomplish my end 
 was to do it and have it over before others knew what 
 I was about. However, the mere fact of its having been 
 done did not mean every time that it was ''over." 
 
 Sometimes when I would set my head to do things I 
 wanted to regardless of who might offer objections, the 
 consequences of the act were much greater and more 
 severe than I had even dreamed of. I always expected a 
 small storm or two after each infraction of the rigid 
 rules I was forced to live under after leaving my mother, 
 but I never did quite picture a cyclone as the possible 
 result, and frequently this was the case, and I was put 
 under the ban and watched so closely that the oppor- 
 tunities to be a real boy were not often afforded me. 
 
 I stayed with Mr. Fry until I grew sick and tired of it. 
 I planned often to run away and go back to mother, but 
 it seemed I was an age getting, a chance. My brain was 
 active along this line and I concocted many schemes, only 
 to see them blasted for want of an opportunity to put 
 them into practice. Of course I was allowed to visit my 
 mother, who lived ten miles away, once a month, but I 
 could not take advantage of this because there was the 
 mule to take back. What I wanted to do was to get away 
 with nothing in my possession to return. I felt, too, that 
 it was necessary to run away in order to completely sever 
 
AND Pool of Blood 27 
 
 my connection with Mr. Fry, and that if I should do this 
 my sin against him would be so great he would not want 
 me about him again. Whether this was correct or not 
 I never knew. It is probable that I flattered myself in 
 thinking that I would be missed at all. At any rate, I 
 placed that high estimate on myself and this had a great 
 deal to do with my actions in turning my back on the 
 Fry home. 
 
 One Sunday in the late afternoon I stole from the house 
 and walked down the road. My plan was to go slowly 
 and carelessly so as to make it appear that the least thing 
 in the world I was thinking of was running away. I 
 could not help feeling guilty and that every pair of eyes 
 in the world w^as looking through me and discerning my 
 intention. I kept going, however, walking first from one 
 side of the road then to the other, always taking care to 
 make my crossings sufficiently diagonal to carry me far- 
 ther away with each movement. 
 
 When I had gotten almost to where I intended to make 
 a dash for liberty, Walter Fry, a son of my employer, 
 and about my age, overtook me. Had I not been con- 
 vinced that it would have exposed my intention and 
 frustrated my designs for that day and many more to 
 come, I would have given him a sound thrashing for tag- 
 ging after me. He was friendly to me and we always 
 played together on Sunday afternoons, and he had come 
 because he wanted to be with me and not to keep an eye 
 on my actions. 
 
 Walter had some firecrackers he had gotten the day 
 before in town, and he was simply bubbling over with 
 talk of them. My mind was filled with sad thoughts, and 
 I felt that he would run me crazy with his silly jabbering.. 
 That is the way it was that day, but under happier cir- 
 cumstances I would have been just as much interested in 
 them as he. 
 
28 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 We then walked on down the road in the direction I 
 intended making my flight, and all this time I was schem- 
 ing to get rid of him without having to return to the 
 house. The afternoon was wearing on, and I knew that 
 I barely had time to reach my mother's before dark, 
 even with the greatest haste, boy that I was, and walking 
 at that. 
 
 An idea struck me and I immediately began to put it 
 into execution. 
 
 "Walter," I said, after I had concluded the idea would 
 work, "you go back to the house and shoot three fire- 
 crackers, one after the other, and before the third one 
 explodes I shall be there, starting from where we are 
 now when I hear the first one. You must light one, and 
 when it fires light another and so on to the third." 
 
 'T don't beheve you can do it," he replied. 
 
 "I'll bet you my hat against yours I can," I added. 
 
 "Well," he said, "I'll take you up. You wait right 
 here and don't come nearer until you hear the first one." 
 
 I assured him I would not move toward the house at 
 all, and off he went, not knowing how true I would be 
 to my promise not to come nearer. 
 
 I have often wondered if the report of those fire- 
 crackers ever rang out on the still air of that Sunday 
 afternoon. If it did, how long did that boy wait for me 
 to come up on a dead run before he decided giving up 
 expecting me. He won the bet, but, as I had my hat 
 on my head when he left me, the debt was never paid. 
 
 That afternoon when he started to the house I waited 
 until he skipped around the first turn in the road, and 
 then I did some skipping, myself in an opposite direction. 
 I ran as fast and as long as I could, putting as much 
 distance as was possible between me and the Fry home 
 per minute as I was capable of. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 29 
 
 I knew a family living half way between the point I 
 left and my destination, and, as I had been delayed in 
 beginning my trip, and as night was coming on, I asked 
 these good people to keep me until the next day. This 
 they did, and the next morning I finished my trip home. 
 While mother was glad to see me, she disapproved the 
 way in which I left Mr. Fry, and said that I must go 
 back. She said that he did not deserve such treatment 
 at my hands, and that the right thing for me to do would 
 be to return. She was determined in this, and she started 
 me on my return trip guarded by my sister, who was 
 older than I. We had no conveyance, therefore we 
 started out walking the ten miles we had to go, hoping to 
 catch wagons at intervals on the journey and ride short 
 distances in them. 
 
 I remember how downcast I was over the prospect of 
 going back to face that boy I had fooled so badly. I 
 felt that I would not mind it so much if it were not for 
 this. Every objection I had to staying there seemed to 
 be nothing compared to this. I had lied to that boy and 
 was ashamed to face him. I told sister all about it and 
 how I hated to return to that place. We held a confer- 
 ence by the roadside and agreed that we would ask every 
 man we met for work for me. 
 
 We had gone about a mile before meeting a single per- 
 son, when we came upon a Mr. Coke, who lived two 
 miles from mother's. We asked him if he could use a 
 boy on his place, and when he said he could it was a 
 question of who was the happier, sister or I. He told me 
 to report at his house at once and go to work. We were 
 so elated that we ran every step of the way back home. 
 Mother saw us coming, and, in order to spare her any 
 fright, I began waving my hat and hallooing, "good news ! 
 good news !" and I thought that it was the most impor- 
 tant piece of news in the world. 
 
30 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 It was not necessary to go by home to get to this new 
 place. In fact, it was at least a mile farther to go that 
 way than direct to his place from where we met him, but 
 an eagerness to tell mother of my good fortune impelled 
 us to report to her first. It was not long until sister and 
 I were oif to Mr. Coke's place. But I was to meet a 
 rebuff there and be sent home with a heavy heart. As 
 we entered his yard an old woman was seen sitting on 
 the porch. We approached her with fear and timidity, 
 and when we reached the steps she roughly demanded 
 to know what we wanted. I told her I had been sent 
 there by Mr. Coke to work. She appeared to be very 
 much wrought up over it and ordered us out of the yard, 
 saying "We don't want any boys around this place." 
 
 I shall not attempt to describe my feelings. Sister 
 and I returned home with never a word between us, but 
 when we entered and saw mother we broke down and be- 
 gan to cry. There was that same soothing hand again. 
 and vAih it she wiped away our tears and our sorrow. 
 
 There was nothing more said after that about my going 
 l>ack to Fry's. I was ever alert in search of another 
 place, however, and about a week after my return home 
 I secured work with a Mr. Brown. He employed me at 
 three dollars per month and board. I swelled up at once 
 with manly pride — I had at least found where I could earn 
 money sufficient to pay mother every month an amoimt 
 equal to that brother had been able to give her. 
 
 His farm was not far from where we were then living, 
 so I could easily make trips home every Sunday. Pay day 
 seemed a long time getting around each month, but after 
 many weary days of looking forward to it, it would ar- 
 rive. If it should happen to fall in the middle of the 
 week, then Sunday would seem an age in rolling around 
 so I could get off and take it to mother. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 31 
 
 I cannot describe my happiness when I mounted the 
 old mule and started home with my month's earnings. 
 The gaining of milHons now would not fill my heart with 
 half the sunshine that crowded into it on these occa- 
 sions. 
 
 Ah ! But the great reward I was to receive was wait- 
 ing for me at home. I knew that when I reached home 
 I would receive something in return for that three dol- 
 lars that would be worth more to me than all else in the 
 world — the words of praise and caresses mother would 
 bestow upon me. 
 
 When I would walk in and hand the money over to 
 her she would take me in her lap, and with all her strength 
 hold me to her, while her bosom was heaving with sobs, 
 and as the hot, precious tears would drop on my face and 
 neck, I could hear her murmuring over and over, 
 "Mamma's little man, mamma's little man." 
 
 Lives there a man so debased and with a heart so hard 
 who would not give all his earthly possessions for just 
 one such moment on his mother's knee? I am sure there 
 is not, and that there is no man, even though he has 
 reached the very depths of depravity, but that is moved to 
 higher thoughts when he recalls his mother and her ten- 
 derness, and how she prayed and hoped for the best and 
 noblest in life for her boy. A man so low in the social 
 scale must suffer untold agonies from the pangs of re- 
 morse and outraged conscience when he sits down with 
 his own thoughts and plainly views the wide gulf which 
 stretches between him and the purity of his childhood, 
 when his mother's hand was guiding his footsteps and 
 her prayers protecting him from the snares of tempta- 
 tion. 
 
 A mother's love at the beginning of our lives is the 
 one foundation upon which we build to higher things, 
 
32 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 and down through the long years to the grave the re- 
 membrance of it is ever with us, and we cherish it above 
 the richest spoils of life's battle. 
 
 After I had been at work at Mr. Brown's a few months, 
 mother moved to a Mr. Felts'. This took her fifteen 
 miles from me, and my visits to her were not so frequent 
 as before, my employer limiting, my calls home to one 
 a month. This was hard to bear, but I steeled myself 
 to it. 
 
 I was sent to mill once each week. This mill was 
 fourteen miles from where I worked and within one mile 
 of where mother lived. Half way between Brown's and 
 the mill, and one mile off the main road, lived a Mr. 
 Trigg, and for this man my brother Shelby, two years 
 younger than I, was working, he having begun there 
 about the time mother moved. 
 
 Each time I started to the mill I was cautioned not to 
 stop and see my brother, and not to, after reaching the 
 mill, go to see my mother, although I would be within 
 one mile of her with nothing to do for four hours while 
 waiting for my grist. My desire to see my mother and 
 sister and my brother was more than I cared to over- 
 come, and on a few occasions I disobeyed the order given 
 me and went to see them. Someone told Brown what I 
 had done and I was promptly whipped. 
 
 While with Brown I was treated more like a slave 
 than a human being, and one of the bitterest recollections 
 of my childhood, as I look back through the vale of 
 years, is of this man. He cared not how I suffered ; he 
 wanted all the service he could get out of my frail body, 
 and many was the day that closed when I seemed almost 
 passing away with it. 
 
 I was often too tired to sleep at all until the night was half 
 gone, and I would no more than begin to doze, it would 
 
AND Pool of Blood 33 
 
 seem, when I was roughly called to get up and "feed." 
 Feeding the horses and mules was my first daily duty, and 
 this had to be done at four o'clock in the morning. From 
 then until sundown the grind was incessant and almost 
 unbearable. The eating of the morning and midday 
 meals did not have the effect of resting it should, because 
 of the thought of what was to come and the haste with 
 which they were disposed of. All of this to make dollars 
 for a man who did not care for the hardships of others. 
 This thing kept up month in and month out, and thus I 
 slaved until I was fourteen years of age. 
 
 I was ever full of pluck and determination, and that, 
 together with my great love for mother, gave me strength, 
 without which I would have long since given up the 
 struggle as not worth while. 
 
 About this time mother began to fail in health, and the 
 blow I thus saw directed toward me was one I could 
 not see how I was to bear. She knew she was going 
 and tried to keep it from her children. Sister and I 
 talked it over secretly when I visited them, but we tried 
 to cheer mother by appearing not to notice it. We felt 
 that it was best to make her think we did not suffer. We 
 knew she did not want us to notice her decline, and while 
 in her presence we never even hinted at what we feared. 
 
 You may imagine the ordeal through which I passed 
 each month I stayed away. I dreaded what each hour 
 would bring to me in the shape of bad news. 
 
 Mother, up to this time, had not been forced to take to 
 her bed, but that dread disease, consumption, the direct 
 result of exposure and hard work, as I knew, was hourly 
 getting in its work of destruction. 
 
 Again the time for another visit home was near, and 
 one day when I was on my way to Clarksville with a load 
 of tobacco, and was within three miles of town, I was 
 
34 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 overtaken by a horseman, who, in his rough and uncouth 
 way, exclaimed: 
 
 "Hurry home, boy! Your mammy is dying!" 
 
 Upon delivering himself of this sad news, he imme- 
 diately wheeled his horse around and started on a gallop 
 in the direction from which he came. 
 
 I shall never forget the agonies I suffered in the few 
 minutes I stood there trying to decide what to do. There 
 I was with a load of tobacco three miles from Clarksville, 
 six miles from Brown's and twenty-one miles from my 
 dying mother. 
 
 I saw nothing to do but first dispose of my hogshead of 
 tobacco, and I accordingly resumed my journey to Clarks- 
 ville. After leaving the tobacco at the warehouse I had 
 to feed the horses. This consumed over another hour. 
 I was afraid to go back without feeding them, as I knew 
 it would mean a severe reprimand, if not a beating, to 
 fail in this. 
 
 After the horses finished their meal I started out for 
 Brown's, nine miles away, as fast as the horses could 
 possibly go with a lumbering wagon dragging after them. 
 At his place I borrowed a mule and was off at once to 
 the bedside of my rapidly sinking mother with fifteen 
 long, weary miles to cover before beholding her. In my 
 eagerness to reach her I seemed to stand still, while 
 tiine flitted by with lightning-like speed. 
 
 At last, late in the day, I reached the house in which 
 my mother was. With all my anxiety and hurry to get 
 there, I was too late. She never recognized me further 
 than pushing a wasted hand over the coverlid toward me 
 as I approached the bed. I shall ever believe that she 
 knew I had come and with all the strength she had left 
 my arrival was acknowledged. I held her hand and 
 begged for a word from her, but the power of speech had 
 
AND Pool of Blood 35 
 
 left her, and, ere many seconds had elapsed, her eyes 
 closed in death. 
 
 I shall not dwell on this sorrowful event further than 
 to say a short while before my dear mother lost con- 
 sciousness she said to a kind-hearted neighbor she saw 
 standing near her bed : 
 
 **Col. Locker, I shall soon be dead, and when I am 
 gone I want you to look after my three little ones and 
 see that they get good homes and are raised as you know 
 I would have them be." 
 
 Leaning over the bed and taking her hand, he replied : 
 "Mrs. Johns, as a Mason, I shall do everything you ask.'' 
 
 He never forgot his promise, and in after years he did 
 the best he could for our welfare. My father was a 
 Mason and he felt it his duty to protect us. This, how- 
 ever, he was not able to do at first, and as we three chil- 
 dren turned from mother's grave it was to separate for a 
 long time. 
 
 I was taken back to Brown's, Shelby was carried home 
 by another Mr. Brown, brother to the one with whom I 
 was living, and Dixie, my sister, went to the home of 
 another Mr. Brown, no relation to the other two gentle- 
 men by that name. The one who took my sister was a 
 kind-hearted man, and the kind treatment accorded her b}- 
 his family made me better satisfied v^ith my lot, even 
 though it was a hard one. 
 
 The two Browns with whom.Shelby and I were living 
 resided on adjoining farms, but, because of som.e family 
 disagreement, had not spoken for years. I could see my 
 little brother as he toiled in the field of his new home, 
 and because of the enmity that existed between the tv.'o 
 brothers, we v/ere not allowed to hail or even to speak to 
 one another. 
 
 I grew tired of this sort of life and determined to sat- 
 isfy the ambition I felt welling up within m.e. 
 
36 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Mr. John Shaw, a tender-hearted man and with whom 
 I Hved later in Hfe and at the hands of whose angelic 
 wife I received much kindness, finding in her a second 
 mother, came often to the place where I was then work- 
 ing. The first time he came I ran down and opened the 
 gate for him to drive through. He was so pleased with 
 my attentiveness on this occasion that he gave me a 
 quarter. He came frequently after that and each time 
 I was given a small, but very welcome coin. Mr. Shaw 
 was a buyer of tobacco, and it was in this capacity he 
 visited Mr. Brown. 
 
 I saved the money he gave me until I had accumulated 
 $1.70. This was too much money to have at one time 
 and longer stay where I did not in the least desire to. I 
 had a cousin living at Olmstead, Ky., and $1.70 would 
 take me there from Clarksville and leave a little change 
 in my pocket. 
 
 Long before day one morning, with all of this world's 
 goods I possessed wrapped in a quilt which I appropriated 
 from my bed, I became a fugitive from injustice. The 
 clothes on my back would not have been accepted as col- 
 lateral for the purchase price of a penny newspaper. 
 They were worn and bagged about my angular form in 
 a way as to make me a very comical sight to behold. The 
 hat on my head, from constant wear of many months in 
 the field, had assumed the shape of a chocolate drop. 
 
 People who were gathered at the Clarksville depot to 
 catch the early train laughed at me. With a solemn face 
 I impatiently paraded up and down the platform, bearing 
 upon my back the pitiful looking bundle held together by 
 that odd appearing quilt, while those scattered about 
 smiled and chuckled in merriment at the spectacle they 
 beheld. I felt hurt at it then, but now I laugh more 
 heartily than they did when I call it to mind. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 37 
 
 I had never been on a train and had to ask a man to 
 get my ticket for me. I furnished as much amusement 
 on the train as I did on the platform by my ridiculous 
 appearance, even the negroes greeting me with loud ha 
 ha's when I sought relief in their coach, and when I 
 finally reached my destination it was a great relief to me. 
 
 I no sooner reached the home of my cousin than I set 
 out looking for work. There seemed to be a dearth of it 
 in that particular neighborhood, and I walked many weary 
 miles each day in search of it, with the same result at 
 night. I was told on all sides I was too small. I knew 
 I could equal a man in the field, and all I wanted was a 
 trial. I was refused this so many times that I became 
 disheartened, when, late one afternoon, I went off by 
 myself and sat down by the roadside and cried. I was 
 out in the world and friendless, and I knew by what I 
 had seen that my cousin and her husband did not want 
 me around them. The whole world was then dark, but it 
 proved to be the proverbial darkest shadow before dawn 
 for me. 
 
 While I was sitting there crying I was startled by a 
 noise nearby, and, looking up, I saw standing in front of 
 me, all in a row, with unmistakable signs of sweet sym- 
 pathy streaming from their pretty eyes, four golden- 
 haired children. 
 
 Without any ceremony or even drying my tear-wet 
 eyes, I sprang to my feet and addressed to them the one 
 question I had asked so many times in the past few days, 
 *'Do you know of anyone who wants to hire?" 
 
 Again the same sad answer — the four little heads shook 
 at me the "no" with which I had so often been met in 
 what I had begun to think a fruitless search. After some 
 questioning I learned that the little strangers were chil- 
 dren of a Mr. Daniel, whose farm was nearby. I told 
 
38 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 them my name and where I could be found, and that if 
 they heard of anyone who wanted to "hire" to tell them 
 about me. Little did I dream then that God had sent 
 these sweet little children to be my messengers, and it 
 was with many misgivings that I returned to my cousin's 
 house for the night. 
 
 I was worried and did not sleep soundly that night, 
 and when a brisk knock sounded on the front door before 
 day the next morning I was soon wide-awake and listen- 
 ing. The door was opened at the summons, and when T 
 heard a kindly voice inquire, "Is there a boy here by the 
 name of Charlie Johns?" I reached the door in time to 
 say "yes" for myself. 
 
 He explained that he was Mr. Daniel and that his chil- 
 dren had told him I was looking for work. I was told 
 to come over to his house to breakfast, and, although I 
 had to dress before starting, when Mr. Daniel entered his 
 own yard on his return home, I was assailing his wood- 
 pile with an axe, and the earnestness w4th which I was 
 wielding it left no doubt in his mind that my intention 
 was to do some wood-splitting. He marveled at the 
 quickness with which I reached his house, but I was too 
 happy to explain to him how I accomplished it. He said 
 he would give me work for two days, and after breakfast 
 I went out with the other hands to gather corn. 
 
 The next day, just as I emerged from between two 
 rows of corn, after having stripped the stalks along my 
 path of the hanging ears of grain, I saw a man sitting 
 on his horse in the road only a few feet away intently 
 watching me. He said he had been watching me come 
 through the corn and that my work suited him exactly. 
 Thereupon he offered to hire me if I was not engaged for 
 any length of time. 
 
 I told him I was to leave there that day and would be 
 
AND Pool of Blood 39 
 
 glad to come and work for him. He explained that his 
 name was Duke, and that he rented from Dr. Russell and 
 I might report for duty the following morning. 
 
 Mr. Daniel was very much hurt when I told him I was 
 going to leave him, but when he recalled that he said he 
 only needed me two days, he said it was his own fault and 
 that he could not blame me for accepting the offer under 
 the circumstances. He gave me two half dollars for my 
 two days' work and, compared to what I had received for 
 my services before, I was liberally paid. 
 
 I stayed with Mr. Duke a while and then went to work 
 on the farm of John Russell in that vicinity. I made a 
 contract with him for the year, and I was to be paid ten 
 dollars per month, out of which I paid my board at another 
 place. This left me nothing for clothes and a very little 
 for pocket change. 
 
 I often wondered in those days if people with money 
 expected those with none to go naked, and even now my 
 mind has not changed much on this subject. I am still 
 wondering it. 
 
 Russell was a hard man to work for. He was heartless 
 in his demands of those under him. One hot day he 
 rushed me so in the field that I fell exhausted and blood 
 began to flow from my nose and mouth. I had fallen in 
 my tracks trying to serve a brute who was only giving me 
 a pittance as a wage. 
 
 Once I thought I had at last discovered a spark of kind- 
 ness in this man's heart, but I afterwards found that it 
 was a scheme to gain at my expense. 
 
 As I said before, he was paying me ten dollars a month 
 and out of this I was paying board and lodging at 
 another place. It was harvest time, and the thresher was 
 pounding away in the wheat field. It was customary 
 then to pay extra help three dollars per day during har- 
 
40 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 vest, while the regular hands worked for the sum con- 
 tracted for in the beginning. News came that my sister 
 was sick, and I told Russell about it. I was struck almost 
 speechless by what he said. It was so different to what 
 I expected. 
 
 "You must go and see your sister. Stay as long as 
 you think necessary and come on back and go to work," 
 he said. 
 
 I thanked him for this and felt that he was not such a 
 bad man after all. 
 
 I was gone a little more than a week, and when he 
 settled with me at the end of the year, he took out of my 
 wages three dollars a day for the time I was absent at 
 the bedside of my sister, deducting harvest pay from the 
 sum due me, when I was only receiving ten dollars per 
 month for my services. I was helpless and he robbed me ; 
 I was friendless and he took advantage of me. 
 
 In after years, when I made such a hard fight as an 
 independent and was elected sheriff of my county, this 
 man Russell had the insolence to send me congratula- 
 tions. The reply he received from me was assurance 
 enough that I did not appreciate remembrance at his 
 hands. 
 
 Since that time I have met many John Russells and of 
 them I shall speak in this book. 
 
 A few months before leaving Russell's place I was 
 earnestly solicited by Mr. John Shaw, the man for whom 
 I had opened the gate so many times, and by so doing 
 earned money sufficient to leave a hated neighborhood, 
 made so by the suffering and death of my dear mother 
 in it, to come to his house and live as his son. I readily 
 consented to this, and when dragging time terminated my 
 contract with a man I was so glad to sever my connection 
 with, I took up my abode in the household of this good 
 
AND Pool of Blood 41 
 
 man and his angelic wife — not as a servant or one hired 
 to do farm work, but as their son. They had a boy of 
 their own, but they showed no partiaHty between us. 
 
 Mrs. Shaw was a sister of Col. H. M. Doak, Clerk of 
 the Federal Court at Nashville. She spared no pains to 
 see that I was at home from the moment of my arrival 
 among them. I was given a room, the luxury of which 
 I had never dreamed of for my lot. At first I was a 
 little embarrassed, being transferred in an instant, I might 
 say, from poverty and its hardships to ease and its kindest 
 treatments. This good woman looked after my physical 
 and spiritual well-being, and I felt that she was my 
 mother sent to me in another person to again smooth the 
 rough places in the path I saw before me. 
 
 Mother's prayer was answered, and her children were 
 at last in the hands of kind-hearted and Christian people. 
 
 I was given a comfortable home and was surrounded 
 by the purest atmosphere. My environments were such 
 as to make me look with renewed hope to those higher 
 ideals I often dreamed of when younger, back in the dark 
 days of poverty and suffering. 
 
 I looked on Mr. and Mrs. Shaw as new-found parents, 
 and they left nothing unturned to assure me that they 
 considered me their boy. They could not have been 
 kinder to me had I been their own flesh and blood. 
 
 There lived in their house Mr. Shaw's brother and his 
 wife, and they, too, were kind to me. They were well 
 supplied with this world's goods, and they shared it as 
 freely and unselfishly with me as if I had taken part in 
 its earning. 
 
 Time came for me to be off to school. I shall never 
 forget when I left. I had learned to love these good 
 people so I hated to leave them even for a day. 
 
 I was called aside first by one and then another, and 
 
42 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 each in turn gave me good advice and assured me of true 
 friendship. I was very much moved by their kindness, 
 and when Mrs. Shaw, my new mother, called me into her 
 room after the others had talked with me, I was touched 
 so by her sweet assurances of love for me that I could 
 not keep back the tears, and this good woman wept with 
 me. 
 
 "Charlie," she said, 'Sou are leaving us to go to school 
 and I want you to be a good boy. We love you and want 
 you to always consider yourself our son. I have but one 
 request to make of you, and I know if you never fail to 
 comply with that it will be impossible for you to be other 
 than a good boy. 
 
 "My one request is that you go every day, just as the 
 sun is sinking to rest, to a silent spot and pray for me ; 
 at the same time each day I shall pray for you, and both 
 of us will be helped by it. Now, will you do this ?" 
 
 I was too full of emotion to tell her I would, but she 
 knew her request would never go unheeded. Each after- 
 noon, as the sun touched the distant tree tops, diffusing 
 the west with its golden glory, I went into secret prayer 
 for this good woman I so much adored for her sweetness 
 of character, and, as my lips began to move in supplica- 
 tion to God to protect and preserve her, I felt that my 
 petition was mingling with hers among the delicate rays 
 of the sinking orb of light as they penetrated the vast- 
 ness of blue on their upward journey to the throne of the 
 Creator in mute thankfulness for the splendor of the 
 gorgeous body from which they sprang. 
 
 Regardless of what was engaging my attention, I 
 dropped everything and went to a suitable spot and 
 prayed the prayer I had promised to pray when the ap- 
 pointed time arrived. Many times, while engaged in 
 playing ball, I have run away to a tree or building, stop- 
 
AND Pool of Blood 43 
 
 ping the game because of my absence. The boys were 
 curious to know at first what was meant by such actions, 
 but I never told them, and after a while they ceased 
 to ply me with questions regarding this and soon came 
 to expect it of me. I felt that my secret was too sacred 
 to let out among them, and for that reason I guarded it 
 closely. 
 
 LATER EVENTS. 
 
 The Webb School at Bellbuckle, Tenn., was educating 
 boys as successfully then as now, and after having gone 
 for a session at Adams, Tenn., I decided I could learn 
 much more readily under the famous old instructor at 
 the former place. 
 
 Mr. Shaw offered to pay all of my expenses at Bell- 
 buckle, but this I would not let him do. 
 
 I shall never forget that first day at "Old Sawney's'' 
 school, and how we were formed in line to march past 
 !iim in his seat of authority, while each of us in turn 
 gave his name and the name of his parents, or those 
 directly in whose charge we were. 
 
 Prof. Webb has a wonderful memory. When once he 
 heard a boy's name he never forgot it, and with the great 
 number he had under his charge, he easily remembered 
 all their names. 
 
 *'01d Sawney" is still conducting his school at Bell- 
 buckle, and every state in the Union owes him a debt of 
 gratitude for the good he has done in educating men who 
 are now residing within their borders. To be a graduate 
 of his school is one of the best recommendations any man 
 could have. He has been a credit to his state and his 
 nation, and I doubt if there is a country on the face of 
 the earth that can make the least claim to civilization in 
 Wiiich he is not known as an educator. He understands 
 
44 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 the boy thoroughly, and if he goes to his school with the 
 least bit of gray matter to use as a basis "Old Sawney" 
 will build on this and from it construct a brain with which 
 the student may have a chance in life's battle. He is an 
 old man now, but still active; and the duty God has 
 allotted to him does not go unperformed, and while some 
 of our great universities are turning out more hair- 
 brained ''Cholly boys" than real men, this beloved old in- 
 structor is hammering soundness into the heads of young 
 men that will make them profitable both to themselves and 
 their communities. 
 
 A proper memorial in the shape of a library at the 
 Y. M. C. A. of Nashville is being erected to Prof. Webb 
 while he is yet alive to appreciate it. This library is being 
 paid for by subscriptions taken from the alumni of the 
 Webb School, and there is not one of his former students 
 who would not give his life, if need be, for "Old Sawney" 
 —may he live long to be honored by the people who love 
 
 him. 
 
 After I left the Webb School I went into Cheatham 
 County, where I had been appointed teacher in a district 
 school, and there, for one session, I disseminated my 
 knowledge ( ?) among the sons of yeomen, and whether 
 I sowed seeds among them that grew into vigorous 
 plants I do not know, but I am sure the efforts I put 
 forth to do this should have been rewarded. So far, 
 however, I have not been approached by one of my 
 former pupils with thanks for any good I might have 
 
 done him. 
 
 I came to Nashville about twenty-one years ago, and 
 shortly afterwards began work as a telegraph operator 
 for the L. & N. R. R. At the end of several years' 
 service with this company I went with the Liberty Mills, 
 and was there in the same capacity. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 45 
 
 While my position at the Liberty Mills paid me about 
 two thousand dollars a year, there was no chance of it 
 being any better. I was looking to the future, and was 
 willing to make any sacrifice to put myself in line for 
 the advancement I craved. 
 
 I had been a close observer of Nashville's city govern- 
 ment, and especially its police department, and I saw 
 nothing there, with a few exceptions, but inefficiency, and 
 it was most apparent in the head of that branch of the 
 city's administration. I had been watching Police Chief 
 Henry Curran, and I saw plainly that he was wholly in- 
 adequate. To be honest, I saw that the whole police 
 department was inefficiently conducted, and that there 
 was a needed change. Later events showed this to be 
 a fact, whether it was done or not. 
 
 I severed my connection with the Liberty Mills for the 
 purpose of joining the police force of Nashville. To do 
 this I accordingly secured a place as patrolman at $75.00 
 per month. I want to say that I felt greatly humiliated, 
 and it was with much embarrassment that I wore the 
 uniform of a Nashville ''cop." I felt degraded, and I 
 look back on it now with a blush. Being a policeman is 
 down the social scale within itself, but to be counted as 
 a member of that body in Nashville is additional reason 
 for disgrace. I do not mean to say that every policeman 
 is on an equality with his position. There are good men 
 serving in this capacity from force of circumstances, and 
 there are a few policemen in Nashville who feel the 
 degradation that comes from wearing the uniform. I 
 know they will back me in the statement just made. 
 
 Gambling houses were running wide open, and saloons 
 were dispensing their wares almost as freely on Sundays 
 as any other day in the week. The officials whose duty 
 it was to stop these practices appeared not to l3e cog- 
 nizant of their perpetration. 
 
46 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 To be plain, I wanted to get in the Nashville police 
 service in order to get at things on the inside. When I 
 did this my svirmises were more than shown to be cor- 
 rect. I found some astonishing conditions there. In- 
 stead of the men receiving orders to enforce the law, 
 they were commanded not to molest certain men m its 
 violation. Onr instructions were mostly "don't" and 
 
 seldom "do." 
 
 I never received my pay that I didn't feel that I was 
 not entitled to it. I felt that I was receiving something 
 for nothing, and during my entire service of fifteen 
 months as ^a policeman, I was never called on by those 
 above me to perform that duty which my sense of right 
 told me should not go unnoticed. As time passed, this 
 became disgusting and almost intolerable. 
 
 Charges began to be openly made against the police 
 force by the press and certain citizens. This was done 
 without any discrimination, and Mayor T. O. Morris and 
 Chief of Police Henry Curran said nothing in defense 
 of the force, or any of its members. After giving them 
 every chance to do so, I took the matter up myself and 
 sent a letter to the press on my own responsibility. It 
 was wrong for those policemen who wanted to do then- 
 duty to be exposed to such attacks by the action, or m- 
 action, of their superiors and delinquent members. 
 
 When my letter appeared in the papers I was forth- 
 with hauled up before Mayor Morris and threatened with 
 being tried on the charge of insubordination. This gen- 
 tleman seemed to think it awful that a little policeman 
 would be so bold as to take upon himself that v/hich 
 should devolve upon others higher up. I waited upon 
 these officials and found them too slow. I am sure now, 
 as I was then, that they never would have acted. 
 
 Mavor Morris was very defiant when he first con- 
 
AND Pool of Blood 47 
 
 fronted me in his office at the City Hall that day. I am 
 sure his intention was to frighten me, but when he saw 
 that his severity (assumed severity) did not make me 
 tremble he began to shake himself. 
 
 I afterwards learned that on the advice of City Attor- 
 ney Hill McAllister, Mayor Morris dropped any idea of 
 proceeding against me for insubordination. I heard that 
 he informed the mayor that instead of his being able to 
 sustain such a charge against me, that the whole matter 
 would react in showing him and Chief Curran up ip a 
 bad light. I was aware that the record of these two 
 officials would not stand under the rays of publicity, so 
 I was not surprised when told of what the city attorney 
 had advised. 
 
 I had been in the position I then held about eleven 
 months, and Chief Henry Curran was brought before 
 the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners to be tried 
 on the charge of inefficiency. The present mayor of 
 Nashville, Hilary E. Howse, was a member of that com- 
 mittee. Mr. Howse and I were members of the A. P. A. 
 at the same time, and, judging by the heated talks he 
 made at our gatherings, I was led to believe there was 
 no man more in favor of "America for Americans" than 
 he. In his arraignment of foreigners, from the Irish to 
 the Jews, he was most severe, but when he cast his vote 
 in the trial of Henry Curran, *Trish through and through," 
 it was to retain him, and again Nashville was afflicted 
 with a continuation of Curran's service. And to this good 
 day that Pope loving "mick" is at the head of Nashville's 
 police department, while there is not a man under him 
 who is not better fitted to fill his place. 
 
 While the trial of Curran was in progress I was taken 
 sick, and while confined to my bed Mr. Higginbotham, 
 then a member of the Nashville Board of Public Works, 
 
48 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 called at my home. He told me that everything indicated 
 the dismissal of Curran and that he was firmly convinced 
 in his own mind that I was the one to be appointed to 
 fill his place. There being only three on this board, he 
 gave me the additional assurance of Capt. Alexander's 
 support, as he had heard him say that he would cast his 
 vote for me in preference to anyone else. 
 
 Had I gotten in as chief, Nashville would have had a 
 much better police department than the one which is 
 helping it in its downward course today. It would now 
 be made up with good American citizens, and no Roman 
 Catholic would have been permitted to disgrace it by 
 being on the force. I would have run this department 
 to suit the people of Nashville, and not to please that old 
 Italian at Rome. There are too many lawless Catholics 
 on Nashville's payroll now. This would not be the case 
 if we had a few men with a little backbone to look after 
 
 things a bit. 
 
 As I have said in some of my speeches, I was stationed 
 out in the jimson weeds, and there, in the lonely hours 
 of night, I have walked my beat and pondered. My 
 thoughts were ever of Nashville and its people. I saw 
 how they were being imposed upon by corrupt officials. 
 I turned my thoughts on Sheriff Tom Cartwright and his 
 slipshod method of conduct. I knew he was not doing 
 his dutv. When I first began to think of this, I did not 
 dream of running for his office. I was merely wonder- 
 ing why the sheriff did not enforce the law the mayor 
 and the chief of police were allowing to be so flagrantly 
 
 violated. • .1, 
 
 It did not take me long to place Cartwright in the 
 Morris and Curran list. I saw these men accepting the 
 people's money for services not rendered. It was evi- 
 dently more profitable not to serve the people than to 
 
AND Pool of Blood 49 
 
 serve them. I had no proof of this, but I did some good 
 'reasoning. My mind was troubled over these things, 
 and I longed to put a stop to the wrongs which were 
 being perpetrated. 
 
 Dr. Ira Landrith, Regent of Belmont College, invited 
 all the policemen near enough to attend to hear him 
 preach an especially prepared sermon at Addison Street 
 Presbyterian Church. I was anxious to hear this, and 
 that night I was there. In the course of his remarks, 
 which were mostly directed against lawlessness, he said: 
 
 "I wish some humble policeman would rise up among 
 us and make a fight for law and order." 
 
 This inspired me, not to do so myself, but with a 
 desire to cast about for a leader, or a man fit to be 
 sheriff of Davidson County, and run him against Tom 
 Cartwright. I was almost positive that Cartwright's 
 record was so rotten that a good man could defeat him. 
 Jim Cantrell became the candidate of the Committee of 
 One Hundred to oppose him in the Democratic primary, 
 but the lawless element stood by their friend and Cart- 
 wright was nominated for a third term. 
 
 I did not give up here. I had faith in the people, and 
 I knew that a strong independent candidate could win 
 against him if Cartwright's record was exposed. I was 
 positive this would not bear scrutiny and all that was 
 necessary was to turn on the light. It only remained to 
 get the man, and for him I began a search in earnest. 
 
 I first called on Dr. Ira Landrith and laid before him 
 my plans, fte hooted at it and said it was utterly im- 
 possible to defeat a Democratic nominee. A visit to 
 Dr. E. E. Folk, I. L. Pendleton, John H. DeWitt and 
 J. H. Kirkland, Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, 
 and others only resulted in the same thing. Each of 
 them expressed himself as thinking such a move would 
 
 4 
 
50 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 be ridiculous. After these repeated failures to get en- 
 couragement from others, I decided to make the race 
 myself. 
 
 The first thing I did was to address a letter to Mr. 
 Cartwright notifying him of my entrance into the race. 
 I furnished the press with a copy of this, and when it 
 appeared there was much fun at the expense of "the 
 little policeman" who had such an opinion of himself. 
 Apparently I was the only man in Nashville at that time 
 who took Johns seriously. 
 
 I prepared for the fray, and announced that I would 
 open my campaign in the county court house. I am sure 
 it was out of curiosity, but there was a great crowd 
 there to hear my first gun. I felt honored at any rate. 
 
 To give the reader a better idea of that night's hap- 
 penings as related to my first speech, in what proved to 
 be a most strenuous campaign, I here give the Nashville 
 Banner's report of that aflfair: 
 
 JOHNS MAKES GRAVE CHARGES 
 IN OPENING SPEECH IN RACE FOR SHERIFF. 
 
 ATTACK UPON OFFICIALS. 
 
 Says Mayor, Chief of Police and Sheriff Are Working 
 
 in Conjunction. Laws Have Not Been 
 
 Enforced. 
 
 SENSATIONAL ALLEGATIONS. 
 There was certainly something doing at the court house 
 last night, and those who took in the occasion experienced 
 a surprise that can only be less than that coming to those 
 
AND Pool of Blood 51 
 
 who failed to attend when they learn what happened. 
 It had been announced that C. D. Johns, an independent 
 candidate for sheriff, would make the opening speech of 
 his campaign. Such an announcement would not lead 
 an ordinary man to believe that anything unusual would 
 take place, and the average man would not look for much 
 of a speech from a candidate who had been on the police 
 force. But right here is where the public and the large 
 crowd who attended the speaking were fooled. Mr. 
 Johns is a most excellent speaker, has a good command 
 of language, ready wit, a good delivery, impressive man- 
 ner, puts enthusiasm in his w^ords and stimulates that 
 same feeling in his audience; and further, he made a 
 speech that was highly sensational in its nature; one 
 that will not fail to cause a ripple wherever it is heard. 
 
 A big crowd of enthusiastic hearers had gathered in 
 the Circuit Court room on the third floor. Mr. Johns 
 spoke until 9:30 o'clock and when he suggested that he 
 was speaking too long the crowd yelled back, "Go on! 
 Go on!" Several members of the police force and some 
 firemen were on hand and several shook hands with him 
 at the close of his speech. Several saloon men were also 
 there, as were some of the deputies of the sheriff. 
 
 GAMBLING CAN BE STOPPED. 
 
 Mr. Johns, in the course of his remarks, stated in 
 substance that Chief Curran and Sheriff Cartwright were 
 friendly to and w^ere controlled by the Sunday saloonist 
 and the gambler ; that neither of these had ever enforced 
 the laws against such evils and never would. He charged 
 further in substance that Mayor Morris was in sympathy 
 
52 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 with these gentlemen, and he illustrated the attitude of 
 the three men by running the fingers of his two hands 
 together, dovetailing them. 
 
 "Public gambling can be stopped," said the speaker. 
 "This business of winking, however, is no good. I'm not 
 mad at the saloonkeeper and the gambler, but I'm clear 
 on the other side of the fence, and I'm going to send 
 them up Cumberland River on their own platform. I'll 
 break up these evils if I can get the co-operation of the 
 people. If I'm elected sheriff I'll deliver the goods, and 
 if the goods are not taken care of I'll tell the people why. 
 I have no compromises to offer. There are none between 
 law and order and lawlessness and disorder. I'll get 
 along all right with the saloonkeeper if he will only close 
 up on Sunday. 
 
 "What has Cartwright done since he has been sheriff 
 but sit still and 'saw wood' while the people suffered? 
 I'm sorry to say it, but Sheriff Cartwright has sat still 
 and done nothing. He's not here tonight, for of course 
 he's saying — T'm the nominee and I don't have to recog- 
 nize you.' 
 
 "Didn't Cartwright board a man at the Utopia Hotel 
 who was charged with embezzlement rather than take 
 him to jail? When an honest blacksmith of the Thirteenth 
 District had been charged with a heinous crime by a lewd 
 woman he slapped him in jail. He made flesh of one and 
 fish of the other, and he has been doing that way with 
 the people. Sometimes he makes the public think he's 
 awful busy. He'll sachet around and raid a lot of nig- 
 gers at Flat Rock or in the Thirteenth District. He can't 
 find anything up on Cherry Street, however. He'll pass 
 right by Jew Sam and Ike Johnson and go find the Black 
 Turf. Yes, he'll raid 'em from Cedar Street to Good- 
 lettsville. I believe in raiding nigger crap games; I be- 
 
AND Pool of Blood 53 
 
 lieve in cleaning 'em out of Black Bottom, and the other 
 dives, but get them all. Raid the white man first. The 
 white man sets the example. Get the white man and then 
 go and get Uncle Rastus, who thought it was all right 
 because the white man did it." 
 
 The speaker here stated that he had been reliably in- 
 formed that the sheriff had chained a gang of negroes 
 together at Goodlettsville and made them walk thirteen 
 miles to town. He pictured the horrors of gambling, 
 told of the homes it was ruining and the mothers and 
 wives it had caused to weep. 
 
 YOU KNOW IM RIGHT. 
 
 "You know I'm right," continued Mr. Johns. " ^Tain't 
 Cartw right I've got to beat. All I've got to do is to con- 
 vince the people that I'll do what I say I will. It's not 
 right to pile a third term on top of two others when the 
 four years' record of Cartwright for law enforcement 
 and order is as black as Egypt, as far as gambling and 
 Sunday tippling are concerned. 
 
 'M have entered this race from a moral standpoint. I 
 call as my witness the memory of a sainted and departed 
 mother, and I declare over the heads of my two children 
 that I will enforce the laws if I am elected sheriff, so 
 help me God. I can clean out the gambling hells and 
 Sunday saloons. I don't believe there is a man here who 
 believes that Cartwright has or will enforce the law. 
 
 "It is time to wake up now. I did not work for sixteen 
 months on the police force to play 'bad boy' and tell 
 what I found out, but if it becomes necessary I'll tell. 
 I'm sorry to say it, but I don't believe you have the 
 
54 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 proper protection you ought to have at the head of the 
 Police Department. I can say that I don't beHeve he has 
 ever enforced the laws, or ever will, against gambling and 
 tipphng. 
 
 "I've been catching rabbits. Fve got to be the most 
 expert rabbit catcher you ever saw. I wrote a letter to 
 Cartwright. Morris and Curran knew they were in- 
 volved. The next evening I jumped my rabbit, and 
 Mayor Morris was after him. But, Mr. Mayor, ^that's 
 my rabbit, and I'm going to have it.' Letters to the press 
 from such men as John DeWitt, Dr. Ira Landrith, Jefi" 
 McCarn, Dr. Cave, Dr. Folk and other good men who 
 have stood for law enforcement, did no good, but when 
 I sent that letter something happened. There was a plan 
 laid to take all the blame oflf the sheriff. 
 
 "Some men are so degraded they don't belieft^e me or 
 any other man can act from a pure motive. You can't 
 do anything, though, unless you go and vote and take up 
 the right kind of a man to vote for. You've got no relief 
 now at the hands of five men. Were impeachment pro- 
 ceedings instituted, the matter could be tied up in court 
 for four or five vears. 
 
 NOT AFRAID OF THE GANG. 
 
 "Vm not afraid of the gang. You paid me $75 a 
 month, yet under conditions as they were I doubt if I 
 was worth 75 cents to the city. The chief never expected 
 his men to enforce the law. When the Police Depart- 
 ment was scored he did not defend his men. I said I 
 was going to defend myself and others, however; that 
 we were not all drunkards and grafters as pictured. I 
 wrote a card at mv home, without the dictation of anv- 
 
AND Pool of Blood 55 
 
 one, and it was signed by six men of their own free will 
 and accord. It was agreed that if anyone wanted to 
 know our names they could be given. 
 
 "The first roll call after its publication we were sum- 
 moned to appear before the mayor. The third to be called 
 into the august presence, I found myself in a room in 
 which was a table at which were seated the mayor and the 
 chief, and in another part of the room sat Mr. Stainback, 
 of the Board of Public Works. I walked to the table and 
 stood before them. The mayor raised his eyes and ran 
 a withering look over my blue clothes, and stopped at my 
 face, and in tones that unmistakably said, T am Mayor 
 Morris and I will eat you up,' demanded, Ts your name 
 Johns?' I replied that it was. *Did you write this?' 
 waving a clipping of the article in my face. I replied 
 that I did. He glowered upon me for a moment and 
 then asked: 'Are you in harmony with your chief?' To 
 this I replied that I had been called upon to be ques- 
 tioned about the card, and would decline to answer irrele- 
 vant questions. He arose and, pacing the room for a few 
 seconds, asked: 'Do you believe that gambling can be 
 stopped?' I declined to answer this upon the same 
 ground. I told him if they would hold a public investi- 
 gation I would answer all questions, but until that was 
 done I should remain silent. It was my purpose from 
 the beginning to force an investigation, but they seemed 
 to get an inkling of what I was after, and the only result 
 of my being called upon the carpet was my being sent to 
 admire the scenery of the suburbs. 
 
 LAID THE FOUNDATION. 
 
 "Yes, sir, six policemen laid the foundation for the 
 mayor to go at the police department, but he laid down 
 on his own foundation. The sheriff and the chief of 
 
56 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 police and the mayor are working in conjunction. They 
 are just that way," said Mr. Johns, running the fingers 
 of his two hands together. 
 
 The speaker said he had always been a Democrat and 
 had stood for Democratic principles. This, however, 
 was no party question, and was not a case wherein the 
 party leash should be brought into play to aid a man of 
 Cartwright's type and record. He said he knew he 
 would be criticized for speaking of those in high position, 
 but that this was a free country and his word was as 
 much entitled to be heard, insignificant as he was, as 
 that of others in high position. 
 
 The speaker was frequently and loudly applauded dur- 
 ing his remarks and was the recipient of many congratu- 
 lations when he had finished. 
 
 I was not a candidate of the Committee of One Hun- 
 dred, composed of Nashville's supposed leaders for law 
 enforcement. I represented nobody but myself and my 
 conscience on entering this race, and for several weeks 
 I battled alone, and, to add to the burden I had 
 shouldered, I was forced to wrestle with poverty. As my 
 campaign advanced, and the people saw I was sincere, 
 contributions began to come in. I spoke at different 
 points about the city and had the satisfaction of seeing 
 the faces of certain prominent citizens at each of my 
 speakings. Numbers of them followed me from point to 
 point, and from this I drew much encouragement. 
 
 A prominent merchant appeared at one of my early 
 speeches, and from the earnestness of his attention I 
 knew he was interested. That night we went home on 
 the same car, and he assured me that I was on the right 
 line. The next day's mail brought me a check from this 
 gentleman for $75.00. He was present at all my speak- 
 ings in town after this. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 57 
 
 I promised the people in this campaign that I would 
 stop Sunday selling of whisky, and how well this was 
 carried out is a matter of common history, not only in 
 Nashville, but all over Tennessee as well. 
 
 After I had fought for some time and showed it was 
 possible for an independent to create interest for the 
 enforcement of law, those men who had been the loudest 
 in their cries for the defeat of a man who officially per- 
 mitted lawlessness to exist, but who did not believe there 
 was a chance to elect a candidate over him, now began 
 a mad race to climb into my wagon. With their assist- 
 ance, coming as late as it did, I went on to victory. 
 
 To show the bitterness with which the habitual law 
 violator was fighting me, I reproduce the following from 
 the Nashville Banner of August 3, 1906, three days 
 before the election: 
 
 IRA LANDRITH ON SHERIFF RACE. 
 
 "ADVOCACY OF LAW AND ORDER GOOD 
 POLITICS.'-' 
 
 SALOON MEN'S CIRCULAR 
 
 Issued Yesterday Denounces Temperance and Reform 
 Sentiment as Dangerous. 
 
 LESSONS OF SHERIFFS RACE. 
 
 At 9:30 o'clock this morning, when the election of 
 Johns was practically conceded. Dr. Ira Landrith, the 
 
58 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 long-time Chairman of the Committee of One Hundred, 
 and from the first close in the councils of Mr. Johns, 
 said: 
 
 "A majority of one vote for Mr. Johns would have 
 been a great victory for good citizenship. The day before' 
 the election the lawless elements opposed to Mr. Johns 
 — and great is the pity that in the interest of mere party 
 regularity, some very good men were in intimate associa- 
 tion with these gamblers and Sunday saloonists — got out 
 a circular saying, among other things, 'The situation is 
 serious in the extreme. . . . We have a green-eyed 
 monster confronting us, called by its advocates and the 
 journals of the country, also, Temperance. The inten- 
 tion and operation of this principle is Prohibition, of the 
 most rabid nature and damning effect against the rights 
 of a free people. . . . Prohibition howls for more 
 law and order. This terrible state of lawlessness — it is 
 awful, certainly awful, if we are to judge by what the 
 American, Jeff McCarn, Ira Landrith and Johns say 
 about it. If a man has money and wants to risk it on a 
 game of chance, that is his buisness. . . . Johns is 
 the candidate of this Anti-Saloon League and Committee 
 of One Hundred, the Law and Order League, this moral 
 reform and moral purity element. Too much law and 
 too much order destroy free government. . . . First, 
 last and all the time ... let all kinds of men go to 
 the polls and defeat C. D. Johns, for such men as he are 
 destructive to free government.' 
 
 "Further testimony than this should not be needed 
 to show who were Cartwright's closest friends, and why ; 
 and it should serve to put the public on notice that the 
 men who have spoken and worked for Cartwright's elec- 
 tion are men who can hereafter with safety be shunned 
 when offices are to be filled and political leaders chosen. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 59 
 
 "The lessons of the election are numerous. These are 
 some of them: 
 
 'Tirst — Uncompromising advocacy of law enforce- 
 ment is good politics in the decent County of Davidson. 
 
 "Second — The leaven of the law-enforcement cam- 
 paign of 1900-1903 has at last done its work, and the 
 upright citizenship of this community has but to con- 
 tinue unselfish and wide-awake to win the next legislative 
 and mayoralty campaigns. 
 
 "Third — The people of free Tennessee will not stand 
 for the *yaIler-dog,' 'party lash,' out-of-date kind of Dem- 
 ocracy, when the nominee is unworthy and untrue to his 
 oath of office. At last the good principle has been estab- 
 lished that a man who has not done his duty in office, or 
 will not do his duty, has no right to ask for Democratic 
 nomination, and if he secures such nomination, no true 
 Democrat should support him.. Principle is not only a 
 bigger word but a better one than party." 
 
60 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 THE PRICE OF MAKING GOOD AS A PUBLIC 
 
 OFFICIAL.— ANTAGONIZING 
 
 DEMAGOGUES. 
 
 For a better understanding of the head of this chap- 
 ter, I shall explain that it refers more especially to 
 criminal executive officers who invariably promise to dis- 
 charge their duty without fear or favor as an election 
 approaches. Now, here in Nashville, they are not ex- 
 pected to carry out these promises. If they were they 
 never would get the chance to do it; our majority is not 
 of that sort. They do not want, nor will they have, men 
 in office who give evidence of having a conscience in 
 their anatomy, at least not more than one term, if by a 
 miracle he gets that. 
 
 If the reader will pardon the excess of ego in this nar- 
 rative, the writer, knowing his own experience more per- 
 fectly, will use it largely in presenting the facts bearing 
 on the subject. He was one who, by the aid of the fates 
 or some miraculous unseen power, was elected to the 
 office of sheriff of Davidson County by the magnificent 
 majority of thirty-four in the good year A. D. 1906. 
 
 At that time the saloons, with their appendages, had 
 become so bold and aggressive in their open contempt 
 for the law that a public sentiment had sprung up against 
 them which seemed to give promise of their extermi- 
 nation. The officers had failed from some cause, whether 
 purposely or not, to restrain them. 
 
 I believed that if given the chance I could reduce the 
 
AND Pool of Blood 61 
 
 trouble to a minimum, at the least, and so declared from 
 the stump, pledging that if six reputable citizens, after I 
 had been in office six months, would charge that I had 
 been remiss in my duty, I would resign the office. I 
 was not called on to resign. 
 
 I further announced on the Public Square, in a speech 
 to a large crowd, that I would put Jim Williams, one of 
 the most notorious dive-keepers in Nashville, out of busi- 
 ness, or put him on the rock pile. He went to the rock 
 pile. 
 
 I further stated that the diamond-studded gamblers 
 who infested the street on one of the main thoroughfares 
 and made disrespectful remarks about ladies passing, 
 would change their location or go to the lock-up. 
 
 These and many other promises I made. Practically, 
 I agreed to clean up the city, and I will just say now that 
 if six reputable citizens will say that these promises were 
 not kept, as far as it was possible, and that Nashville was 
 not, during my tenure, as clean as it has been in twenty- 
 five years, I will retract all I have said and apologize for 
 saying it. 
 
 With this, as I think, as a necessary prelude, I shall 
 get to m.y main subject. 
 
 It is said that *'The very effort to forget but strength- 
 ens memory." I would gladly free my mind from the 
 harrowing recollections of this period of my earthly ex- 
 istence. Of course, I was defeated for a second term. 
 I had "made good" by keeping my promises to the law- 
 abiding citizens to whose suffrage I owed my tenure. I 
 had made the streets safe for ladies to traverse without 
 danger of insult, and I must be displaced. 
 
 When my war on the gamblers and Sunday saloonists 
 began, I was denominated everything but a gentleman; 
 was charged with being a grafter; with playing favor- 
 
62 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 ites. Reports were circulated intimating that I was 
 guilty of immoral conduct at the jail, when, in fact, I 
 had merely closed an assignation house on taking charge. 
 
 Not satisfied with slanderous assaults on my official 
 conduct, they turned the filthy vials of their wrath on 
 my private life, giving circulation to other slanderous 
 and "would be" damaging reix>rts touching my home life. 
 I was characterized as a wife-beater, and that my wife 
 either had, or was, about to institute divorce proceedings. 
 A great deal of this scandal was given publicity through 
 that dirty, contemptible sheet, the Nashville American, 
 which everybody knows got so low and dirty that hun- 
 dreds of respectable people would not allow it on their 
 premises. Many said that it was positively indecent and 
 not fit to be where children could see it. Others said 
 they would not put their hands on it to throw it out of 
 their yards, but would take a stick and handle it as they 
 would a snake, and many like expressions. 
 
 Well, I knew that the influence of that sheet could do 
 me no material harm. Nevertheless, my blood was made 
 to boil by the continued onslaught on my domestic life, 
 although I could bring the evidence of every decent man 
 who ever came to my house that I was a veritable semi- 
 lunatic on solicitude for, and devotion to, my family. 
 
 They did not stop there, but even poisoned the mind 
 of Col. H. M. Doak against me, his sister having raised 
 me, an orphan. I had by this time become so near crazy 
 that it required all the self-restraint that I could com- 
 mand to prevent me from wreaking summary vengeance 
 on the authors of all this calumny, and especially the 
 Nashville American and its dirty editor. And had I 
 been possessed of the murderous spirit of some of his no 
 less disreputable, but loyal, supporters, he might have 
 
AND Pool of Blood 63 
 
 been disposed of in the manner that they disposed of the 
 lamented Carmack. 
 
 NOT DIGRESSING FROM MY SUBJECT. 
 
 But were they dissatisfied? Nay, verily. It is neces- 
 sary to state here that my father was a Mason, and that 
 it is due to the influence of that benevolent order that we 
 orphan children were placed in good homes and given a 
 chance in life. While the aims, purposes and accom- 
 plishments of Freemasonry are beyond the pale of critic 
 cism, yet, with all the care and precaution exercised, and 
 contrary to the principles of the order, dirty, slimy poli- 
 tics will creep into it unawares. Our mother was so 
 imbued with love and admiration for this beneficent 
 order that divers times during the later years of her life, 
 and to the day of her death, she begged of my brother 
 and myself a promise that as soon as possible we would 
 join the Masons. I had not, from unavoidable causes, 
 up to that time complied with her injunction, but was 
 then for the first time in a position to do so. Although 
 recommended by as high-toned Masons as Nashville can 
 boast of, my Nemesis was there, and I was met on the 
 threshold by henchmen of my political enemies and denied 
 the privilege of complying with my mother's life-long 
 Avish. 
 
 I felt that this was the heaviest burden, that had been 
 imposed upon me. I was in possession of evidence that 
 proved beyond cavil that my character was unimpeach- 
 able; that I had been ostracized by unworthy members 
 of a most worthy order, who had crept in at the back 
 door was self-evident; that they had been actuated by a 
 mean, contemptible spirit of revenge, because I had re- 
 fused to surrender my manhood and cringe in abject 
 
64 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 submission to their villainous mandates, was plainly 
 obvious. 
 
 I received some consolation in the thought that the 
 spirit of my mother, which dwelt in the realms of the 
 blest, looked down in approval with the knowledge that 
 her boy had used his every effort to fulfill his promise 
 to comply with her most earnest admonition. 
 
 The disinterested, and, in my childhood, much needed 
 care, bestowed on me by the Masonic order, together with 
 the earnest appeal of my mother, who for years has been 
 with the beatified, very naturally created within me an 
 o'er weening desire to affiliate at its shrine in a spirit of 
 fraternal love. That the unscrupulous, unfeeling minions 
 of darkness should attempt to perform their dirty ablu- 
 tions in a manner to cause years to blot the melancholy 
 memories of my sacred and hallowed dead, was indeed a 
 burden hard to bear. But it was a part of the price. 
 
 Reader, you may now gather a faint idea of the price 
 of "making good" in Nashville politically, but you never 
 can conceive, except with a personal experience and ob- 
 servation, the low, dirty, revengeful spirit that abides in 
 the breasts of the disreputable, piratical gang that domi- 
 nates and controls our Modern Athens, together with 
 other leading cities, and through them the state govern- 
 ment. 
 
 This fair city, endowed by Nature with everything 
 needful to promote health, wealth and happiness, with 
 her magnificent educational facilities and imposing edi- 
 fices, her fine architectural church buildings, her vast 
 commercial and manufacturing enterprises, yet lying 
 supinely on her back too impotent to rise from under the 
 dominion of a gang of as dirty political demagogues as 
 ever burdened the earth, is enough to bring the blush of 
 shame to the cheek of every loyal and patriotic son of 
 
AND Pool of Blood 65 
 
 Tennessee, and to cause the angels to weep tears of blood 
 around the graves of her heroic and consecrated dead. 
 
 One of the most anomalous features pertaining to the 
 subject under discussion is that numbers of people who 
 are most persistent in their clamor for law enforcement, 
 and loudest in their denunciation of officials who fail to 
 do so, are also loudest in their denunciation of the officer 
 that "makes good," a superficial knowledge of meta- 
 physics and its relation to the dual or complex human 
 anatomy, taken in connection with local conditions in 
 Nashville, gives a very clear explanation of this extra- 
 ordinary mutual phenomenon. 
 
 The man sees that things are badly out of joint. They 
 have been so as far back as his recollection extends. Pos- 
 sibly he knows that a change is not only desirable, but 
 imperative, if the city is to be safe for the young to live in, 
 or for the unsophisticated stranger who enters her gates 
 to abide, and in consequence he is deeply solicitous for 
 law enforcement. He sees saloons violating law unre- 
 strained and unrebuked. He sees hotel lobbies, railroad 
 stations and other places where strangers may be found, 
 infested with boosters whose business it is to entice the 
 unwary into dens of iniquity, where they can be scien- 
 tifically robbed. He sees a lot of other things that he 
 wants stopped, or thinks he does. 
 
 This man is honest. So far, he has never seen the law 
 enforced, and does not know what the consequence might 
 be if it is done. But he gives his vote to a man who 
 promises to enforce the law, and who he believes will 
 ''make good." 
 
 The lawless element has carried things their own way 
 so long that they have become over confident and care- 
 less, and this man is elected by a small majority. In due 
 time he is inducted into office and proceeds to carry out 
 
 5 
 
66 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 his pre-election promises to the letter. The saloons are 
 made to stay within the limits of the law. The gambling 
 contingent is estopped, and all lawbreakers made to know 
 that they must change their buisness or suffer the con- 
 sequences. 
 
 These results soon became apparent. These gamblers, 
 who have been living on the fat of the land, have been 
 put out of business. They have been the most liberal 
 patrons of all lines of business, but have been forced to 
 practice economy or seek new pastures. In either case 
 their very liberal patronage has been withdrawn and the 
 merchant's trade diminished materially. Now, our friend, 
 the voter, is a merchant, and has observed the curtail- 
 ment in his business and begins to look about for the 
 cause. He soon finds it. Then he gets to thinking, and 
 his thoughts run in a channel like this : "That officer is 
 too drastic. He ought to know how to discharge his 
 duty Vvithout destroying the business of the town. He 
 could have maintained order without driving everybody 
 out of town," and like character of reasoning. But he 
 makes up his mind then and there that he will not vote 
 for that man any more. He wants a more conservative 
 man who has sense enough to enforce the law without 
 disastrous consequences to business. 
 
 Nov/, reader, this is a hypothetical case, the object of 
 which is to show: 
 
 That a great many men do not want law enforcement 
 nearly as bad as they think they do ; 
 
 That selfishness is one of the mainsprings of action ; 
 
 That they would like to see things done decently and 
 in order just so long as their personal interest is not 
 affected, and no longer; 
 
 That they neither know nor care for the effect on 
 others, just so long as it doesn't affect them; 
 
AND Pool of Blood 67 
 
 That they are strangers to patriotism and love of coun- 
 try, and love only themselves and, perchance, their folks. 
 
 And to show how an honest official receives blame 
 when praise is due, condemnation in lieu of encourage- 
 ment and defeat .when he deserves endorsement. 
 
 You may also find in the city of Nashville scores of 
 just such people who are foolish enough to believe that 
 they are good citizens who perpetuate by their suffrage 
 the deplorable conditions that now exist, and the only 
 reason why that man has not sold principle for so much 
 business is that he had none in stock. 
 
 He heaps condemnation and abuse on the man who has 
 given him v/hat he imagined that he wanted, and clam- 
 ored loudly to get, and found that it was something 
 entirely different that he wanted. 
 
 This is but another item in the price a faithful public 
 servant pays. 
 
 I am forced to abandon the position that I have always 
 tried to maintain, that there were more good people in 
 Nashville who wanted good government than there were 
 bad ones who did not want it; and that when they were 
 fully aroused from their lethargy it would manifest itself 
 at the polls. But if that is true, and they are not now 
 awake, their case would seem to be hopeless. They have 
 evidently had an overdose of dope. 
 
 While I have paid the price, in part, for my effort to 
 discharge my duty and maintain inviolate the integrity 
 of my oath, I am not yet done, nor do I ever expect im- 
 munity from the consequences resulting from the ven- 
 omous attacks of my enemies. But my life remains. 
 How soon that penalty will be exacted of me, the future 
 can only reveal. 
 
 We have a most illustrious example liere in Tennessee 
 of one whose life paid the forfeit for integrity, faithful- 
 
68 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 riess and fearlessness in his adherence to principle and 
 the discharge of public duty. The late lamented Edward 
 Ward Carmack, whose unflinching devotion to truth and 
 duty caused him to be shot down like a common dog and 
 his body to lie in the gutter on one of Nashville's most 
 prominent thoroughfares, the particulars of which are 
 given in another chapter. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 69 
 
 WHAT I EXPECT. 
 
 Knowing the crowd of political cutthroats that I am 
 assailing in this book, I do not hesitate to predict my own 
 death at the hands of a paid "slugger." 
 
 I know that my life is in as much danger by taking this 
 step as if I stood in the front ranks of an army facing 
 the muzzles of the enemy's belching artillery. 
 
 There are some dirty scoundrels in Tennessee who 
 would rejoice at the flow of my blood with the same 
 glee and satisfaction the toper experiences as the wine 
 gurgles from the faucet of the cask as it is turned to 
 allow the sparkling fluid to pour into his waiting glass. 
 
 I as firmly believe I shall be the victim of the hired 
 assassin as that I am writing these words. I know the 
 vampires with whom I am dealing, and whep a man 
 becomes so bold as to cross their path, steps are imme- 
 diately taken to silence him, his life being the forfeit if 
 it is necessary. 
 
 What do these adamant-hearted leeches care for the 
 life of any man, when by deliberately taking it they can 
 benefit themselves financially or otherwise? They have 
 taken lives before, so why should I presume to be so 
 great as to be free from their wrath? 
 
 A burglar always kills to prevent exposure. Why 
 should I expect to be favored by being allowed to live at 
 the hands of the burglars I am exposing? When a city 
 is turned over to be pillaged, woe be to the man who at- 
 tempts to bar the path of the crazed looters. 
 
 They know I hate their methods, but lately they have 
 not had occasion to fear me. They have been resting 
 
70 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 securely for some time, consoled by the thoughPt that they 
 had me muzzled and chained to the dog-house. But then 
 they cannot keep me down all the time, so here I am at 
 my old tricks again, arid I intend now to keep at them 
 until the trigger is pulled or until they quit their thievery 
 and crookedness. 
 
 I do not see why men so easily develop into demons, 
 but it seems there are scores of them who have passed 
 through the evolution. 
 
 I am expecting the bullet from one of four directions, 
 either from what is commonly known as the lawless 
 crowd, the corporations, the Romanists, or a very small 
 crowd of very small politicians. Or they may act jointly. 
 
 They have tried to kill me before in a much more in- 
 human way, and they would have sent with me innocent 
 ones near and dear to me. That being true, I feel that I 
 am only complimenting them when I give them credit 
 for being willing to be more considerate of my feelings 
 in dispafching me. 
 
 I had rather die at their hands while fighting them 
 than to live and be a party to their robberies of women 
 and children by remaining quiet as to their actions. 
 
 They know I have been watching them, but they did 
 not know I would ever again be dangerous. They put 
 me out of office, but that did not have the silencing effect 
 they expected it to. They will realize now that the only 
 way of permanently silencing me will be by that method 
 which is resorted to in cases similar to this one of mine 
 —the bullet. 
 
 When the shooting is done, I hope the assassin will be 
 kind enough to equip his firearm with a Maxim silencer, 
 for I can not imagine anything more provoking than for 
 one to hear the report of the shot directed at his vital 
 parts for the purpose of forcing upon him an involuntary 
 
AND Pool of Blood 71 
 
 shuffling off. I shall consider this precaution on the part 
 of the agent sent to make me "cash in" a personal favor, 
 and if I have time after the impact of the leaden mes- 
 senger I shall take a delight in thanking him for his 
 kindness if he will only remain long enough to allow me 
 to address him. However, considering all things, I do 
 not see why he should be in haste, for there will be no 
 danger lying ahead in the present Davidson County crim- 
 inal court in the shape of a punishment for his act. 
 
 Numbers of my friends have tried to persuade me to 
 drop the idea of publishing this book, for no other reason 
 than that it would probably cost me my life. I had 
 thought of this before beginning its compilation, and their 
 kindly warning held no fears for me. I have looked at it 
 from every viewpoint, and the result has been that I am 
 more firmly convinced with each weighing of the matter 
 that my duty lies in giving the book to the public as I 
 had planned it. 
 
 I want to thank all these friends for their kindness 
 and thought of me, but I owe it to them and to myself to 
 pursue no other course than the one I have selected to 
 follow. 
 
 If the worst occurs it will be after the book is out and 
 in the hands of the reader, and the public will have in its 
 hands a message I have been carrying on my mind for 
 more than two years in search of a channel through 
 which to let it flow. 
 
72 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 SHERIFF BORUM'S TREATMENT OF CAR- 
 MACK'S MURDERERS. 
 
 Sam H. Borum was sheriff of Davidson County at the 
 time the Coopers killed Senator Carmack, and these men, 
 jointly with John D. Sharpe, who was charged with being 
 an accomplice, were placed in the county jail directly in 
 his charge. 
 
 Borum was known to be a Patterson man, and no one 
 doubted that his three noted prisoners would be accorded 
 all honor. This was the case, and Borum fitted as snugly 
 into his place as those who were close to the principal 
 actors in the assassination had calculated he would. 
 
 He was an important part of the machinery, from the 
 arresting officer clear on up through the court to the 
 governor. Borum was as faithful in the discharge of 
 this duty to his friends as a real good officer would be 
 expected to be in his loyalty to the people he was elected 
 to serve. 
 
 When Duncan B. Cooper, Robin J. Cooper and John 
 D. Sharpe were placed in the Davidson County jail on 
 the charge of having murdered Senator E. W. Carmack 
 on one of Nashville's principal and most frequented thor- 
 oughfares, it was more like entering a club to them than 
 being imprisoned for an awful crime. 
 
 All prisoners should be treated kindly and as if they 
 were human, but special quarters were fitted up for this 
 trio, and they enjoyed all the conveniences found in the 
 most modern hotel, rather than the inconveniences inci- 
 dent to jail life. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 73 
 
 They were waited on and looked after by Sheriff Sam 
 H. Borum more like he was in charge of a health resort 
 and they were his patients, than that they were prisoners 
 with the stain of a noted citizen's blood on their hands. 
 Special furniture and carpeting were supplied them, 
 together with reading matter, including the daily papers 
 and the latest magazines. They were allowed freedom 
 that no other prisoners would think of asking for. 
 
 Contrary to all law and custom, they were allowed 
 free and private discourse with one another, and were 
 perfectly at liberty to lay any plans for their defense 
 they saw fit and agree on what each one should swear. 
 
 Borum was censured for this, and his unheard of lax- 
 ity was called to his attention daily, both by the decent 
 press and reputable citizenship. These he heeded not, but 
 continued to serve those to whom he owed allegiance. 
 
 These prisoners were always served with the best dur- 
 ing their incarceration, and they never suffered one bit 
 from the loss of those delicacies they had been accus- 
 tomed to before being charged with murder. 
 
 I doubt if there is another case on record where men 
 who had broken the most rigid rule in the code of law 
 were so well and effectually shielded from the hand of 
 justice by officials whose sworn duty it was to see that 
 criminals were justly punished. 
 
 Duncan Cooper spent the days in jail and the nights 
 at home. He was not under bond, but he was allowed 
 almost as much freedom as if he had given surety for 
 his appearance in court. 
 
 As soon as darkness would fall to cover their move- 
 ments, Sheriff Borum would hustle Duncan Cooper into 
 a securely curtained carriage and drive him to his home 
 for the night. The next morning, before anyone was 
 astir, the sheriff would get his pet charge and bring him 
 
74 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 back to his comfortable and luxurious quarters in the 
 jail. 
 
 I first heard of this from the lips of Duncan B. Cooper 
 himself while his case was pending in the Supreme Court, 
 and at which time he was trying to bribe me and others 
 with a fabulous sum of money into swearing a lie that 
 the Governor of Tennessee might show to an incredulous 
 public justification for a certain act he had some time 
 before determined he would perform. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 75 
 
 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SOME THINGS THAT 
 
 HAPPENED AND SOME THAT DID NOT 
 
 HAPPEN. 
 
 When one sits quietly down and thinks for himself on 
 any question he usually sees more in it than he at first 
 thought. Points which were at first hidden come to light, 
 and by placing these in their proper places an entirely 
 different view is obtained. The old system of adding two 
 to two is a good one, and when this is done the answer, 
 four, shows the reasoner that which he could not see 
 until he did his own calculating. We often spend hours 
 in defense of a question with no other reason for doing 
 so than that we are looking at it through ready-adjusted 
 glasses. This is why so many people take the view that 
 it is absurd to connect the names of Patterson, Bradford 
 and others with the murder of Senator Carmack. But 
 suppose these same people were convinced 
 
 That Gov. M. R. Patterson swore a lie when he testi- 
 fied at the trial of the Coopers and Sharpe that he had 
 called the Coopers over J. C. Bradford's office telephone 
 a short while before the murder of Senator Carmack and 
 asked them to meet him at the executive mansion at once, 
 and that they were on their way to his home at the time 
 they stepped several yards out of their way to kill Mr. 
 Carmack. 
 
 That the telephone did not even so much as ring at or 
 near the time Patterson said it did, and that if it had 
 Patterson did not go home to fill the appointment. 
 
 That instead of Governor Malcolm R. Patterson call- 
 ing Duncan Brown Cooper at that time, that Cooper 
 
76 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 ■ called him, saying, "Is that you, Governor ?" Cooper then 
 immediately hanging up the receiver and starting on his 
 journey, accompanied by his son, Robin, the pale ex- 
 pression of whose face was evidence that he was about 
 to commit an awful deed. 
 
 That J. C. Bradford, who had an aversion to answer- 
 ing his office telephone and was never known to do so 
 before when there was anyone else present to do it for 
 him, there being only an extension 'phone at his desk, 
 the bell ringing in another room and at the desk of his 
 stenographer, where the main 'phone had its place, he 
 having knowledge of her presence at her post of duty at 
 the time, but that he did do a thing he was never known 
 to do before, i. e., answer his telephone when he did not 
 have to, the time he did this unusual thing being a few 
 minutes after the murder of Senator Carmack, his first 
 remark being, when he had adjusted the receiver to his 
 ear, "Is that you, Dune?" the reply being, "Yes. That 
 you, Jim ?" 
 
 That J. C. Bradford did then don his overcoat and 
 start out, saying, to the young lady in the outer office, 
 "Miss Lea, Robin Cooper has killed Senator Carmack 
 and I am going to see about it," he being perfectly calm 
 and self-possessed at the time. 
 
 That Governor Patterson gave out one statement to 
 the press and that this statement did not suit J. C. Brad- 
 ford and that he at once so informed the governor, the 
 latter then making an attempt to regain his first state- 
 ment and replace it with the one Bradford had prepared, 
 but that he could not do this and was forced to let the 
 first one stand and appear along with the Bradford 
 product. 
 
 That J. C. Bradford then prepared "a statement of 
 facts" to be used by the gang in discussing the aflFair, all 
 
AND Pool of Blood 77 
 
 of Patterson's future statements bearing on the murder 
 of Carmack coinciding with the Bradford "statement of 
 facts." 
 
 That there was, at the time of the murder of Car- 
 mack, a young lady from Monteagle, Tenn., visiting rela- 
 tives in the Polk Flats,, a building which overlooks the 
 scene of the killing, this same young lady being a niece 
 of Major E. C. Lewis, a man who is so close to the 
 Coopers, Patterson and Bradford in every way as to be a 
 part and parcel of them, his whole efforts being directed 
 towards the defense of the murderers, and that this 
 young lady, more than likely against her will, was taken 
 to J. C. Bradford's office where she was induced to make 
 a statement as to what occurred that day in front of the 
 Polk Flats, and that this statement would have been used 
 in favor of the assassins at their trial had not the con- 
 spirators become frightened and decided it best not to 
 present this in evidence, and that numbers of other people 
 who had only heard of the killing through the press were 
 brought into the office of this man Bradford and for cer- 
 tain reasons made statements about a thing they were 
 absolutely ignorant of, the testimony which they were 
 "anxious" to give being also withheld as evidence at the 
 trial because of the boldness of this attempt to thwart 
 justice. 
 
 Yes, I am sure that if these people knew the above to 
 be facts, they would, or at least some of them would, 
 cease their praises of Patterson and those so closely allied 
 with him. I feel sure that the foregoing is correct, and 
 I am doubly sure that there will be no attempt to deny 
 it by those more directly concerned. 
 
 The story of Patterson calling Cooper was made up 
 too late, or else he would not have gotten matters so con- 
 fused as to say he had an appointment without being 
 
78 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 able to satisfactorily explain why he was not at the place 
 agreed upon to meet Col. Cooper. He did not know 
 then he was going to be called upon to invent a story to 
 shield himself. 
 
 And why did Duncan Cooper call Patterson at the 
 time he did if it was not for the purpose of notifying him 
 that he was then starting on his murderous journey? 
 The words, "Is that you, Governor?" sufficed to deliver 
 the message that was being awaited at the capitol that 
 day. 
 
 Another strange thing is that Bradford answered his 
 own telephone when the message came telling of the kill- 
 ing, and that he knew who was at the other end before 
 the party calling him had time to speak. 
 
 Then there are Patterson's two statements, as much 
 unlike each other as day and night, with all future state- 
 ments of his tallying exactly with J. C. Bradford's 
 "statement of facts." 
 
 Before the trial that whole gang busied itself in getting 
 together a lot of false testimony, there probably being no 
 other kind to be had to serve tlieir purpose. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 79 
 
 DUNC COOPER'S ATTEMPT TO BRIBE JURY 
 FOREMAN F. O. BEERMAN, DETECTIVE JOHN 
 YEAMAN AND EX-SHERIFF C. D. JOHNS BY 
 OFFERING THEM MONEY AND PROTECTION 
 FROM GOV. M. R. PATTERSON. 
 
 The most important reason I had for publishing this 
 book was to create a vehicle by which I could give to 
 the public that which it cost me no little anxiety and 
 worry to come into possession of. 
 
 I am now about to narrate a few happenings, the tell- 
 ing of which will demand all my self-control to prevent 
 my giving vent to my feelings in the matter. My abject 
 hatred and utter detestation of the men concerned in the 
 affair on one side would be a reasonable excuse for my 
 giving expression to the pent up feeling I find their dirty 
 acts have filled me with. 
 
 They would never have gotten in touch with me unless 
 they had been forced to in order to use me and those 
 near me, as they thought, as tools to reach an end that 
 they were trying for, even though they damned the souls 
 of others in reaching it. Men of their type would sacri- 
 fice a human soul, if necessary, to accomplish anything 
 that their blackened hearts craved, with as much coolness 
 and unconcern as they would extinguish, a match after 
 it had performed the service of lighting a cigar. 
 
 While two of these men had assurance that they would 
 be freed from serving the prison terms they were sen- 
 tenced to, there was yet another to be freed from some- 
 thing else — the stigma of appearing to be connected with 
 
80 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 a dastardly crime any further than righting a wrong 
 that had been done by a jury and supreme court. 
 
 They were desperate, and, to smooth over one crime 
 they were trying to commit another. The Governor of 
 Tennessee was into a muddle, and he was casting about 
 for an excuse for an act he had long since determined he 
 would perform, whether he could manufacture an ex- 
 cuse or not. He knew that act would mean his forced 
 retirement from public office unless he could prove to the 
 people that by doing it he was seeing that justice was 
 done. 
 
 It made stronger my conviction that Patterson was 
 as unfit for an office of public trust as the most degraded 
 convict "doing time" in Tennessee's state prison. 
 
 It was now Patterson's time to be saved, and, naturally 
 enough, Dune Cooper was trying to act as savior. The 
 ''Little Game Cock of Democracy" was still going to be 
 "game," but human-like, he wanted something to stand 
 on, and the only thing he could hope for was a bunch of 
 sworn lies, adding subornation of perjury to his other 
 sins. 
 
 It was a drifting straw and the drowning man was 
 grabbing at it. Later events showed that he missed it, 
 and he sank to the bottom. Since then he has been mak- 
 ing notable efforts to rise to the surface, but with a collar 
 of public opinion about his neck he cannot scramble back 
 to the point from where he made the plunge. By fulfill- 
 ing a promise he made to his "close personal and political 
 friends" he has built a mountain between himself and 
 public office, and never again will he receive pay from 
 his state and his country for duties unperformed. Never 
 again will he thrust his hands in their treasuries and take 
 out that which he has not earned. 
 
 "The way of the transgressor is hard," and this man. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 81 
 
 as well as those he threw a protecting arm around, has 
 picked a stony path to traverse. He evidently believes 
 the people are as stupid as he claimed a certain grand jury 
 and supreme court to be, both of which he had occasion 
 to refer to in the same connection. If he does not think 
 the people are stupid, he at least thinks they have very 
 poor memories, or else his political ambitions would cease 
 to show themselves. 
 
 I had closely associated with me at one time W. D. 
 Balch. For several years, and especially during my first 
 and second campaigns for sheriff and while I occupied 
 that office, he was a faithful and trustworthy assistant. 
 And I must say in his favor that he was an untiring 
 worker, and that he at different times rendered me great 
 service. For reasons best known to ourselves we are now 
 wide apart. 
 
 I should not have deemed this worth mentioning but 
 for the fact that Balch is to figure prominently in the 
 story of the cat I am about to let out of the bag. It 
 was through him that the matter first reached me, and 
 had it not been for a deplorable act of his he would not 
 have been selected as a fit source through which to set in 
 motion a dirty scheme that was hatched by J. C. Brad- 
 ford, Duncan B. Cooper and Malcolm R. Patterson. 
 
 A short while before this Balch had gotten into serious 
 trouble. He had boarded a Belmont street car on his 
 way home in a drunken condition. By loud swearing 
 and other indecent conduct he soon started trouble and 
 drew his pistol. He was immediately disarmed and 
 taken to the police station. The next morning he was 
 bound over to the criminal court, where the grand jury 
 found an indictment against him on the charge of carry- 
 ing concealed weapons. This is a serious ofifense in 
 Tennessee, and it caused him no little mental suffering, 
 
S2 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 with the picture of the rock pile fixed in his mind. He 
 viewed it from every angle and this seemed inevitable. 
 
 Those in whose hands he found himself were his bitter 
 political enemies because of his activity in my behalf ; 
 and he could not, or did not, expect leniency at their 
 hands. His case was pitiable and I could see he was ex- 
 periencing the tortures of the damned. 
 
 His time was up and he was expecting any moment 
 for a capias to be issued for him — for the law to reach 
 out and take its grip upon him. 
 
 But there was a slinking, designing scoundrel skulk- 
 ing around, and Balch's case was to be the very thing 
 that he was looking for to give him a start, or a finger- 
 hold, on what he and his accomplices had figured as 
 being a good thing to do if it could be done. 
 
 I had offices in the Noel Block then, and one morning 
 Balch came in with a light step, a broad grin of satis- 
 faction covering his face, and it v/as the first time I had 
 seen him smile since he got into trouble. 
 
 He had hardly closed the door behind him when he 
 began to tell me what had happened. 
 
 ''Well, Charley," he began, still smiling, "I'll bet you 
 couldn't guess in a year who I saw and talked to this 
 morning. I was never more surprised in my life." 
 
 Not having the faintest idea whom he had seen, I did 
 not venture a guess. 
 
 "It was nobody but Duncan Cooper. I was coming in 
 on a car," he went on to explain, "and saw him on there. 
 There had not been a word between us, and when I got 
 off at the corner Cooper followed me, saying he wanted 
 to have a little talk with me. I was astonished and 
 granted his request out of curiosity. When he had 
 drawn me far enough aside that no one could hear, he 
 said, 'Balch, you are in trouble — serious trouble — and I 
 want to relieve your mind. Sam Borum has a capias for 
 
AND Pool of Blood 83 
 
 you, but it won't be served. I have seen him and made 
 it all right. You just go ahead and don't worry. Now, 
 you be my friend and I'll be yours,' and with that he left 
 me. Now, Charley, what do you think of that? That 
 old scoundrel wants me to do something for him I know. 
 1 am going to lead him on until I get my affair fixed and 
 then he can go to h — 1. He thinks he is slick, but I'll 
 show him how slick I am." 
 
 We discussed this from many viewpoints, but could 
 not exactly arrive at any definite conclusion as to 
 Cooper's meaning. 
 
 It was after he and his son, Robin J. Cooper, had been 
 convicted of the murder of Senator E. W. Carmack and 
 sentenced to twenty years each in the penitentiary, and 
 while their case was pending in the Supreme Court of 
 Tennessee, they having taken an appeal from the lower 
 court's decision. Everybody was at fever heat over the 
 affair, and it was well known that Patterson would par- 
 don them if the higher court should affirm the verdict. 
 Nobody doubted the ultimate setting free of the Coopers. 
 Patterson was their sworn and avowed friend — they had 
 killed his political enemy, the man he most feared and 
 who would have completely annihilated him as far as 
 holding public office was concerned had he been permit- 
 ted to live. 
 
 What would the people say if Patterson should issue 
 those pardons without any reasonable excuse? There 
 was no way out for the Governor, and he was sadly in 
 need of one. If he would resort to one thing he would 
 resort to another. The Governor needed something to 
 free him from the crime he was going to commit almost 
 as badly as the Coopers needed help to escape the penalty 
 of the one they had perpetrated. There was no reason 
 under the sun why the pardons should be issued, and no 
 one knew it any better than the principals of the eventual 
 
84 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 pardon crime. Well might we add the lines from 
 Shakespeare's Measure for Measure: 
 
 "This is his pardon ; purchased by such sin, 
 For which the pardoner himself is in: 
 Hence hath offense his quick celerity, 
 When it is born in high authority. 
 When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended, 
 That for the fault's love is th' offender friended." 
 
 The murder had been committed and now the final 
 role must be played. As later developments showed, a 
 silent cry for help was going up from the State Capitol, 
 while Dune, the murderer, was hunting around hurriedly 
 for a rope to throw to the man who was about to be 
 engulfed. Ropes were scarce in those days and all this 
 criminal searcher could find was a cotton string. This 
 he began to try and wind into a coil for a throw at the 
 outstretched hands in the water. 
 
 About a week after Balch's talk with Cooper on the 
 street the former came into the office with the news that 
 he had met Sheriff Sam Borum on the street and that 
 he had hastened to inform him that he had a capias in 
 his pocket for him, but that it would stay right there, 
 unserved, adding: "Dune Cooper has seen me and fixed 
 everything." 
 
 Cooper's scheme began to work and a day or two after 
 the sheriff had assured him that the paper would not 
 be served, Balch again "accidentally" met Cooper. 
 
 This time he got right down to business and made 
 known what he wanted in return for his good offices in 
 influencing the sheriff of Davidson County to disregard 
 his duty and oath. 
 
 "Balch," he said, as the former later told me, "I want 
 to get at John Yeaman. I want him to do some detective 
 
AND Pool of Blood 85 
 
 work. We think that money was used with that jury 
 against my son and me, and I want you to get me to 
 John Yeaman in such a way as to enable me to get the 
 matter before him. He has no use for me and you must 
 help me reach him." 
 
 Balch told him that Yeaman was not at all friendly to 
 him (Balch) and that he could not do a thing with" him. 
 
 "Now," said Balch, "if you want to reach Yeaman 
 you will have to do it through C. D. Johns. He will 
 listen to Johns, but if I should go to him the whole thing 
 would be ruined." 
 
 Cooper told Balch that he was afraid of me, as I had 
 always been opposed to him, and that I was inclined to 
 be too outspoken about matters that did not suit me. 
 
 Balch brought all this news to me and my first impulse 
 was to close the whole affair and show Dune Cooper how 
 correct he was as to my being outspoken. After giving 
 it mature thought, however, I came to the conclusion that 
 there was a chance to entrap Cooper and Patterson and 
 probably have a peep under their cover. I knew that 
 jury was not corrupt, and I knew that Dune Cooper 
 knew it. I felt that he was going to attempt some trick 
 so I determined that there was a good chance for John 
 Yeaman and me to do a little detective work ourselves. 
 
 I called Mr. Yeaman over the telephone to come to 
 my office, where I laid the whole matter before him, with 
 the result that Cooper received word through Balch that 
 Yeaman would consent to act only with the understanding 
 that I should be kept informed of the whole proceedings. 
 
 Balch returned with the report that Cooper was afraid 
 of Johns. It was fully ten days before he made up his 
 mind to trust me, and this he would not do until I had in 
 some way committed myself. 
 
 I had always been a bitter enemy of whisky and had 
 been in many battles waged against it. In fact, that was 
 
86 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 known to be my hobby. Cooper sent me word that if 
 I would give an interview to the Nashville American 
 stating that the prohibition law was a failure he would 
 take me into his confidence and feel that I had so com- 
 mitted myself on his side that I could not do otherv/ise 
 than be faithful to his gang. 
 
 This called for another delay of several days. I could 
 not get the consent of my mind at first to do it, but when 
 I remembered Carmack and that I was dealing with a 
 knave and a murderer, and that it was my duty to get all 
 I could out of him, hoping to learn of some of the things 
 that had been enacted behind closed doors, I decided to 
 make the sacrifice. It proved to be a great sacrifice in 
 that it cost me many friends. My friends and supporters 
 could not understand why I had done such an unexpected 
 thing as to turn against prohibition, and the step I took 
 has caused me much anguish, but what I discovered by 
 putting myself on the "inside" with the Governor and 
 his pet murderers has in a way repaid me for the suflfer- 
 ing I have undergone because of being falsely accused. 
 T never have changed my mind about that great question. 
 I wanted to ensnare Dune Cooper, and that is the only 
 reason in the world why I did it. 
 
 I gave the interview and was further humiliated by 
 having it go through the hands of that most shrewd of 
 schemers, James C. Bradford, brother-in-law of Duncan 
 B. Cooper and chief adviser of M. R. Patterson. 
 
 My interview appeared in the Nashville American, 
 that old insult to common decency, and when it reached 
 the crime-reeking columns of that dirty, filthy sheet 
 after having passed through the tricky hands of Brad- 
 ford, it was materially changed. My picture was pub- 
 lished along with it, and as I wanted to finish what I had 
 undertaken, I did not attem.pt to deny any part of it. 
 For this I have been greatly censured, and while it was 
 
AND Pool of Blood ST 
 
 unjust, I cannot blame the public, for my silence further 
 convicted me of being an enemy to prohibition when, in 
 fact, it has not a stronger and more ardent supporter 
 than I. 
 
 After I had suffered the sting of seeing my interview 
 appear in the American, Cooper became a little more bold 
 and decided to let me on the ''inside" of his scheme, for 
 that is what it later proved to be. However, before I had 
 the honor (?) of being received in conference with the 
 great Dune, another party was put into the ring, and he 
 entered it by telephoning Balch at my office. When he 
 had answered the call he turned to me and said : 
 
 ''Well, that one was a different one entirely. It was 
 nobody but d — n little Emmett Pryor. He wants to see 
 me privately in an out-of-the-way place, and requested 
 me to come right away to Murphy's carriage shop on 
 First avenue, where we can talk in the back end without 
 being seen or heard." 
 
 Balch filled this appointment and returned and told 
 me what had occurred. He said Pryor wanted to see 
 him about the Cooper matter, and told him there was 
 $8,000.00 in the American National Bank for the man 
 who would show that money had been used by the state 
 to bribe the Cooper-Sharpe jury. 
 
 Pryor was so anxious (?) for Balch to get this big 
 fee that he gave him the name of a man he was sure had 
 handled the bribe money. He advised Balch to camp on 
 the trail of Joe Patten, a deputy sheriff, and by running 
 him to cover he would probably get his man. 
 
 Just why Pryor was so kind as to let Balch make all 
 this money without trying for it himself he did not 
 explain. I warned Balch and told him not to let Pryor 
 entangle him. He said there was no danger of that as 
 he had brains enough to handle him and would use him 
 to his own benefit. 
 
88 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 A few days later it was arranged that John Yeaman 
 and I should meet Duncan Cooper in J. C. Bradford's 
 office in the Noel Block. While Bradford could be seen 
 in an adjoining room, he did not take part in this or any 
 subsequent conference. 
 
 Cooper informed us that he and Governor Patterson 
 had every reason to believe that money had been used 
 against him and his son in their trial, and that they 
 wanted evidence of it, feeling that Yeaman was the man 
 to uncover it, he being friendly to the other side. He 
 further said that Patterson was going to pardon him and 
 Robin if the Supreme Court should decide against them, 
 but that he was looking for some reason to give the 
 public for doing it, and that if they could discover that 
 money had been used with the jury that would be suf- 
 ficient ground for his action. 
 
 Yeaman and I agreed that if fraud had been resorted 
 to it was only just that those responsible for it should be 
 punished, regardless of the guilt of the parties on trial 
 before the alleged bribed jury, and if that should prove 
 to be true, we would be glad to see that justice was done. 
 
 Mr. Yeaman then asked what the remuneration would 
 be for the services about to be rendered. Cooper said 
 $1,000.00 would be the fee paid. 
 
 "You get to F. O. Beerman," said Cooper. "He was 
 foreman of that jury, and I am sure he knows something. 
 You gentlemen get right after him and work your case 
 up through him. Persuade him to come and see me. 
 ril talk to him." 
 
 We agreed to accept his proposition, feeling that Dun- 
 can Cooper had as much right to know if he had had a 
 fair chance in his trial as any other American citizen 
 would have, but feeling doubly sure that no fraud had 
 even been attempted. 
 
 By the statement which I had given to the Nashville 
 
AND Pool of Blood 89 
 
 American on the prohibition question, I won the atten- 
 tion of one Milt. Ochs, a Jew, and editor of that sheet. 
 He expressed a desire to see me and personally inform 
 me what he thought of my bold ( ?) stand for right ( ?). 
 As he was hand-in-glove with the Coopers and Patter- 
 sons, it was ''Major Duncan Brown Cooper, the diplomat 
 of the political Zweibund," who smilingly told me that 
 Ochs would fain do me the honor in the quiet recesses 
 of his sanctum sanctorium, to which place I repaired, 
 escorted by the noble Dune. 
 
 When we reached Ochs' office he warmly congratu- 
 lated me on the statement I had made, saying that it was 
 a reasonable view of the situation and that it would 
 make me a great man before the people. He was very 
 disgusting to me, and had he known how insignificant 
 he appeared to me, even he, habitual hypocrite that he 
 is, would not have had the nerve to face me further. He 
 was so accustomed to deceiving the public through his 
 two unreliable daily papers that he felt that I was weak 
 enough to be "taken in" by what he was saying. He 
 went on in this way for some time, while Cooper stood 
 there and nodded approval. 
 
 Ochs had a great scheme hidden beneath his curly 
 'lochs," and this he began to unfold. 
 
 I had made my mind up to "go the limit" with them, 
 and when the editor of the Nashville American put 
 another proposition to me I did not ask time in which to 
 consider. I knew the crowd I was dealing with, and the 
 least sign of hesitancy on my part at that juncture would 
 have frightened them and my chances for discovering 
 some of their secrets would have been materially les- 
 sened. 
 
 Since the killing of Senator Carmack it has been 
 notorious that those most closely associated with his mur- 
 der were owners and publishers of the Nashville Ameri- 
 
90 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 can. This being true, it is not strange that the editor of 
 that paper should be the first to express a desire to see 
 me after I had denounced (?) state-wide prohibition and 
 come to the Cooper side to assist in running to earth a 
 lot of imaginary bribe-givers and bribe-takers. 
 
 Ochs was jubilant over the service he thought he was 
 rendering his master, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad 
 Company. 
 
 Patterson, Bradford, Cooper and Ochs had planned 
 great things for me, and it was news of this that the 
 Nashville American's editor was running over with. 
 That paper had sunk so low in its own filth that it had 
 reached the level of Milt. Ochs, the Jew, and he Avas 
 called in as its editor. But these two swill barrels of 
 iniquity, Ochs and the American, soon stunk one another 
 out and the paper went to hell and Ochs to Chattanooga. 
 
 The ring-leaders mentioned above selected Ochs and 
 his winning ways to inveigle me into taking the stump 
 in the state against the state-wide prohibition law. 
 
 This was what Ochs had to say to me. The plan was 
 for me to open the fight in Chattanooga, where great 
 preparations would be made for my coming. I was to 
 be met at the train by a large delegation headed by a 
 brass band. Ochs informed me that he owned the Chat- 
 tanooga Times and that paper would advertise my com- 
 ing. All I had to do was to go to Chattanooga, deliver 
 a speech they had prepared for me, receive three hundred 
 dollars for my one night's work and then go from there 
 to other points in the state on the same mission, for 
 which I was to receive additional pay. I agreed to this 
 with a mental reservation. 
 
 It was arranged that I was to go to Chattanooga, and 
 the setting of the date was to be determined later. This 
 was just what I was looking for. I knew that I would 
 have some good * 'stuff" from Cooper and Patterson on 
 
AND Pool of Blood 91 
 
 that bribery business before I left, and that and every- 
 thing else I was going to expose from the platform in 
 Chattanooga to their own crowd. 
 
 I wanted to throw a bomb into their ranks, the explo- 
 sion of which would so cripple them that they would rue 
 the day Carmack was killed, and that the lawless element 
 would no longer have them as champions. 
 
 I had fully determined that when I got up before the 
 "packed house" they guaranteed me in Chattanooga, I 
 would first explain to those assembled there that the band 
 and hall had cost me nothing; that the Chattanooga 
 Thnes had furnished me space free at the instruction of 
 Milt. Ochs; that all other advertising had been paid for 
 by the Patterson-Louisville & Nashville-Cooper-Brad- 
 ford crowd ; that I had received three hundred dollars in 
 advance for being there on that occasion ; that this money 
 had been paid me by the gang just mentioned; that I was 
 supposed to make a speech to suit them; that instead of 
 this the speech I would make would not suit them in the 
 least. 
 
 I was going to lay bare every one of that criminal 
 gang, from "Ham" Patterson to Milt. Ochs. I had been 
 worked up to the point where I felt able to tear them 
 to pieces with words. I was dealing with a lot of 
 crooks, and I had to be crafty to catch them. I was 
 going, to make them bear the expense of the catching. 
 
 I failed in this, however, because of my implicit faith 
 in W. D. Balch at that time. I had been in the habit 
 of telling him all my intentions and discussing with him 
 their probable outcome. In this case there was no excep- 
 tion, and I made a great mistake in doing so. I had 
 forgotten that Duncan Cooper could be of more assist- 
 ance to Balch at that time than I could. Cooper held the 
 wliip over him through the capias resting in the pocket 
 
92 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 of Sheriff Sam H. Borum, and Balch had to see that he 
 did nothing to antagonize him. 
 
 Balch was forced to betray me to protect himself. I am 
 positive he informed Cooper and Ochs that I intended 
 exposing them at Chattanooga, for after I took Balch 
 into my confidence there was nothing more said to me 
 about the Chattanooga trip. Balch had been true to 
 them, and Dune Cooper still held the sheriff off. 
 
 After I had consented in Ochs' office to go to Chat- 
 tanooga, and before I made known to Balch the course 
 I would pursue, other events took place in regard to the 
 bribed jury. 
 
 John Yeaman and I had another conference in Brad- 
 ford's office with Cooper. We had made a thorough 
 investigation, and, as we expected, there were no signs 
 of the bribery Cooper claimed was practiced. We had 
 gone to F. O. Beerman, who was foreman of that jury, 
 as Cooper directed, and he knew nothing of it. 
 
 Beerman called on Cooper in regard to the matter on 
 two occasions, once in his office and another time at his 
 home. 
 
 We gave Cooper good service, but we could give him 
 no encouragement. 
 
 Yeaman had been more instrumental in getting evi- 
 dence against the murderers of Senator Carmack than 
 any other man, and Cooper plainly saw that if he and I, 
 his avowed political enemies, should go on the stand and 
 swear that money had been used against him, it would go 
 farther towards convincing, the public than for his friends 
 to do it. 
 
 He was working the whole matter in that sly, smooth 
 way of his, and we knew this well enough to keep our- 
 selves clear of his clutches. 
 
 When the trial first began it was openly said on the 
 streets of Nashville that the jury trying the case would 
 
AND Pool of Blood 93 
 
 at least be a hung jury, and in nearly every instance 
 Beerman was spoken of as the man who would do it. 
 Just why he was thought to be controlled by Patterson, 
 I do not know. I do know, however, that subsequent 
 events proved the falsity of this, for Beerman, instead of 
 standing for acquittal, as he was expected by many 
 to do, at first voted for the infliction of the death penalty. 
 
 In company with Yeaman, I went again to Cooper's 
 office to make a report, with nothing to report. 
 
 We told him we had been unable to find proof of his 
 charge that money had been used against him. 
 
 "Well," he said, when we had told him this, ''swear a 
 damn lie; what do we care what we swear? Do this, 
 and there is no limit to what you will get. It will be 
 money to the ceiling if you do, and protection from the 
 governor. He will pardon you if it comes to that, and 
 call out the state militia to shield you if it becomes neces- 
 sary. But this will not be necessary, as we are running 
 things here now, and you will have nothing to fear. 
 Remember, money to the ceiling and protection from the 
 governor if you will swear the lie." 
 
 He impressed upon us several times that we would 
 receive "money to the ceiling and protection from the 
 Governor of Tennessee" if we would swear to the lies 
 he wanted. Cooper knew whereof he spoke, too, when 
 he offered the governor's protection. 
 
 He had reached his point at last, after having given 
 us ample time to suggest such a thing rather than lose 
 the money already offered. 
 
 His money was no good; the lies were not sworn to, 
 and Malcolm R. Patterson, then Governor of Tennessee, 
 was compelled to carry out his promise to pardon his 
 "close personal and political friend/' without any reason 
 to give the public for doing it. 
 
 Patterson had antagonized the Supreme Court of Ten- 
 
94 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 nessee in trying to coerce its members into not affirming 
 the case of the Coopers, but his threats did not work in 
 the direction he wished them to. Most of those judges 
 came out in the next election as independent candidates, 
 and that entire ticket was successful over the Patterson 
 candidates, and it was nothing else but his pardon of 
 Duncan Cooper and his attempt to rule the Supreme 
 Court that did it. Had he not tried to be so high- 
 handed, those judges would have gone back into office on 
 the Democratic ticket. 
 
 As every one knov/s, the decision of the Supreme Court 
 in this instance Vv^as to sustain the lower court as to 
 Duncan Brown Cooper and remand the case of his son, 
 Robin Jones Cooper. 
 
 A few days after Cooper's unsuccessful attempt to 
 bribe John Yearnan and me to swear a lie to protect 
 Patterson, Yeaman informed me that Beerman told him 
 that Cooper had made him the same proposition, offering 
 him the aid of the Governor of Tennessee and through 
 him the state militia. 
 
 Yet there are thousands of people in Tennessee who 
 cannot, or will not, see that Patterson was almost as close 
 to the murder of Senator Carmack as the assassins them- 
 selves. If he was not, why was he offering, through 
 Cooper, to use his position to protect any person who 
 would swear to a lie about that jury? 
 
 Why was the Governor of Tennessee, Malcolm R. Pat- 
 terson, willing, to see one of his state's citizens perjure 
 himself, unless he felt that it had to be done to shield 
 him.? Who doubts that Duncan Cooper knew what he 
 was talking about when he offered the protection of 
 the governor ? Is there a man in the state narrow-minded 
 enough to think for a moment that he was acting with- 
 out the full knowledge of Governor M. R. Patterson? 
 How did Duncan Cooper know in advance he would get 
 
AND Pool of Blood 95 
 
 a pardon for the killing of Senator Carmack if Patterson 
 was not closely associated with him in committing the 
 deed? If Patterson promised a pardon for him and 
 his son so soon after the murder, is it not reasonable 
 to suppose that he promised it before the murder? Were 
 not Duncan Cooper and his son, Robin, sufficiently intelli- 
 gent to know the consequences of such a deed in advance 
 and that they could not take the risk of doing it unless 
 they were assured at first they would be taken care of 
 by the higher power at the State Capitol? Was not 
 Patterson with the Coopers every day immediately before 
 the assassination, and also on the day the crime was 
 committed? Did they not swear at their trial that they 
 were on the way to the governor's mansion in ansv*^er to 
 a call from him at the time they met and killed Senator 
 Carm.ack? Did not John Sharpe, arrested and tried 
 jointly with the Coopers, he being acquitted, swear that 
 he met the Coopers in the Arcade and that they invited 
 him to go to the governor's home with them ; that he had 
 come down town to meet his wife, but that he abandoned 
 that and went on with them without being able to say 
 w^hy he made his wife secondary to the Coopers? And 
 did he not further swear that when Seventh avenue w^as 
 reached by going west on Union street, that he (Sharpe) 
 turned north towards the governor's mansion, to which 
 place he had been asked by the Coopers to accompany 
 them, while they turned south? Did he not also swear 
 that he did not think anything of this, although they 
 did not tell him before reaching the point where they 
 separated that they had changed their minds and would 
 not go to the place where they had so earnestly solicited 
 liim to go with them, and after he had given up filling 
 the appointment with his wife to accompany them, but, 
 instead, continued on the journey alone to the home of 
 the governor? 
 
96 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Then who thinks for a moment that Miss Skeffington, 
 state librarian, swore falsely when she testified to meeting 
 Sharpe near the mansion on Seventh Avenue North, and 
 asking him what the shooting meant down the street, 
 said: "It is Colonel Cooper shooting Senator Carmack." 
 
 If the Coopers had been asked by Patterson to meet 
 them at his home at that time of day, as the governor 
 and the Coopers swore, why was it that the governor 
 was not at his home to meet them at the appointed time, 
 for did he not give out two statements that day, one 
 conflicting with the other, and in one saying that he was 
 shocked on coming from the Capitol in the evening to 
 learn what had occurred? 
 
 To give the reader a better idea of the embarrassing 
 position in which Governor Patterson found himself 
 immediately after the murder of Carmack, I quote the 
 Nashville Tennesseean of Tuesday, November 19, 1908: 
 
 ''Did Governor Patterson know or not know that Col. 
 Duncan B. Cooper, member of his kitchen cabinet, and 
 his son, Robin Cooper, were planning to kill Senator 
 Carmack ? 
 
 "Governor Patterson last night issued one statement 
 to the Tennesseean. An hour later he made an addition 
 to it. In the first he said: T deeply deplore this unfor- 
 tunate tragedy. I saw both young Mr. Cooper and his 
 father this morning, and nothing occurred to cause me to 
 suppose that an altercation w^ould take place with Senator 
 Carmack or any one else.' 
 
 'Tn his second statement, after saying that Colonel 
 Cooper had planned to send a note to Senator Carmack 
 in regard to the use of his name, he says : 'Robin Cooper 
 left the Maxwell House with me in the morning, and 
 promised to stay with his father, who seemed to be much 
 excited, and prevent any possible trouble.' 
 
 "It is known that Governor Patterson discussed the 
 
AND Pool of Blood 97 
 
 matter with the two Coopers yesterday. He admits that 
 much. It is also known that Governor Patterson's pri- 
 vate secretary, W. D. Scruggs, stated pubHcly yesterday 
 that Colonel Cooper was going to kill Senator Carmack. 
 The question is, how much did the Governor of Tennes- 
 see know ? 
 
 **The first statement was given to a Tennesseean repre- 
 sentative at the executive mansion, and was in Gov- 
 ernor Patterson's own handwriting. An hour later, for- 
 mer State Senator Albert G. Ewing, Jr., came to the 
 Tennesseean office and requested that he he given the 
 statement, as the governor wished to make an addition 
 to it. 
 
 "A true copy of the statement was made and wit- 
 nessed, and the original given to Senator Ewing, who 
 took it to the executive mansion. 
 
 "In a short while it was returned, with the following 
 addition to it, also in the governor's handwriting : 
 
 " 'Colonel Cooper has been very much aggrieved at 
 the use of his name by Senator Carmack, and I learned 
 that he had prepared a note to Senator Carmack, demand- 
 ing that in future his name not be used in editorials, as he 
 was a mere private citizen, and should not be subjected 
 to public attack or ridicule. 
 
 " 'I strongly advised against sending the note, as did 
 his son, Robin Cooper, and also Mr. Bradford, believing 
 it might cause a difficulty, and urged him to take no 
 notice of the objectionable editorials. Colonel Cooper 
 assured me he would not send the note, and that there 
 would be nothing more of it. 
 
 " 'Robin Cooper left the Maxwell House with me in 
 the morning, and promised to stay with his father, who 
 seemed to be excited, and prevent any possible trouble. 
 I thought the whole matter was ended until my return 
 
98 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 from the Capitol in the evening, when I was shocked to 
 learn what had occurred.' " 
 
 Governor Patterson must have been unduly excited, 
 or he would not have found it necessary to ask for the 
 return of his first statement "to make an addition to it." 
 It seems that his plan was to get that statement back 
 in his hands and make a new one entirely. But he was 
 not successful in this and was forced to make two state- 
 ments about the same thing, one seriously conflicting with 
 the other. 
 
 In his first statement, he said: "I saw young Mr. 
 Cooper and his father this morning, and nothing occurred 
 to cause me to suppose an altercation would take place 
 with Senator Carmack or any one else." 
 
 I do not doubt in the least that he is correct there. 
 As an "altercation," according to Webster, is a battle of 
 heated words, probably the governor did not think that 
 his "friends" would dilly-dally long enough to resort to 
 such, but would begin shooting as soon as the Senator 
 was sighted. That which the governor said he .did not 
 suppose would take place with the Senator or any one 
 else did not occur, for Carmack was shot to death before 
 an altercation could take place. 
 
 Why didn't the governor say nothing occurred to cause 
 him to suppose that the Coopers would shoot Senator 
 Carmack? But then this is the statement he was so 
 anxious to get back in his possession ; but the Tennes- 
 seean kept a copy of it. 
 
 In his second statement, we find this: "Robin Cooper 
 left the Maxwell House with me in the morning and 
 promised to go with his father, who seemed to be excited, 
 and prevent any possible trouble." 
 
 Then, if this is true, Governor Patterson made a false 
 statement in his first note to the Tennesseean. On the 
 
AND Pool of Blood U9 
 
 other hand, if the first is true, Governor Patterson made 
 a false statement in his second note to the Tennesseean. 
 
 If Robin Cooper "promised to stay with his father, 
 who seemed to be excited, and prevent any possible 
 trouble," that promise was a very weak thing for Ten- 
 nessee's chief executive to leave the life of a prominent 
 citizen in charge of, for Robin Cooper proved himself 
 very unreliable, when, instead of even trying to do as 
 the governor claims he said he would, he actually did 
 the shooting that caused the death of Senator Carmack, 
 while his father stood in front of his victim, and several 
 feet away, he (Robin) having gone around and come 
 up in the rear of Carmack, having gone several yards far- 
 ther than it would have required to reach his father and 
 "prevent any possible trouble," and passing the point 
 where his father stood on his way to take the position 
 he occupied as he fired the bullets into the back and 
 neck of the editor of the Tennesseean. 
 
 Probably he was so anxious to keep his word the gov- 
 ernor claims he gave him that he had gone there to shoot 
 his father in an effort to prevent his doing harm to any 
 one else, and, in doing so, accidentally shot Senator 
 Carmack. 
 
 • If all of Robin Cooper's promises are as unreliable as 
 the one Gov. M. R. Patterson claims he gave him in this 
 instance, then he is not to be depended upon. 
 
 If Colonel Cooper "was a mere private citizen, and 
 should not be subjected to public attack or ridicule," to 
 quote Governor Patterson in speaking of the alleged note 
 addressed to Senator Carmack, why was it that he was 
 so active in political affairs for the governor? If he 
 was a "mere private citizen" and was not interested in 
 public affairs whatever, why did he go to Chattanooga 
 and close that deal with Hauck, whereby Malcolm R, 
 
,100 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Patterson received over six thousand Republican votes, 
 though he was a great "Regular Democrat" ? 
 
 If Duncan Cooper "was a mere private citizen," why 
 did Governor Patterson send such an untrained hand to 
 win for him the friendship of John Isaac Cox? Duncan 
 Cooper was doing all within his power to keep Malcolm 
 R. Patterson at the head of things in Tennessee, and 
 this was a crime sufficient to call more upon his head 
 than the gifted Carmack heaped upon it with his match- 
 less pen. 
 
 The governor says further in his second statement that 
 he "strongly advised against sending the note, as did his 
 son, Robin Cooper, and also Mr. Bradford, believing it 
 might cause a difficulty." Is it possible that they advised 
 against the sending of this note, if there was a note — 
 and I strongly doubt one having been written — because 
 they foresaw that Carmack would have been warned of 
 approaching danger and the chance of the Coopers taking 
 his life before he could do them bodily harm would have 
 been greatly lessened? Yes, it were probably better that 
 Senator Carmack be not apprised of his danger direct 
 from those who were planning to take his life. 
 
 "I thought the whole matter was ended until my return 
 from the capitol in the evening, when I was shocked to 
 learn what had occurred," said Governor Patterson. 
 
 The governor "thought" correctly. "The whole matter 
 was ended." Carmack was dead, and there was noth- 
 ing else for the Coopers to worry about. Their pardon 
 was assured and the matter really closed. 
 
 If the governor had an appointment with the Coopers 
 at his home that afternoon, as he and they swore, it being 
 claimed that they were on their way there to fill it, having 
 invited John Sharpe to accompany them, although he 
 had to break an appointment with his wife to do it, 
 
AND Pool of Blood 101 
 
 why was it that Patterson was not at his residence to 
 receive them? At the time he was at his office in the 
 State Capitol, and, according to his own statement, he 
 did not know the assassination had taken place until he 
 came from there '*in the evening." If his "friends" were 
 to have met him at his home, it being claimed that he had 
 telephoned them to do so, which claim he substantiated 
 as a witness at their trial, would they not have thought 
 it strange that he was not there to meet them? And 
 would they have waited there until he returned "from the 
 capitol in the evening," or would they have become tired 
 of waiting and gone to his office, where he still sat, un- 
 mindful of the tryst he had with them? 
 
 But this embarrassment and misunderstanding was 
 avoided by the Coopers themselves forgetting the prear- 
 ranged meeting with the governor and failing to show up 
 at the selected time and place. 
 
 Fortunate, wasn't it, that Patterson was detained at 
 his office while those on their way to see him at the 
 executive mansion were prevented from getting there? 
 This spared embarrassment on both sides. 
 
 No doubt, had the governor been at home expecting 
 his "friends" he would have torn his hair at their tardi- 
 ness. But this did not happen, however, thanks to the 
 governor's "forgettery." 
 
 The governor said he came from the capitol "in the 
 evening." As it is not evening until after 6 p. m., and if 
 it was really that time of day before he did come from 
 the capitol, he was probably the last person in Tennessee 
 who heard of the killing of Senator Carmack, the murder 
 having occurred at 4 p. m. No doubt the governor was 
 unduly excited at that time and wrote "evening," when he 
 really intended to make it "afternoon." 
 
 Then, to go back a little, if Colonel Cooper "assured" 
 
102 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Governor Patterson ''that there would be nothing more 
 of it," he proved a poor ''personal and political friend," 
 for he must have known that it would place the governor 
 in a very awkward position. But the Colonel did know, 
 and there is no telling all he did know. To say the least 
 of it, he knew enough to know he could take the life of 
 Senator Carmack without fear of the consequences. And 
 no man would accuse him of taking his son into such a 
 thing unless he knew positively that his own flesh and 
 blood was running no risk. 
 
 Another strange thing is that Robin Cooper armed 
 himself to keep his father from doing anyone else harm 
 It seems that was a very poor v/ay to make his father 
 keep the peace. Governor Patterson was keeping compan}; 
 with men in those days who were heavily armed, but 
 probably not without authority. 
 
 Patterson's two conflicting statements further show 
 that he deemed it his duty from the start to shield the 
 Coopers. Judging by his close connection with them 
 before and after the murder of Senator Caraiack, it is 
 not strange that he had Duncan Cooper out looking for 
 some one to swear to a lie to protect him in making good 
 a promise made to that same Cooper. 
 
 I doubt if any public official ever found himself in a 
 predicament equal to that in which "Ham" Patterson 
 placed himself by entering into that deal with his "close 
 personal and political friends," which caused him to 
 attempt to perjure law-abiding citizens of his state that 
 he might have a place to stand after he had freed his 
 criminal friends from a verdict visited upon them by a 
 court in which they had a fair trial. 
 
 Yet this man Patterson is still considered a factor in 
 state politics, and every man of the liberal element is be- 
 liind him. Thev condone his action and find excuse for 
 
AND Pool of Blood 1U3 
 
 what he did. He has been more fortunate than was 
 Taylor of Kentucky after the killing of Goebel in that 
 state. Taylor was being found out so fast that he 
 "skipped" his state in the night, after announcing the day 
 before that he would not leave, but would remain and 
 face any charges brought against him. Taylor was only 
 playing for time, until darkness would fall and cover his 
 movements. 
 
 Darkness is going to fall in Tennessee some of these 
 days, and there will be an exodus of criminals that will 
 leave the good old state much more wholesome after it 
 is well rid of them. 
 
 The Taylor affair shows, however, just what men will 
 do to play politics. Taylor, being a republican, hied to 
 a republican state in company with his wife. An effort 
 was made to bring him back, but the republican officials 
 in Ohio w^ould not allow it, and President Taft, who 
 was then a Federal Judge in that state, shielded him 
 with a decision from the bench. A few weeks after that 
 the Republican National Convention met in Philadelphia, 
 and one of the first things it did after being called to or- 
 der was to honor Fugitive Taylor's wife by making her a 
 delegate-at-large of that convention, while her husband, 
 charged with murder, received a great ovation by the 
 delegates assembled there. 
 
 The Taylor affair has nothing to do with what I have 
 to say about the Tennessee killing, but it is so much like 
 it that I could not refrain from mentioning it All I 
 ask is that the reader compare the two and make his 
 own deductions. 
 
 The first thing I did after getting evidence tliat Pat- 
 terson and Cooper would offer a bribe, even though they 
 were trying to find proof — if sworn lies can be called 
 proof — that others had given and received bribes, was to 
 set about to give the public what I knew. 
 
104 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 To do this I first went to those who had been leaders 
 on the law-and-order side in the state, for who would 
 have doubted that the men who had so strongly opposed 
 Patterson and his crowd, both on the stump and through 
 the press, would have refused for one moment to assist 
 in exposing the sly workings of Patterson and Cooper? 
 
 I had every reason to believe that the men I had 
 selected to assist me in communicating to the public the 
 information I had would feel it their duty to unhesitat- 
 ingly do all they could in getting the news to the people 
 they had so thoroughly gotten the confidence of by 
 claiming to be uncompromisingly for law and order. 
 
 With this thought in mind I turned to Messrs. Jeff 
 McCarn, Luke Lea and Bush Snead. Mr. McCarn was 
 at that time attorney-general of Davidson County; Mr. 
 Lea was the principal owner of the Nashville Tennes- 
 seean, of which paper Mr. Carmack was editor at the 
 time of his murder by the Coopers, which paper later 
 became theTennesseean and American, Mr. Lea himself 
 now being United States senator, having reached that 
 high office through his battle for Carmack and the poli- 
 cies he represented. Mr. Snead has always been active 
 on the side of decency in politics. 
 
 I notified these gentlemen by telephone that I wanted 
 to see them in regard to a very important matter, and if. 
 was agreed that we should meet in Mr. Snead's office in 
 the Arcade. When we gathered there I made known 
 to them what I wanted, assuring them in the outset that 
 whatever expenses were necessary to carry out my dcr 
 signs I was perfectly willing to meet myself, only asking 
 them to use their influence with Mr. O. F. Noel in 
 persuading him to pay me $800.00 additional and take 
 my home as his own, he then holding a mortgage on it 
 for $2,800.00, money I had used to defray the expenses 
 of my race for mayor of Nashville as an independent. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 105 
 
 I assured these gentlemen that I had a message for 
 the people, and that if they would assist me in getting 
 this additional money on my home that I would imme- 
 diately rent the Ryman Auditorium and in an address 
 to the people tell them of the bribe Duncan B. Cooper 
 offered three men to swear to a lie to shield the gov- 
 ernor of Tennessee, and also that governor's offer, 
 through Cooper, of a pardon and the protection of the 
 state militia to the men who would thus perjure them- 
 selves. 
 
 My plan was to make a complete exposure of the 
 whole thing, and hold Patterson and Cooper up to the 
 public gaze in their true light, and I did not think for a 
 moment that these gentlemen, men who had been, and 
 were then, leaders in the state of that faction which was 
 opposed to the governor and his high-handed adminis- 
 tration of affairs, and who looked upon the murder of 
 Senator Carmack as a cold-blooded assassination, and 
 not as a ''street duel," as it was termed by the Nashville 
 American, which was then the mouthpiece of the inter- 
 ests and the champion of the saloons and breweries. 
 
 My talk with these gentlemen resulted in nothing, and 
 a few days later Senator Lea reached me by telephone 
 and requested that I come to his office. This I did, and 
 on reaching there, Attorney-General McCarn was sum- 
 moned. John Yeaman was there when I arrived, and 
 Mr. McCarn came in shortly afterwards. 
 
 Senator Lea made this suggestion: "As Colonel 
 Cooper offered Mr. Yeaman $1,000.00 for his services, 
 and as that remains unpaid, I would advise the filing of 
 a bill in chancery, stating the affair in detail, and in this 
 way bring it to the attention of the public." 
 
 Mr. Yeaman and I thought this a tame way of getting 
 at it, and we declined to act on the senator's suggestion. 
 
106 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 hoping to find a better way of giving it wider and more 
 forceful publicity. 
 
 I then went to the Attorney-General of Tennessee, 
 the Honorable Chas. T. Gates, and while he admitted 
 that the "money to the ceiling and protection from the 
 governor" offer was a choice bit of startling news, he 
 could not give me assistance in getting to the people the 
 facts of an attempted dirty deal in extenuation of a 
 dirtier act. Mr. Gates was free to say it was an astound- 
 ing thing and should be given out, but that the proper 
 thing to do was to hold it and get as much benefit from 
 it for the independent wing of the democratic party -in 
 Tennessee as possible. 
 
 This was when the race between the independents and 
 Patterson candidates for judges of the Givil Appeal and 
 Supreme Gourts was in progress, and Mr. Gates sug- 
 gested that as there was no likelihood of the latter 
 approaching anywhere near success, the exploding of the 
 bomb I had would not help our faction of the party at 
 that time, inasmuch as that faction needed no help. He 
 thought it best to wait until later and use it in tlie com- 
 ing governor's election against Patterson, the man it 
 would most expose. 
 
 Still feeling that the people should know the facts in 
 this case, regardless of the good it might do others by 
 holding it for a future date, I went to United States 
 Marshal John W. Overall. Mr. Overall thought it 
 should be spread over the state, but was not in a position 
 to say which was the best way in which to do it. 
 
 By this time I had exhausted my list of men, either 
 one of which I had at first thought would not let a mo- 
 ment pass after becoming acquainted with the facts 
 without making arrangements for assisting me in giving 
 publicity to the secret planning of Patterson and Gooper 
 to further impose on the people. 
 
AND Pool of Ulood 10 T 
 
 Little did I think then that more than two years would 
 pass before I could find a means of delivering my mes- 
 sage, and I am sure the people will wonder why at least 
 a few of the men I approached did not seize upon the 
 opportunity to further substantiate some of the bitter 
 charges they had made against Patterson relative to his 
 connection with the murder of Carmack. 
 
 I took a big chance to get at what I know by giving 
 that interview to the Nashville American, and I have 
 been severely condemned for it for the reason that the 
 people did not know why I had taken such a step. 
 
 If I had failed to make the discoveries I had taken 
 such a risk to uncover, I would ever have remained a 
 deserter in the eyes of my friends. To set myself right 
 on this point is one of the principal reasons for produc- 
 ing this book. I could not reach the people through the 
 columns of the daily papers, and I was forced to lose a 
 great deal of time in performing a duty I have so well 
 known rested upon me, and, unwilling to wait longer, I 
 have taken this means of spreading broadcast the story 
 of Cooper's and Patterson's attempted bribery, as well 
 as numerous other matters I had to speak of — matters 
 that the people should know of and think about. 
 
 Messrs. John Yeaman and F. O. Beerman will cor- 
 roborate my statements as to Cooper's suggestion to 
 swear a He and his offer of "money to the ceiling and 
 protection from the governor,'' backed by the state mili- 
 tia, if necessary. 
 
 Duncan B. Cooper, convicted of the murder of Sena- 
 tor Carmack and the "personal and political friend" of 
 Malcolm R. Patterson, made that offer to us, Mr. Beer- 
 man having been foreman of the jury which convicted 
 him, jointly with his son, Robin, of murder in the second 
 degree, giving them a sentence of twenty years each in 
 the state prison of Tennessee. 
 
108 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Twenty years or twenty minutes — it would have made 
 no difference. It was never intended that they should 
 serve the former, and surely the county jail was not 
 even given the chance to hold them the latter length of 
 time after the action of the Supreme Court of the State 
 of Tennessee. There was a man in power then who 
 defied the courts when they interfered with the liberty 
 and actions of criminals who were his "close personal 
 and political friends." In this case he took every ad- 
 vantage .of that power and threw back in the face of the 
 people a defiance that has not in any other place and time 
 been equaled. 
 
 From the elevation of Malcolm R. Patterson to the 
 governorship of this state dates the beginning of Ten- 
 nessee's moral decline, and by the assassination of Sena- 
 tor E. W. Carmack by the Coopers and their subsequent 
 pardon by Patterson, the Old Volunteer State became 
 widely known for lawlessness, for since the days of 
 "Ham's" free use of the pardoning power invested in 
 him by right of his being governor by a body of men 
 whose sense of justice and great knowledge caused their 
 selection to write the constitution of the great state of 
 Tennessee, it appears that their only mistake lies in the 
 fact that they did not foresee that M. R. Patterson 
 would become its chief executive and provide against 
 any acts he might want to commit against society and 
 decency. 
 
 Yet with all this there are men in Tennessee, and 
 women, too, for that matter, who will malign me and say 
 that I should go to prison myself for saying the things 
 I have about Patterson in this and other chapters, even 
 though they will be convinced by his silence that he did 
 have Duncan B. Cooper out offering money and a par- 
 don and protection from him in advance to parties who 
 
AND Pool of Blood 109 
 
 would swear a lie to give him a better excuse to pardon 
 his "close personal and political friend" for the cow- 
 ardly murder of United States Senator E. W. Carmack 
 on a prominent street in Nashville on the afternoon of 
 November 9, 1908. 
 
 With a certain class of people in Tennessee M. R. 
 Patterson stands high, and in the face of what he has 
 done, and regardless of what he would do, however 
 atrocious, he would still be protected and lauded by them. 
 In their eyes he can do no wrong, and whatever he feels 
 inclined to do in Tennessee he may do. With them he is 
 greater than the state, its laws and its constitution. 
 They look on him as the greatest thing in the state, and 
 in their blind adherence to him they fail, or refuse, to see 
 the shame his acts have brought to this great common- 
 wealth. 
 
 It is a bold assertion, but I shall make it, nevertheless : 
 If Malcolm Patterson should see fit to adopt the method 
 of Herod and order the death of all male infants in the 
 state, that his rule might be prolonged, these same people 
 would take issue with any one who did not agree that it 
 was within his right. 
 
 Tennessee has carried the burden of Patterson and 
 Pattersonism until it is weighted to the earth with the 
 load, so let us throw this off and never again let the 
 former ''little game cock of democracy" have even so 
 much as a look-in at any office in Tennessee, from the 
 lowest to the highest, inclusive. 
 
110 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 JOHN ISAAC COX. 
 
 John Isaac Cox became governor of Tennessee at the 
 time of the resignation of Governor James B. Frazier to 
 become United States senator, he having been appointed 
 to fill out the unexpired term of Senator William B. Bate 
 at the time of the latter's death in 1905. 
 
 Mr. Cox was speaker of the Tennessee senate at the 
 time, and according to the provision of the state's 
 constitution, the speaker of this body succeeds to the 
 governorship in case of removal by death or any other 
 cause of the duly elected governor. 
 
 When the time arrived for Cox to bestir himself for 
 election to succeed himself he began to show signs of 
 being, or trying to be, a politician. The pitiful part of 
 it was that Cox did not know the first principle of beino- 
 a politician, and he made a sad blunder of it. 
 
 Malcolm R. Patterson entered the field against him for 
 the democratic nomination in 1906, and he and Cox went 
 into the state convention in good faith. 
 
 When one of the candidates before that convention 
 failed to lend aid to the man who defeated him for the 
 nomination, and even put up money to oppose his 
 candidacy for governor, and by so doing assisted H. 
 Qay Evans, republican nominee, he laid himself open to 
 criticism. 
 
 John I. Cox did this, and he began his preparations to 
 fight Patterson before the last visiting delegate to the 
 convention that nominated him had left the city for his 
 home after doing his duty as a representative of his 
 people. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 111 
 
 He did this by establishing a weekly paper, the name 
 of which was the Hermitage Democrat. This paper was 
 financed by Cox while he was yet governor, and his 
 business meetings with its editor and others connected 
 with it were held in his apartments at the Tulane Hotel. 
 
 The main and sole object of this paper was to fight 
 Patterson, and this in his first race for governor. It 
 was a sixteen-page four-column paper, and there were 
 five thousand copies distributed weekly, the printing of 
 which was let to the Lowe Publishing Company, of 
 iNashville. J. B. Snodgrass, at that time publisher of 
 the Sparta (Tenn.) Expositor, was its editor, and the late 
 H. B. Miller, then assistant general counsel for the N., C. 
 & St. L. R. R., and lobbyist for that corporation, and J. T. 
 Odom, recently mayor of Lebanon, Tenn., were close 
 advisers of the governor-publisher, and were daily in 
 active touch with him and his paper. 
 
 John H. McDowell, of Union City, Tenn., was at that 
 time one of the strongest advocates of the principles 
 the Hermitage Democrat was brought into being to 
 propound. Because of his great desire to have this sheet 
 widely read he took five hundred copies of it to Jackson, 
 Tenn., and distributed them among the farmers who 
 were attending a farmers' institute in session in that city 
 at the time. He also solicited subscriptions from them 
 for the paper. Later this man McDowell became a 
 strong Patterson supporter, but not until the governor 
 had appointed him state live stock inspector. The paper 
 went out of existence after its eleventh weekly issue. 
 
 It has not been publicly known that John I. Cox had 
 anything whatever to do with the Hermitage Democrat, 
 and he did not allow his name to be used in connection 
 with it. He was fighting Patterson from under cover. 
 
 Later, however, when the people came to know Pat- 
 
112 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 terson, there was seen some reason for getting him out 
 of politics, but Cox might be said to be the original 
 anti-Patterson man. 
 
 Cox's antipathy to Patterson was later learned, and 
 his position caused the latter a great deal of concern. 
 Many overtures were made to the recalcitrant ex-gov- 
 ernor for peace during Patterson's second race, but none 
 was successful until "Major Duncan Brown Cooper, the 
 diplomat of the political Zweibund," was sent into the 
 opposing lord's country by his king, Malcom R. I, that 
 superior workman succeeding in ''welding the wooden 
 handle to the pewter spoon." John I. and Malcolm R. 
 are at peace and so is Carmack. 
 
 Patterson did not change his views, but John Isaac 
 Cox and John H. McDowell changed theirs. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 113 
 
 PATTERSON IN STATE POLITICS. 
 
 In the spring of 1906 a dark and ominous cloud made 
 its appearance on the western horizon of Tennessee — a 
 miniature in magnitude when first coming into view, but 
 rapidly growing in volume until it had assumed that 
 peculiar funnel shape, indicating its character, which 
 soon gained the force of a cyclone, and was pointing in 
 the direction of the state capitol. Vivid streaks of light- 
 ning and deafening peals of thunder emanated from this 
 awful cloud until they reached the ears and blinded the 
 eyes of the accidental governor of Tennessee. 
 
 In other words, Malcolm R. Patterson announced 
 himself a candidate for governor of Tennessee, and 
 challenged John I. Cox to a joint discussion, in which he 
 promised to prove, and did later prove, that the said John 
 I. Cox was a villain of the deepest dye, a scoundrel 
 without a parallel, a knave of the first water and justly 
 entitled to a striped suit at the expense of the state. 
 
 While declining a joint discussion because of the 
 ''pressure of official duties," as he put it, the accidental 
 governor, while on the hustings, also proved that his 
 competitor was a thief above all thieves, that he had 
 obtained $10,000.00 from the government under false 
 pretenses, and citing many other acts of like import, 
 showing that his opponent was also entitled to free board 
 and a free suit. 
 
 Many people believed the charges of both, and agreed 
 that a full measure of justice demanded that both be 
 fed and clothed for a time at the expense of the state. 
 
 Everyone is familiar with that meteoric campaign, 
 
114 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 which culminated in the nomination of Patterson by a 
 mob gathered for that purpose, from all over the state, 
 and assembled in a house once dedicated to the service 
 of the living God by that matchless citizen and apostle, 
 the ever to be lamented Sam. P. Jones. 
 
 That gathering of the clans has been sometimes called 
 a democratic convention, at which we are perfectly sure 
 there were no monkeys, for they surely would have de- 
 parted in disgust after having denied the parentage of 
 such a disgraceful progeny. 
 
 Finally, the chief noble grand moguls having arrived, 
 the music sounded, the gavel pounded, and the ball was 
 open. To undertake to give the minute details of that 
 riot, rout and unlawful assembly would require the 
 genius of a Dante, combined with the wisdom of a Socra- 
 tes. Suffice it to say that an attempt was made to organ- 
 ize the thing and give it a little semblance of 
 respectability, but it was frustrated by hoots and yells 
 midst waving of Patterson banners, calls from the grand 
 high cockalorum for order and continuous pounding of 
 the gavel, all drowned by an infernal din likened unto 
 the shrieking of the damned chained in the darkest 
 dungeons of purgatory. Finally the "Hon." Luke Lea, 
 seeing danger ahead and fearing the defeat of his favor- 
 ite, assumed command by virtue of his statute — and the 
 knives and pistols that began to be in evidence at his 
 back — amid a perfect pandemonium of unearthly howls, 
 and the dance went on until it became apparent that the 
 "Hon." Luke had bit off too big a slice and the whole 
 affair was likely to end in a row. Then the happy 
 thought occurred to this riotous cfew, who had worn out 
 their lungs with their diabolical shouting, that they must 
 agree to something or get no "Ham," so the "Hon." J. 
 C. Bradford was chosen as peacemaker, who by fine arts 
 
AND Pool of Blood 115 
 
 of diplomacy — of which he proved himself to be master 
 — finally succeeded in stemming the tide and smoothing 
 the waters to a degree that the fine hand of the "Hon." 
 *'Beercroft" Murray, with his stentorian voice and match- 
 less trickery, got the wheels lubricated and the old ma- 
 chine was in motion. 
 
 As some of the counties had the temerity to dispute 
 the supremacy of M. R. P. over J. I. C, it became neces- 
 sary to settle these questions before the title of M. R. P. 
 over J. I. C. could be perfected, but a simple twist of 
 the wrist and a "presto change" did the work. 
 
 That this may be understood, in calling the counties 
 the custom is to call them in alphabetical order, but when 
 the crucial moment arrived and the question seemed to 
 hang on the two counties of Davidson and Shelby (both 
 contested), and when the admission of either would tip 
 the scales for or against M. R. P. or J. I. C, whichever 
 obtained the vote, and those in control feeling sure of 
 Shelby for M. R. P., uttered the talismanic words, 
 "presto change," the precedent was forgotten, the order 
 changed, the list called upward and the sun set for J. 
 I. C. while his mantle descended on the shoulders of 
 M. R. P. A platform was then constructed for him to 
 stand on, in v/hich some planks gave evidence of decay, 
 but was considered strong enough not to endanger life 
 or limb of the "Little Game Cock of Democracy," who 
 had so ingloriously won his spurs. 
 
 In due course of time the "Little Game Cock" was 
 escorted to the stand with all the pomp and pride which 
 could be mustered by a victorious army of the toughest 
 hoodlums that ever assembled in the name of democracy 
 or disgraced a state. When, midst the nerve-racking and 
 demoniacal cheers of a then well-mellowed mob, he 
 mounted the platform (which proved strong enough to 
 
116 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 hold him) where he at once began to expound to his 
 motley crowd of "immaculate patriots" the undying 
 principles of pure and unadulterated democracy (?), 
 he told how the laws gave more power to the governor 
 "than a good one would want or a bad one should have," 
 all of which he would regulate when he became governor 
 if he only got a legislature that would scotch up all of 
 his patriotic efforts. 
 
 Now, we hate to tell this, but truth demands in the 
 stentorian tones of a Beercroft Murray that we shall. 
 He got a legislature that would have endured the tor- 
 tures of the damned in preference to the home of the 
 saints, at his bidding. Yet not a suggestion as to the 
 advisability of curtailing the power of the governor, and 
 instead of wrecking the old democratic machine, which, 
 by "hot air," he had consigned to a home with the 
 demons, he at once proceeded to construct one in which 
 the powers of darkness could trample into earth, from 
 the most insignificant to the highest principle of right. 
 But he was satisfied. His henchmen, falsely called 
 "straight democrats," were satisfied, and the puppets 
 whom they chose as representatives were satisfied, and 
 "all went merry as a marriage bell" until the time rolled 
 around for his title to be renewed. We will not go into 
 that in detail. It would take a whole history crowded 
 into a few months to narrate a minimum of the incidents 
 of that memorable campaign, but we'll content ourselves 
 with a few allusions to it. 
 
 The first thing, of course, was to get the nomination. 
 It will be remembered that the liquor issue had loomed 
 up to the front, and his opponent in the primary stood 
 on a state-wide primary platform, and how that his 
 strongest argument was that he was as good a prohibi- 
 tionist as his opponent was, if they put him on a state- 
 
AND Pool of Blood 117 
 
 wide plank, which they could easily do by incorporating 
 it in the platform, and that the plan gave them the right 
 of choosing the delegates to make the platform. Hun- 
 dreds of state-widers were foolish enough to swallow the 
 bait, feeling perfectly sure that they could do that and 
 preferring him under the circumstances. They elected 
 the delegates all right and he found himself between the 
 "devil and the deep blue sea," when, calling into counsel 
 his leading henchmen, "The Hon. Beercroft" Murray, 
 the talismanic words, "presto change," were brought into 
 requisition and the thing was fixed, he claiming that an 
 outrage had been perpetrated by electing Carmack men 
 for delegates in counties which had given him majori- 
 ties, the very thing that he had hypocritically held out to 
 them that they had a perfect right to do, and which, to 
 our unsophisticated mind, seems to be right if M. R. P. 
 did advocate it. That the requisite number were denied 
 admission to the convention and their places filled by 
 others chosen at his dictum was admitted by him in a 
 subsequent speech. When referring to the incident he 
 said, "I prevented that outrage," thus arbitrarily and 
 presumptuously assuming command of the democratic 
 party — supposed to be public property, and using it to 
 forward the interest of who? M. R. P.? Not by eight 
 furlongs, but to advance the interests of the corporate 
 and liquor bosses, who are his sole and only masters. 
 
 Having secured the nomination by hypocrisy and 
 treachery, he found a fight with the people awaiting him 
 on the same issue, in part; one circumstance will suffice 
 in that campaign. 
 
 The deplorable Reelfoot Lake tragedy occurred. This 
 was an opportunity of which he was quick to avail him- 
 self. Overflowing with patriotic devotion to the prin- 
 ciples of law and justice, and determined to avenge an 
 
118 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 outraged law, he jumped head foremost out of the polit- 
 ical arena — where he was coining votes at a most rapid 
 rate — and arbitrarily and without constituted authority, 
 summoned the state guard, placed himself at its head, 
 rolled up his pants, plunged into the slush, slime and 
 mud of the Reel foot regions to avenge an atrocious 
 crime by committing another. "Even though it resulted 
 in his defeat," he couldn't stop to consider the effect on 
 him personally. He must discharge the duty of main- 
 taining law by violating law. He was advised in this by 
 J. C. Bradford by letter, who told him he had no legal 
 right to call out the state militia, but that he had best do 
 it anyway, as it would virtually mean his election, and that 
 the ignorance of the people would be a protection to him, 
 in that they would think he was acting legally and laud 
 him for his bravery and unselfishness in going to the lake 
 region at the head of the state troops. 
 
 Well, no consideration was needed, because M. R. P. 
 is a very shrewd politician, and well knew that in the 
 excited state of the public mind that splashing around in 
 Reel foot mud would make more votes than expounding- 
 democracy and turning the crank of the pardon mill 
 together would. 
 
 Well, he was elected and claimed that his election 
 settled the question that the state was opposed to state- 
 wide prohibition. Reader, just think for a moment. The 
 liquor party that lime was caught napping and the state- 
 widers elected a legislative majority at the same election, 
 thus proving that another cause elected M. R. P. over 
 G. N. T. At that time the Brownlow and Evans factions 
 of the republican party were waging a bitter war and 
 t^iousands of Brownlow men refused their support to 
 G. N. T., and that's what elected M. R. P. 
 
 He was again installed as governor, but was in a fix. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 119 
 
 His friend, ''Beercroft," couldn't do anything with that 
 legislature. The devil refused to play into his hands, 
 and the state-wide law was placed on the statute books ; 
 and the governor got mad, and as far as my information 
 goes, stayed mad. ''Whom the gods would destroy they 
 first make mad." 
 
 Well, difficulties seemed to accumulate, with only one 
 bright star of hope — he must become reconciled to 
 J. I. C, because J. I. C. was a very influential man in his 
 neck of the woods. Just how that reconciliation was 
 brought about we don't know, but we do know that the 
 lion and the dog have been made to blend together, that 
 'they eat at the same trough, sleep in the same bunk, 
 drink from the same gourd, and vote together to save the 
 grand old democratic party, which promises purple and 
 fine linen, with both pie and pudding, to all the faithful 
 that shall ''endure to the end." 
 
 It was really pathetic to read of J. I. C. introducing 
 M. R. P. to an audience some time later in which he paid 
 him the highest encomiums, which were responded to in 
 like manner, in which M. R. P. spoke of J. I. C. as 
 "distinguished ex-governor," though formerly political 
 enemies. Now both were personal and political friends. 
 "Oh how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to 
 dwell together in unity." 
 
 But it is far better to fill one house than to spoil two, 
 and there's really no good reason why two thieves — each 
 convicted by the evidence of the other — should not form 
 a co-partnership, and work together to promote the 
 interest of his imperial highness — his Satanic Majesty — 
 their mutual benefactor. 
 
 But we are ahead of our story. The "Hon." M. R. P. 
 having had his commission renewed, was but fairly 
 started in his second administration when the deplorable 
 
120 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 tragedy occurred which quenched one of the brightest 
 Hghts in the nation. But that will be discussed in another 
 chapter, and we only refer to it here to make the proper 
 connection with subsequent events. To what extent the 
 governor was mixed in that affair no one knows, and 
 the opinion of people differ, but they do know that work 
 in the governor's interest by Duncan B. Cooper was the 
 primary cause of the murder, and that if no other cause 
 existed, made it imperative and expedient for the gov- 
 ernor to see to it that no harm came to the murderers. 
 He was thus placed between the ''devil and the deep blue 
 sea" again. He was bound to pardon the Coopers if the 
 case reached him, knowing that such action would meet 
 the condemnation of almost the entire country — with 
 the exception of such as were willing to condone murder 
 where they considered it a political necessity. But there 
 was a gleam of hope that he might escape the responsi- 
 bility if such evidence could be procured as to cause a 
 packed jury to grant an acquittal. But they failed to get 
 the jury packed, though it was thought to be by the com- 
 munity generally, and undoubtedly by the counsel for 
 the defense. It was a matter of record how that trial 
 resulted, and that the defendants were given the benefit 
 of the doubt in all the rulings of the court. At an abso- 
 lutely fair and legal trial the two Coopers were con- 
 victed of murder in the second degree and sentenced to 
 twenty years in the state prison, and there is not a man 
 in the state (no matter what they say), or in the United 
 States for that matter, that didn't believe that it was a 
 merciful verdict his excellency, the governor, included. 
 But the trouble was not removed from his excellency's 
 shoulders. Of course, the matter must pass the supreme 
 court and the governor thought there was still a thread 
 of hope for him. He just must get these murderers out 
 
AND Pool of Blood 121 
 
 of trouble. His term was drawing near its close and the 
 supreme court was not moving fast enough in the case. 
 Something must be done. 
 
 The pubHc is familiar with the schemes employed to 
 induce the courts to act in the case; how the party lash 
 was held up to their vision, which resulted in the inde- 
 pendent judicial race, and how the governor was forced 
 — as he claimed — to be a candidate to vindicate himself, 
 where everyone knew that it was to vindicate the 
 Coopers. 
 
 Well, the court finally gave out the decision, vindicat- 
 ing the judgment of the lower court as to Duncan B. 
 Cooper and remanding Robin's case on a technicality. 
 
 No one was surprised. On the contrary it was freely 
 predicted that the pardon would come that day — it came 
 the same hour. No petition had been presented — none 
 was required. Was not the governor an eminent law- 
 yer? Had he not gone thoroughly into the merits of the 
 case and decided that the jury who passed on the case 
 were either knaves or fools, and that the supreme court 
 was akin to them ? Certainly, and he decided in seventy- 
 two minutes that which took the supreme court seventy- 
 two days to decide, and yet there are those uncharitable 
 enough to believe that the governor decided it in less 
 than two minutes, and that, in all probability, before the 
 murder. 
 
 Well, the case of Duncan B. had ended, but Robin 
 was still in danger, and the governor was perplexed — 
 his term would soon expire. The chances were against 
 another renewal. Court delays were to be considered 
 and his excellency was not sure that the case in the regu- 
 lar routine could reach him in time if he failed to again 
 secure the plum. 
 
 He could think of no plan to save Robin, feeling sure 
 
122 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 that Attorney-General Jeff McCarn would, if possible, 
 hold off the case until the end of his tenure. 
 
 But fate came to his aid. Judge Hart was suddenly 
 stricken and died, and the way was clear. No man 
 would receive the appointment to that position only with 
 an implied understanding that the case against Robin 
 Cooper be dismissed. Now, why do I make this state- 
 ment? It is said that circumstantial evidence is the best 
 evidence ; that circumstances can't lie and men can. Now 
 take all the circumstances in connection with that 
 appointment, the governor's o'erweaning desire, and 
 many believe, necessity to clear, this defendant, the fine 
 opportunity to get it accomplished. Then consider the 
 outrageous juggling with truth, law, and equity to ac- 
 complish it (which is detailed in another chapter). Then 
 can there be a doubt that Judge Neil's appointment was 
 conditioned on the promise to acquit Robin Cooper, one 
 of the murderers of Senator Carmack? 
 
 Thus by the power and influence of this man two 
 atrocious murderers were turned loose without a penalty 
 imposed on them, and strange as it may seem, large num- 
 bers who claim to be good citizens are also Patterson 
 men, and would give him their vote and support for any- 
 thing that he would ask for, although the most prominent 
 newspapers throughout the entire nation justified the 
 verdict and condemned the pardon. Well, his excellency, 
 seeing that not only him, but Tennessee through him, 
 was held in contempt by the better element all over the 
 country, and being possessed of the brass of the devil, 
 felt it incumbent on him to again become a candidate that 
 he might have the opportunity to vindicate himself and 
 boldly proclaimed that he was in the fight to the finish, 
 but in an incredible short space of time, having received 
 the interpretation of the writing on the wall, was sud- 
 
AND Pool of Blood 123 
 
 denly stricken with party patriotism in an acute form, 
 and returned his nomination to the source from whence 
 it came, giving as his reason that as he was the bone of 
 contention, his sense of patriotism would not allow him 
 to jeopardize the success of the party for the promotion 
 of any personal ends, and as a drowning man would drop 
 a straw to catch at a log, so the governor let go that 
 which he knew was not worth thirty cents in the open 
 market, that he might get hold on something of more 
 value later on. Just what that is we are left to conjec- 
 ture, but judging by the manner in which he is flirting 
 with all factions, we surmise that Newell Sanders' place 
 would soothe his sorrows, seeing that it would give scope 
 for the display of his mighty powers, while furnishing 
 the opportunity to heal the breach with his old friend, 
 Senator Luke Lea. 
 
 Now, if we may be allowed to suggest, if Tennessee 
 desires to assume her rightful place 'mongst the state 
 in this glorious Union, she must use her sovereign 
 suffrage in a different manner. She must repudiate 
 men who will accept honors at the hands of a disgraceful 
 mob, or who will make hypocritical promises to get 
 elected and afterward utterly ignore them. She must 
 find material for her governors whose high moral char- 
 acter cannot be impeached. She must select men who 
 have given evidence of a faith that in a strict adherence 
 to the mandates of the law is the only guarantee of the 
 safety of person or property. She must choose gov- 
 ernors who will not be parti-ceps-criminis to disgraceful 
 political intrigues with unscrupulous demagogues; men 
 whose character will stand the test of miscroscopic in- 
 spection and be free from spots or blemishes ; men who 
 will not use the pardoning power as a political asset and 
 deluge the state with a horde of thieves and murderers 
 
124 Tennessee*s Pond of Liquor 
 
 to prey on the lives and property of her citizens; men 
 whose official acts require no apology; men who esteem 
 honor more than life, ambition or the acquisition of 
 wealth; men who realize that they are the servants, and 
 not the master, of their creators, and last, but not least, 
 their responsibility to God for their every act. 
 
 When her citizens realize these truths and cast their 
 suffrage accordingly, then, and not until then, shall old 
 Tennessee regain her lost prestige, the sun of peace shall 
 dwell in her rock-ribbed hills, and the dews of prosperity 
 descend on her valleys, while the peans of her songsters 
 bid happiness to reign supreme. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 125 
 
 PATTERSON'S EXPLANATION. 
 
 When Patterson opened his campaign for a third term 
 as governor of Tennessee at the Ryman Auditorium in 
 Nashville, and which he was later compelled to abandon 
 because of public feeling against him, I attended out of 
 curiosity. 
 
 It was after he had pardoned his friend, Duncan B. 
 Cooper, one of the murderers of Senator Carmack. I 
 wanted to hear from his own lips an attempted justifica- 
 tion of this terrible act of his. 
 
 I was sick at the time and had been confined to my 
 bed, but my anxiety to hear this man explain his own act 
 in granting that pardon impelled me to go, at whatever 
 cost to myself physically. 
 
 The auditorium was packed and I figured that about 
 half of the people in attendance were there for the same 
 purpose I was. Not only the whole state, but the entire 
 nation, was listening with straining ears for a statement 
 from Governor M. R. Patterson, the man higher up, who 
 had been so closely identified with the death of Carmack, 
 both politically and as an avowed friend of the mur- 
 derers, even having been with them the day of the kill- 
 ing and later being called as a witness at their trial. 
 
 The rest of the audience I was sure was composed of 
 the governor's followers, and they later showed their 
 blind adherence to this disrupter of peace in Tennessee 
 when he began his speech so fraught with disregard for 
 his recent political opponent, who had gone down on one 
 of Nashville's principal streets and before a volley of 
 
126 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 bullets fired from pistols in the hands of the speaker's 
 closest political allies. 
 
 When I left there I knew Patterson was capable of 
 being party to such a deed, and by his own words he 
 should be found guilty in the minds of all men who are 
 not so biased as to fail to see things correctly. 
 
 This may be thought to be too severe by some, but 
 why should we be so weak as to let a man do the things 
 it seems there is no doubt Patterson has done and remain 
 quiet about it? 
 
 Who is this man that the people of Tennessee should 
 be afraid to give speech to their honest convictions? It 
 is, or was, common talk on the streets of every city and 
 hamlet in the United States that Patterson knew of the 
 time that Carmack was to be shot down. It is still com- 
 mon talk on the streets of Tennessee's villages and larger 
 cities. 
 
 Had he not been prominent as an official and occupied 
 the position as a leader, he would have been arrested as 
 an accomplice with half the rumors afloat regarding his 
 connection with this crime. Men higher up in the af- 
 fairs of their country have committed deeds more 
 dastardly than was the murder of Carmack, with even a 
 less reason for the riddance of their victims, and it is no 
 strange thing that it should happen in this day and time 
 in a civilized country. It occurs in other civilized coun- 
 tries today, and we should not expect to escape it ; and 
 neither have we escaped it. 
 
 On several occasions I have heard the argument, "Pat- 
 terson would not have been a party to such an act 
 because of his intelligence. He could have foreseen the 
 consequences of such a thing and would not have walked 
 into it." 
 
 This is a very slim defense of the ex-governor. If he 
 
AND Pool of Blood 127 
 
 were too intelligent to do such a thing, or even be a 
 party to it, would not that same intelligence which is 
 said by those who look for some excuse for this man, 
 who is so badly in need of one, would have been a bar- 
 rier to his becoming a party to the conspiracy to take 
 the life of Carmack, be the means of his taking part in 
 it? Is it not reasonable to suppose that if he was too 
 intelligent to risk his hide in the enactment of the crime 
 that he would also be sufficiently intelligent to see that 
 his official position could be used to right matters and 
 later set all concerned free? 
 
 Did he not use that same position, given him at the 
 hands of a trusting people, to arrest for all time the 
 hand of Justice as it was gripping two of the criminals 
 preparatory to meting out to them a punishment which 
 had been decided by a court as that which was justly 
 due them? 
 
 If Patterson possessed brains enough to see that he 
 could not afford to entangle himself in this aflfair, why 
 did he not exercise that power with which he is reputed 
 to be so blessed in persuading his "close friends'* not to 
 commit the murder they did for the reason that his name 
 would of necessity be dragged into it because of his 
 connection with 4;hem ? According to his own statement 
 he knew that Duncan Cooper had spoken of taking the 
 life of Carmack, so why didn't he bring into play that 
 great "intellect" of his and put a stop to those proceed- 
 ings before the murder took place ? 
 
 No, Patterson was too intelligent. Had he been less 
 so he could not have so intelligently measured the future 
 and foreseen how easily the perpetrators of this foul 
 crime, and all others having prior knowledge of it, could 
 have escaped the law and the opinion of an outraged 
 populace. 
 
128 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 The truth of the matter is, he was intelHgent enough 
 to see that the very intelligence he was the possessor of 
 would be voluntarily accepted as a proof that he had not 
 been a party to the conspiracy. 
 
 The Coopers are intelligent and were certainly pos- 
 sessed of brains enough to know that without the assist- 
 ance of another intelligence, coupled with theirs, they 
 could not gain their freedom after committing the deed. 
 They had this assistance and were not deserted by it. 
 
 A man who is so dense he cannot see the connection 
 needs a guardian, or should be placed in some institution 
 where the mentally irresponsible are lodged for safe- 
 keeping. 
 
 I was further convinced of my correctness in this 
 when I heard Patterson's speech I had gone to the 
 auditorium to hear, as stated at the first of this chapter. 
 This was his first public appearance after his pardon of 
 Duncan Cooper, convicted of the murder of Senator E. 
 W. Carmack and sentenced to twenty years in the Ten- 
 nessee state prison by the criminal court of Davidson 
 County, and which verdict was later affirmed by the su- 
 preme court, the highest tribunal in the state. 
 
 This man of gall mounted the platform that evening 
 and began his remarks. Everything was expectancy, 
 for it was announced in advance that he would offer 
 some justification for his act in issuing the pardon to 
 his friend. This excuse he clothed in a very few words, 
 but a more anarchistic statement never issued from the 
 lips of man. When he reached this in his remarks he 
 only had this to say: 
 
 "Yes, I pardoned Colonel Cooper, my political and 
 personal friend, and I am glad that I did it." 
 
 When he delivered himself of this cold-blooded state- 
 ment in tones that reached to every corner of the vast 
 
AND Pool of Blood 129 
 
 building in which he was, there went up a howl of ap- 
 proval from the throats of the hundreds of lawless 
 citizens gathered there to hear their adored leader that 
 would have done credit to a band of careless Romans 
 watching the ravages of wild beasts as they devoured 
 innocent and helpless Christians in the time of Nero. It 
 was an occasion more suited to the barbarous ages than 
 to a civilized time. 
 
 That this man Patterson had not a particle of feeling 
 in his heart for Carmack and his bereaved ones, and the 
 thousands of the senator's friends in Tennessee, was not 
 doubted by anybody, not even those who were followers 
 of the whisky governor. His statement in loud acclaim 
 in the auditorium at Nashville was proof enough of this, 
 but when he later entered Columbia, where lay pillowed 
 the murdered Carmack on the breast of the Southland 
 he so loved, and where yet the widow and son were 
 weeping for the husband and father so dear to them, 
 with much noise and pomp and very much like a bar- 
 barous chieftain who walks proudly over the lifeless 
 bodies of his vanquished enemies, holding high his ban- 
 ner and inviting praise from his humble subjects, the 
 people were further convinced that the governor, the 
 liberator of his political opponent's slayers, was utterly 
 devoid of any feeling for the slain or bereft. 
 
 On this occasion Patterson went to Columbia to fill a 
 speaking date and the trip was made from Nashville in 
 an automobile. In the governor's party was John D. 
 Sharpe, one of the men indicted for the murder of Car- 
 mack. Sharpe was his bodyguard before and after the 
 murder. Who filled this office while he was in jail is 
 not publicly known, but whoever it was he was not as 
 good a servant as Sharpe, for when the latter was re- 
 leased from custody he was placed at his old post. 
 
130 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 If Patterson had had a particle of respect for Senator 
 Carmack and those near him, the least he could have 
 done to show it would have been to enter with quietness 
 the town in whose beautiful cemetery reposed the sena- 
 tor's bullet-scarred remains, and wherein resided his 
 wife and boy. 
 
 But this was not the case. As he passed into the 
 peaceful and thriving capital of Maury County it was 
 with much noise, and while the peals of martial music 
 from the brass band heralding his coming rent the air 
 and echoed and re-echoed among the shafts of granite 
 and stone in beautiful Rose Hill cemetery and played- 
 about the grave of Carmack, the little sandy-haired 
 chieftain, whose political star was then on the wane, 
 marched on through the city his "close personal friends" 
 had so recently caused to mourn by ruthlessly taking the 
 life of their most noted fellow townsman and the nation's 
 most illustrious statesman, while perched up beside him 
 as a distinguished member of his party, was one of the 
 indicted murderers, John D. Sharpe. 
 
 What do you think of this reader? Is that like the old 
 Tennessee. you knew when a boy? 
 
AND Pool of Blood 131 
 
 EDWARD WARD CARMACK. 
 
 Edward Ward Carmack was born in Sumner County, 
 Tennessee, November 5, 1858. He was a graduate of 
 the Webb School at Bellbuckle, Tenn., but at the time 
 Mr. Carmack was enrolled as one of its pupils the school 
 had its home at Culleoka, Tenn. 
 
 After studying law and being admitted to the bar, 
 he began the practice of his profession at Columbia, 
 Tenn. In 1884 he was elected representative of Maury 
 and Williamson counties in the Tennessee General As- 
 sembly. In 1886 he joined the Nashville American force 
 and was on the editorial staff of that paper two years. 
 In 1888 he left the American to become editor-in-chief 
 of the Nashville Democrat. This paper later consoli- 
 dated with the American, and Mr. Carmack was selected 
 to be the chief editor of the combined dailies. In April, 
 1890, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Dunnington, of 
 Columbia, Tenn. To them one son was born, Edward, 
 Jr., being known in Columbia as "Little Ned." 
 
 This boy was the pride of his father, and the great 
 senator and statesman could be seen sitting for hours at 
 a time on the veranda of his home in Columbia on balmy 
 spring and summer days with this boy perched upon his 
 knee. They never seemed to tire of each other, and 
 while Mr. Carmack was not called away by official du- 
 ties, he was at home with his wife and child. The love 
 that plainly existed between father and son in this in- 
 stance was inspiring. The sorrow I know must have 
 come into this little heart because of the ruthless murder 
 
132 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 of his father touches me more deeply than the assassina- 
 tion of his beloved parent. 
 
 In 1892 Mr. Carmack went to Memphis, where he had 
 accepted the editorship of the Commercial. This paper 
 later combined with the Appeal, he becoming editor-in- 
 chief of the Commercial Appeal. 
 
 In 1896 he was elected representative in Congress 
 from the Tenth Congressional District, in which Mem- 
 phis is located. In his race at this time he had as an 
 opponent Josiah Patterson, who had served several terms 
 in Congress and who was the father of M. R. Patterson, 
 who later became governor of Tennessee as a Democrat 
 and whose two administrations so disrupted the state 
 that the effects of it will be felt for many years to come. 
 
 The votes cast in Mr. Carmack's first race for Con- 
 gress were pretty equally divided between himself and 
 Mr. Patterson, and it was necessary for Congress to 
 decide which was entitled to a seat in that body. After 
 much deliberation Mr. Patterson was declared to be the 
 rightful one to fill it. After the matter seemed to be 
 settled, Mr. Carmack arose, and with his matchless elo- 
 quence, showed plainly that he, and not his opponent, 
 was the one really entitled to the seat, whereupon Mr. 
 Patterson was unseated and Mr. Carmack seated. 
 
 Mr. Carmack served two terms in Congress. His 
 aggressiveness and brilliancy while a member of that 
 body attracted the whole nation. The stalwart young- 
 congressman from Tennessee easily took a place among 
 the brainiest of those who served with him. By his elo- 
 quence and his logic he placed himself on a high plane, 
 and the people of his state were proud of him and his 
 achievements. 
 
 At the close of his second term, 1900, the time for 
 electing a United States senator was at hand. Carmack 
 
AND Pool of Blood 133 
 
 became an aspirant for this higher office, and, as he 
 had made such a good record in the lower house, he 
 had no trouble in securing the election as senator at the 
 hands of the legislature. 
 
 At the end of this term, 1906, Mr. Carmack was op- 
 posed for re-election by Robert L. Taylor. They agreed 
 to go before the people of the state in a primary for 
 the nomination, the latter defeating the former by a few 
 thousand votes. A few days before the close of this 
 memorable campaign. Senator Carmack, in a letter to 
 Mrs. Carmack at Columbia, predicted his defeat by five 
 thousand votes. How well he knew what he was talking 
 about can be plainly seen by a look at the records of 
 votes cast in that primary. 
 
 There is not a day that passes since the blood of the 
 peerless Carmack, made to flow by an assassin's bullet, 
 dampened the ground on that now hallowed spot on Sev- 
 enth avenue, Nashville, Tennessee, that many interested 
 and grieving strangers do not visit the scene of the la- 
 mented Senator's last moments on earth, where he was 
 shot down almost without warning in the prime of his 
 manhood and in the midst of his usefulness to his state 
 and country as a leader and statesman. 
 
 Stand on that spot, stranger, and you will have whis- 
 pered to you from somewhere unknown a sweet story 
 of how a noble soul was freed from its tenement of clay 
 and wafted to fields more vast and missions more holy. 
 
 Look at the wire-wrapped pole and there will come 
 to you many imaginings, and when, in your mind's eye, 
 you picture the prostrate form, as it fell limp from the 
 cruel bullets that passed through it from the rear as it 
 faced a threatened danger in front, you will become sick- 
 ened at the thought of the heartlessness of men and won- 
 der if your race is degenerating instead of advancing, 
 
134 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 dnd that if it carries back to its furry forefathers such 
 traits as the picture you have drawn shows you as being 
 in the character of such members of the human family as 
 you know committed the deed enacted on the spot 
 where you now stand that sombre November afternoon, 
 you will feel that the species from which many eminent 
 scientists aver we have sprung will be more disgraced 
 when finally we rejoin it on our downward course than it 
 is honored by being the source to which man, that most 
 perfect of all animals, traces his origin. 
 
 Do you not feel the presence of his great spirit as you 
 stand there and recall the whole affair to mind? 
 
 Do you not experience the peculiar sensation of being 
 on sacred ground when you remember the greatness of 
 the man whose life ebbed away there on that spot, while 
 the pistols of his assassins were yet smoking, and while 
 the reports of the five shots which rang out that fateful 
 November afternoon were yet reverberating up and down 
 the city's thoroughfares and through its busy marts? 
 
 Take notice of your surroundings and you will see 
 that you are standing on a diagonal line between two 
 magnificent and imposing structures, one the Young 
 Men's Christian Association and the other the Young 
 Women's Christian Association. 
 
 These buildings are dedicated to the uplifting and 
 Christianizing of young men and women, and there could 
 not have been more suitable locations selected for their 
 erection than where they now stand as guardians over 
 the spot where fell Carmack, he who had been the peer 
 of all in the world's body of most noted lawmakers. 
 
 It was not by the planning of man that these two con- 
 secrated masses of brick and mortar o'ershadow the spot 
 that pillowed the head of the dying gifted author of 
 "Character," that masterpiece so full of valued and price- 
 
AND Pool of Blood 135 
 
 less advice to youth who is seeking a rule of conduct by 
 which the pitfalls so plentiful in the path of erring man 
 are avoided and life is made more sweet by its following. 
 
 It was a higher power which brought this about, and it 
 is more than a coincidence that the residence of the 
 great martyr, where still live his wife and son, is only 
 separated by a fence from the home of President James 
 K. Polk, at the time that gentleman was nominated as 
 a candidate for the high office which he later filled, and 
 that the Senator met death at the hands of assassins in 
 front of the site of Polk's Nashville home. 
 
 Fog and smoke hung low to the earth on the day of 
 Carmack's murder, and while this shroud enveloped the 
 tragical scene a gentle rain fell from the grayish clouds 
 above — the very heavens weeping for the matchless char- 
 acter who was then to give up his life for the cause 
 he represented and for the people for whom he had gal- 
 lantly fought. 
 
 When the death of Carmack was decreed by those who 
 feared him, there could not have been a better day for 
 committing the deed than Monday, November 9, 1908. 
 
 If honor, fidelity to principle, a clear conception of 
 right, and the courage to defend it, ever had a throne 
 uncorrupted and incorruptible, it was in the breast of 
 Edward Ward Carmack. 
 
 Carmack was a credit to the state, and the whole world 
 knew of Tennessee's able and eloquent senator. He had 
 made his state famous by representing it in the halls 
 of congress. He never lost an opportunity to strike a 
 blow for his home and the Southland. 
 
 To give the reader a better idea of the greatness of 
 Carmack, we quote the following from the gifted pen of 
 "Savoyard" (E. W. Newman), the best living authority 
 on public men and live measures : 
 
136 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 "And the king said unto his servants: *Know ye not 
 that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in 
 Israel?'" 
 
 Whether this man was more richly endowed with those 
 qualities for which good men loved him than he was 
 bounteously gifted with those attributes for which intel- 
 lectual men admired him will never be known. He was 
 the most brilliant mind with which my mind ever had 
 personal commune, and he was the knightliest man whose 
 hand my hand ever clasped. He was the greatest son of 
 the South during his entire public career, and the North, 
 as bitterly as the South, is filled with indignant horror 
 over the deep damnation of his taking off. 
 
 They who slew him builded fatefuller than they knew, 
 for they completed Tennessee's immortal trio of demi- 
 gods in Valhalla — Andrew Jackson, Nathan Bedford 
 Forrest and Edward Ward Carmack. The legislature 
 of Tennessee owes it to the good men and women of 
 that State, and to the entire South, to take measures to 
 have carved out of purest Carrara a statue of Carmack 
 to place in the hall of the old House of Representatives 
 at Washington to serve for exemplar that the youth of 
 future generations may strive to emulate his nobility of 
 character and rival his splendor of genius. 
 
 But Carmack survives in millions and millions of 
 Southern hearts, and his influence is more puissant in 
 death than it even was in life. 
 
 Just fifty years and four days old, on that fateful Mon- 
 day, November 9, Edward Ward Carmack had scarce 
 emerged from his physical prime and was just entering 
 into his intellectual zenith. Without any loss of bril- 
 liancy, he was daily augmenting and solidifying his trans- 
 cendent intellectual powers, and the golden promises of 
 an exuberant efflorescence was then yielding a harvest 
 of plenty beyond the dreams of hope itself. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 137 
 
 In a twinkling he was cut down, and all without warn- 
 ing, as he was peacefully on his way from the place 
 where he worked to the place where he slept, and thus he 
 fills a martyr's grave, because he was a man whose pen 
 dared to write what his heart dared forge — one who 
 never feared to look on the face of man. When we con- 
 template the trivial provocation pleaded by those who 
 so savagely took his life, we cannot but agree with Bishop 
 Hoss that Carmack was murdered, not for what he had 
 written, but for what it was feared he would write. 
 
 He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one; 
 Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading; 
 Lofty and sour to them that loved him not; 
 But to those men who sought him as sweet as summer. 
 
 Great as Carmack was in either House of Congress, 
 eloquent as he was on the stump, powerful as he was as 
 an advocate before "twelve men in a box," he was yet 
 made for the editorial chair of a widely read independ- 
 ent political newspaper. Like Clement L. Vallanding- 
 ham, Carmack was too positive and too intense a nature 
 to gain a great place at the bar, except before the jury. 
 Unlike the politician, the lawyer cannot choose his cause, 
 and Carmack was a man who could not argue a brief 
 in the rectitude of which he had little faith. He had the 
 intellect to command the logic, and the mind to analyze 
 a legal principle; but he did not have the temperament 
 of a lawyer, as did Ben Hill, or Matt Carpenter, or Allen 
 G. Thurman, or John G. Carlisle. 
 
 Hence it was perfectly natural for Carmack to aban- 
 don the bar for the forum. He became an editor, and 
 no more gifted pen ever reinforced that noble profes- 
 sion. Perhaps our country has produced but two per- 
 fect newspaper men — Charles A. Dana and Joseph B. 
 
138 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 McCiilloch — possibly Henry J. Raymond might be added 
 to the list. These were as great as writers as they were 
 as gatherers of news. Carmack was not a news man ; but 
 as a commentator on events and on men, as the advocate 
 of living principles, American journalism has rarely 
 known his equal, and never known his superior. One 
 of his favorite authors was Edgar Allan Poe, and with 
 the exception of Poe, the first man of letters of our 
 hemisphere, I do not believe Edward Ward Carmack 
 ever had a superior in America in the mastery of the 
 expression of the English tongue. He was a dull man 
 who would not forego a night's sleep to hear Ned Car- 
 mack recite "Annabel Lee." 
 
 But before Carmack laid hand on Poe he had drank 
 copiously at the richest fount of our speech, the English 
 Bible. Except Benjamin F. Butler, I recall no man in 
 our public life who quoted so frequently and so aptly 
 from Sacred Writ as he. He reveled in the Psalms, 
 and in the pulpit he would have been another Simpson, 
 perhaps another Campbell. In the editorial chair he was 
 far more than a gifted writer. He was a student and a 
 thinker. But he was more, infinitely more than that, 
 than these, than all — he believed something, and like 
 another Luther, he would go to Worms though it were 
 to his death, and so he did, and so he was a martyr to 
 duty and to country. 
 
 Though an editor were Hazlitt, Macaulay and Hume 
 combined, and had no belief except as the wind listeth, 
 he would be a Samson without his locks — one Greeley, 
 or one Carmack, worth ten thousand like him. To con- 
 vince others one must himself be convinced, to move 
 others, one must himself be moved. It was his charac- 
 ter and his beliefs that made Carmack the force he was. 
 that commanded the love of millions, and pity 'tis 'tis 
 true, that brought him to an untimely grave. 
 
AND Pool of IJlood 139 
 
 In the national councils Carmack took the place left 
 vacant by the transfer of Lamar to the cabinet ancl the 
 bench. Though so prodigally endowed by nature, Car- 
 mack trod no royal road of civic eminence. The rich 
 soil of his mind was ceaselessly cultivated. He burned 
 the midnight oil in communing with the mighty minds 
 that had left their impress on the world, and while others 
 slept he delved in the lore of past ages, digested and 
 assimilated the wisdom of those who had gone before. 
 That was what made him so formidable and so ready in 
 debate. That was what made him feared in intellectual 
 combat as neither Ingalls nor Reed was feared. 
 
 One cannot compare Carmack and Ben Hill, or Car- 
 mack and Judah P. Benjamin, or Carmack and James S. 
 Green. Pie was as different from Robert Tooms as the 
 rapier of Critchton from the hammer of Thor. Withal 
 he had the heart of Burke to sympathize with suffering 
 and to hate cruelty everywhere. His speech in loathing 
 and denunciation of "Hell-roaring Jake" Smith's infa- 
 mous order in the Philippines was as lofty a specimen of 
 indignant eloquence as ever the United States Senate 
 heard. 
 
 "And this," he exclaimed, "the President tells us, is 
 'benevolent assimilation !' " 
 
 "And how would the senator characterize it?" de- 
 manded Foraker. 
 
 Quick as a flash came the retort, "I call it malevolent 
 annihilation." 
 
 Carmack was not the constitutional lawyer that Car- 
 lisle was, for his genius did not trend that way, and for 
 the same reason he had not the mastery of economic 
 subjects possessed by John Sharp Williams, but in a great 
 constitutional debate he would have been an invaluable 
 lieutenant to Carlisle, and to Williams he would have 
 
140 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 brought aid like that Blucher carried to Wellington. In 
 the fundamentals he was all that Carlisle or Mills was, 
 but he had devoted the study to history and to literature 
 that they brought to detail to law and economy. 
 
 Lamar had a more riotous imagination than Carmack ; 
 and I am persuaded that had Carmack been as much of 
 a dreamer as was Lamar, and indulged in more introspec- 
 tion he would have been a more extraordinary man than 
 he was; but Carmack was a man of action as well as a 
 man of thought, and as a soldier he would have been as 
 superb on the field as he was great as a lawgiver in the 
 senate. He was a born leader, and Isham G. Harris was 
 the only man he ever saw of whom he was content to be 
 a follower. The time Lamar spent in dreaming Car- 
 mack devoted to work — reading or writing. In com- 
 mittee Lamar was often inert; but Carmack was a posi- 
 tive force there. In open senate, when both were aroused 
 to action, they were equals — Lamar the finer imagina- 
 tion, Carmack the 'more caustic wit, the more rollicking 
 humor. In diction the scale nearly balanced between 
 them. 
 
 Carmack was ten years in congress — four in the house 
 and six in the senate. Ben Hill served two years in 
 the house and five in the senate. Except Lamar, I doubt 
 if any other American ever made so enviable a reputa- 
 tion in so limited a service as Hill and Carmack. Hill 
 was there but seven years to Carmack's ten, but his 
 opportunities were greater. Carmack had no such theme 
 and no such adversary as Hill encountered when he 
 utterly crushed Blaine in the debate of the general 
 amnesty resolution. Nor did Carmack have the chance 
 that came to Hill when he annihilated Mahone. Per- 
 haps no other Southerner since the war, unless Carlisle 
 or Eustis was he, could have contended with Carpenter 
 
AND Pool of Blood 141 
 
 as Hill did on the constitutional question involved in the 
 debate of the contested election of senators from 
 Louisiana. 
 
 But all in all, John T. Morgan's estimate is just and 
 it will hold — that Carmack was the most brilliant man 
 the senate knew for the thirty years that Morgan was 
 a senator. 
 
 If I was asked to cite the most beautifully pathetic 
 and the most loftily patriotic burst of eloquence that ever 
 fell from the Hps of an American orator, I should tender 
 Carmack's tribute to the South. It was my happy for- 
 tune to hear it as it fell from his ''iron lips." Though 
 then his poHtical enemy — I a goldbug — I was transfixed 
 with wonder that turned to rapture ere he had finished 
 the noble sentiment. The entire house was entranced — 
 Republicans as much as Democrats — and even the stern 
 and synical Reed gazed on the orator and drank in the 
 words as one bewitched. I have seen the house moved to 
 more tumultuous applause by William L. Wilson and 
 Bourke Cochran, but never in my time — now more than 
 thirty years — -has that house been so profoundly im- 
 pressed, so deeply stirred, as when Carmack bowed and 
 sat down that day. There were too many tears for riot. 
 
 I know I shall be pardoned for inserting it here: 
 
 'The South is a land that has known sorrows; it is a 
 land that has broken the ashen crust and moistened it 
 with its tears ; a land scarred and riven by the plowshare 
 of war and billowed with the graves of her dead, but a 
 land of legend, a land of song, a land of hallowed and 
 heroic memories. To that land every drop of my blood, 
 every fiber of my being, every pulsation of my heart is 
 consecrated forever. I was born of her womb ; I was nur- 
 tured at her breast, and when my last hour shall come 
 I pray God I may be pillowed upon her bosom and 
 
142 TexNtnessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 rocked to sleep within her tender and encircling arms.'' 
 I have one suggestion to make, one prayer to offer — 
 that every Southern mother teach her child, the pride of 
 her home, aj\d the hope of her land, to repeat that match- 
 less passage. Plant it in his memory when it is young 
 and plastic. It cannot but lead him to noble thoughts 
 and generous impulses. 
 
 Genius, statesman, orator, publicist, patriot, gentle 
 man, Christian, farewell — "the first Southerner of his 
 day!" is thy epitaph! 
 
AND Pool of Blood 143 
 
 A REAL MAN'S SACRIFICE TO DUTY. 
 
 Gov. Hooper has granted a conditional pardon to Mell 
 Maples of Sevier County. Maples was convicted on the 
 charge of murder, in 1907, and sentenced to a term of 
 fifteen years in the penitentiary. The recommendation 
 for his pardon was signed by about 1,800 citizens of 
 Sevier County, the trial jury, trial judge, and attorney- 
 general. Maples is in a low state of health, due to con- 
 sumption, and new evidence has been discovered that 
 would probably have resulted in a less severe sentence. 
 Maples is now about 27 years old. In a letter to the 
 governor, his father wrote the following: 
 
 "I could have gotten him out by sacrificing principle 
 and manhood, but I stood for the right, and trusted to 
 the Lord that right would prevail after I had done my 
 duty." 
 
 The conditions imposed are that the prisoner shall 
 abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors, and shall 
 stay away from places where such liquors are sold; that 
 he shall not gamble, and that he shall otherwise conduct 
 himself as a law-abiding citizen. 
 
 The above appeared in the Nashville Banner Wednes- 
 day, January 24, 1912. It brought to my mind, with 
 renewed force, a story with which I was already familiar 
 — how a man oflFered up on the altar of duty a sacrifice 
 that but few men would make. 
 
 The father of Mell Maples, the pardoned man, was a 
 member of the 56th general assembly of Tennessee, which 
 was so torn with the prohibition question during the last 
 
144 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 administration of Patterson. He belonged to the anti- 
 liquor faction in that body. As everyone knows, the 
 vote was pretty closely divided. A vote for or against it 
 meant much, and both sides fought every inch of the 
 ground. 
 
 Those in favor of state-wide prohibition were known 
 to be in the majority, and while the leaders were alert to 
 hold its supporters together, the opposition was doing 
 all within its power to purchase sufficient votes from 
 among them to defeat its passage. 
 
 It was a trying time and tested the metal of men. 
 Money was offered by the whisky leaders in almost 
 limitless amounts for the killing of the bill. Bribes were 
 tendered and the glitter of gold tempted men charged 
 with a better mission to sell their manhood. The weak 
 gave way to its power and the strong held out against 
 its lure. By it the traitor and the weakling were sepa- 
 rated from the true and fearless. Man's common enemy 
 was fighting with a golden sword before which many 
 have fallen. 
 
 Each faction was working every hour in the twenty- 
 four. All night sessions were held and plans laid by 
 both sides for the next day's battle. It was a time when 
 honest men were needed to stand for the right. It seems 
 that a higher power gets them together at the proper 
 moment, and in this case there was no exception. Men 
 were elected and sent to the legislature by constituents 
 who instructed them to vote for the state-wide measure. 
 Some forgot their promises when money was dropped 
 into the open hands at their backs. They came for that 
 purpose, but they were not there in sufficient numbers — 
 they were defeated. It was because strong men were in 
 favor of no saloons that the prohibition law found its 
 way to the statutes of Tennessee. Where money failed 
 
AND Pool of Blood 145 
 
 to buy a legislator's vote, the bribe-givers and corruption- 
 ists pried into his private life to see if they could find 
 anything there to force him to surrender his honor. They 
 cared nothing for human woes and those things sacred 
 to men. If a man was in trouble they promised to get 
 him out; if he was out they threatened to get him in. 
 The whisky element was in control of the state's 
 machinery, and the governor was, body and soul, mixed 
 up with them. His influence was thrown to the liberal 
 side, and any promises made by that faction which had to 
 be carried out through his office were promptly at- 
 tended to. 
 
 The prohibition committee of the legislature had rooms 
 in the Maxwell House, and every night during the time 
 the bill was up for consideration they held meetings in 
 these quarters. If a member should be absent at roll call, 
 there was grave fear that the hounds had him and that 
 he had joined the other side — that he had sold out. 
 
 Being interested in the passage of this bill, I fre- 
 quently attended these night gatherings at the Maxwell 
 House. At one roll call Thomas Maples, a member from 
 an East Tennessee mountain district, failed to answer 
 present. He had always been faithful and there was 
 much speculation as to his apparently unwarranted 
 absence. At the next meeting he was again not there. 
 Night after night, for nearly one whole week this was 
 the case, until one evening the outer door of the head- 
 quarters opened and Mr. Maples stood before his aston- 
 ished fellow committeemen. 
 
 "Gentlemen," he began, before anyone could say a 
 word, "I know you think it strange that I have been 
 away so long. In fact, I am sure that you have long since 
 decided that 1 had deserted you. But let me explain. 
 As many of you know, I have a son in the Tennessee 
 
 10 
 
146 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 State Prison, put there for killing a man. While he was 
 placed there for an awful crime, he is not altogether to 
 blame. The thing we are gathered here to fight is at 
 the bottom of it. He was drunk, and while in this con- 
 dition took the life of a fellow-man. He is my son and, 
 whatever his crime, I love him. I was told by a repre- 
 sentative of the other side that if I w^ould desert pro- 
 hibition and cast my vote with the whisky crowd Gov. 
 Patterson would pardon my boy. They knew money 
 would not touch me, and with this they almost reached 
 my price. I told them I would give an answer soon. 
 I left at once for my home in the mountains to talk it 
 over with my good wife, mother of my imprisoned son. 
 There has been darkness in that home since our son 
 went to prison, and I saw a chance to free my boy and 
 lift the sorrow from the heart of my poor, grieving wife. 
 I told her what had been offered me, and she told me 
 not to accept it, but to do my duty and leave that to 
 God. We cried and prayed over it, and every night for 
 the past week I have walked the floor until the small 
 hours of morning, wrestling with it, and I could not sec 
 it in any other light different from that in which my 
 wife viewed it. My friends, I have come back to do my 
 duty. The welfare of my boy I leave to God." 
 
 Who would not bow to such a man? When he had 
 finished, I felt that I was standing in the presence of a 
 saint. The sacrifice he made to duty and the faith he 
 pinned to God will find few equals in history. Thai 
 man should be given the best the people of his home can 
 bestow upon him. His is the kind of virtue that should 
 be rewarded. Men of his type made Tennessee famous 
 for her brave sons, and while the old state has diverged 
 from the path which such men placed her in, it will be 
 his type that will bring her back. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 147 
 
 Mr. Maples, I thank you for the lesson you have given 
 me. I have often thought of it and shall ever recall it 
 with reverence. 
 
 The news contained in the clipping at the head of this 
 chapter shows how well his faith was rewarded. 
 
148 Tennessee's Pond of Liqwor 
 
 WHY THIS GREWSOME NAME. 
 
 TENNESSEE'S POND OF LIQUOR AND POOL 
 OF BLOOD. 
 
 No doubt you will ask, or at least you will wonder, why 
 I selected such a grewsome name for this book. Well, 
 in the first place, I had to name it something, and as I 
 expected to deal with political conditions in Tennessee 
 and the cause of those conditions, it occurred to me as 
 a very appropriate name, however objectionable it may 
 be to some. 
 
 If I could have gotten out of calling this a book I would 
 have done so. I have some idea of what it means to write 
 a book and appreciate the fact that it carries the inference 
 of a scholar and is not the task of a small bore. I am 
 not a scholar and frankly admit that I am a small bore. 
 However, I determined to write this, have it published 
 and bound, and there was nothing to do but to call it a 
 book, so with that explanation and apology to all real 
 book writers, I duck and dive into what I have to say. 
 
 The scientist undertakes to tell us where we came from, 
 the theolog where we are going, but what the people 
 want to know is, "Where are we at ?" Our origin is quite 
 a mooted question and from our present degeneracy, I 
 am about ready to agree with Mr. Darwin that we sprang 
 from the monkey, and we did not spring very far from 
 him, either, and we are now traveling after the crawfish 
 kind and will soon be ready to convert the whole thing 
 
AND Pool of Blood 149 
 
 into one grand zoo, and be "at home to our fathers and 
 friends." 
 
 AS TO OUR FINAL DESTINATION. 
 
 If the preachers' finespun theory is correct (and I 
 beHeve it is) about there being two distinct places for our 
 final abode, it depending entirely upon our conduct here 
 as to which one we get, there is no question but that 
 the most of us will go where it is warm. 
 
 WHERE ARE WE AT .'' 
 
 That's the all-absorbing, living question. At the rapid 
 rate we are traveling, we certainly should be somewhere, 
 and we are — I can only answer for those with whom I 
 am keeping company and as I see it, in Tennessee, we are 
 in "The Middle of a Fix." Politically, we are like the 
 snake that made the track, you can't tell whether we are 
 going forward or coming back. 
 
 It is no exaggeration to say (and a good bet if you 
 want to win) that there are more political crooks to the 
 square inch in Tennessee than any state in the Union, 
 especially is that true of her three large cities and most 
 — especially of Nashville, her capital city. Now, bear in 
 mind, I know what I am talking about when I say Nash- 
 ville. I have lived there twenty years and have recently 
 served one term as sheriff, and the very best recommen- 
 dation that I could possibly give as to who I am, what 
 I am, and how I do business is, that I served one term 
 as sheriff of Davidson County and could not be re-elected, 
 and if I were called upon to explain why I am so poor, 
 why I have nothing, why I look seedy, why so many 
 people curl their lip and turn up their nose when they 
 
150 lEN^iESSEE's i^OiND OF LlQUOR 
 
 see me, why so many call me a fool, why I am the object 
 of scorn, why I am cussed, why I can't pay my debts, 
 why I can't get a job in Nashville, why I couldn't hold 
 it if I got it, why I am held up by the lawless element and 
 pointed out to all candidates for public office to observe, 
 take notice and be governed accordingly, if they want 
 to be elected, why they govern themselves accordingly, 
 why the liquor people fight me, why the railroads fight 
 me, why the telephone company fights me, why the palace 
 car company, the street car company, the gas com- 
 pany, the telegraph companies, all the big business, 
 including the Roman Catholic organization, fights me 
 and will fight me whenever and wherever I poke up my 
 head. 
 
 I would answer : Simply because I was elected sheriff 
 on the independent ticket, enforced the law and refused 
 to bow the knee to Baal. 
 
 But you say, what's that got to do with the name of 
 the book? I will tell you a little later, if you fail to see 
 the appropriateness. 
 
 In my fight for good government, law and order, and 
 special privilege to none, the only visible prominent out- 
 spoken force opposing me, was the liquor and the gam- 
 bling element, but back of them was the hidden hand ; 
 the very foundation upon which the, liquor people stand, 
 the corporations and big business. 
 
 The liquor people make the fight while the corpora- 
 tions direct the battle and put up the money. Their 
 slogan is "drown him in a pond of liquor and if neces- 
 sary, reduce him to a pool of blood," and the heartless, 
 corrupt and villainous gang of vampires and thieves pro- 
 ceed to carry out the order. In my case, they succeeded 
 in drowning me in a pond of liquor and fell but little 
 short of reducing me to a pool of blood, and they may 
 
AND Pool of Bix)od 161 
 
 do it yet. The fact is, politically, Tennessee stands today 
 upon a veritable pond of liquor and pool of blood. The 
 man who fights the liquor interests and their friends in 
 Tennessee may expect at any time to spill his blood, 
 and he must not be afraid to die. Only a few years ago, 
 one of Tennessee's most noble sons announced himself 
 a candidate for governor of his state, and by way of 
 explaining his position on the liquor question, he used 
 these words: "The liquor business has sinned away its 
 days of grace and therefore must be destroyed." What 
 was the result; we all know he was destroyed in its 
 stead. We all know that Edward Ward Carmack was 
 cut down in the vigor of his noble young manhood and 
 left for a while to writhe and swelter in his own blood. 
 Carmack was murdered, not for what he had said, but 
 what he zvould say, by as cold-blooded and treacherous 
 assassin as ever stole to the couch of sleeping innocence 
 at the dark hour of midnight and with no more justifica- 
 tion than the nailing of Jesus Christ to the Cross by the 
 heartless Jews. Yet this assassin walks the streets of 
 Nashville with head erect. Not even the blush of shame 
 mantles his cheek as he views the blood-stained spot 
 where his victim fell. Unlike the Jew, this assassin was 
 not even sent to wonder and vv^ait for his Moses. He 
 found his Moses before he found his man. When car- 
 ried before the courts, justice was done, but when at last, 
 called before (not Pilot) but Patterson, his verdict was 
 "I find no fault with my personal and political friend, 
 the judgment of the courts to the contrary notwithstand- 
 ing, but in the man he killed I do, therefore, you shall not 
 take him. He shall go scot free." 
 
 Today this murderer. Dune Cooper, with his hands 
 wreaking with the bipod of Edward Ward Carmack, 
 still seeks to direct political affairs in Tennessee^ while 
 
152 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Ham Patterson, the man who forever disgraced Ten- 
 nessee, by the pardon of Dune Cooper, is an announced 
 candidate for the United States senate, and should have 
 as an appropriate platform, "I stand upon a pond of 
 liquor and Carmack's blood." 
 
 Then ask me why I select such a name? I did not 
 select it, conditions suggested it. 
 
 i 
 
AND Pool of Blood 153 
 
 PATTERSONISM THE ISSUE. 
 
 I commenced to write this book in October, 191 1, and 
 expected to have it out in a short while, but met with so 
 many obstacles I was unable to do so. 
 
 My experience in compiling this book would make 
 quite an interesting story within itself. 
 
 Since commencing this book and predicting that ex- 
 Governor Patterson would be a candidate for office, he 
 has announced himself for the United States Senate. 
 
 Now that Patterson is a candidate, the issue in Ten- 
 nessee is plainly Patterson and Pattersonism, and must 
 and will be fought out along these lines. 
 
 Above all else this man of gall — this modern Nero — 
 desires a vindication at the hands of the people of Ten- 
 nessee, of himself and his "close personal and political 
 friends" for the murder of Senator Carmack and his 
 pardon of the murderer and that is what his election 
 would mean. 
 
 The election of Ham Patterson to any office in Ten- 
 nessee, much less the highest office within the gift of the 
 people of a state, would simply mean that the people of 
 this great commonwealth condone the murder of Carmack 
 and applaud and elevate the pardoner of the assassin. 
 
 It would mean the reinstating of the most damnable 
 political machine and ring-rule that ever cursed a South- 
 ern state. 
 
 It would mean an endorsement of the Patterson prece- 
 dent, the disregarding and setting aside of the decrees of 
 our supreme court with impunity. 
 
154 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 It would mean that the people endorse the usurpation 
 of the judiciary by the executive. 
 
 It would mean an absolute domination, if not damna- 
 tion, of our public affairs by the worst element that 
 ever infested a free state. 
 
 It would mean that the worst man in Tennessee fills 
 the highest office in Tennessee. 
 
 It would mean that the same blood that stains the 
 ijovernor's chair would stain the same seat in the United 
 States senate once occupied and honored by Edward 
 Ward Carmack. 
 
 It means that we should tear down the monument now- 
 being erected to the Immortal Carmack and build one to 
 this Daring Demon in its stead. 
 
 It simply means the absolute destruction of Tennessee, 
 therefore, it will never be, the PEOPLE will see to that. 
 
 No, Mr. Patterson, you have fattened from the peo- 
 ple's treasury and given nothing in return for your last 
 time. 
 
 You have turned loose, protected, and been elected by 
 the criminals of this state for your last time. 
 
 You have promised the people one thing to get office 
 and then done another thing for your last time. 
 
 You said **you stood at the bar of God and asked for 
 that that made men strong." 
 
 You have fooled us as to what bar that was for your 
 last time. We know by your behavior that it was not the 
 bar of God. 
 
 You said, "I pardoned my personal and political friend, 
 Col. Cooper, and was GLAD that I did it, and for it I am 
 willing to be judged here and hereafter." 
 
 Don't worry about that, Mr. Patterson, the people of 
 Tennessee will judge you HERE and God Almighty 
 will judge YOU hereafter, "and then some." 
 
AND Pool of Blood 155 
 
 i lit-re quote from the Nashville Tennessean of August 
 13, 19 1 2, in which my sentiments could be no better 
 expressed and add, I do not know who will oppose Ham 
 Patterson for the United States senate, but whoever he 
 may be, should certainly have the honesty, courage and 
 frankness to boldly charge and force the issue that Pat- 
 terson was a party to the murder of Edward Ward Car- 
 mack, and should he fail to do so, I am sure the people 
 of Tennessee will regard him as equally unfit for the 
 senate as Patterson himself. The quotation referred to 
 follows : 
 
 The Democratic nominees cannot afford to carry the 
 weight of Patterson's candidacy for the senate, if the 
 party is going to be, or deserve to be, successful at the 
 polls in November. 
 
 Patterson has been a disturbing factor in politics in 
 Tennessee during the last several years. 
 
 During his two terms as governor, and his three 
 terms as representative of the Tenth District in the 
 Congre:=s of the United States, there is not a single 
 measure that can be called distinctively Patterson's thai 
 made for the welfare of the state or nation, or that con- 
 tributed to the peace or prosperity of the people he was 
 representing. There is not a single idea championed by 
 Patterson Vv^hich he can claim as his own that brought 
 tranquility or contentment to Tennessee. He repre- 
 sented no party principle that marked an advance in 
 the party's position and entitled the party to a greater 
 measure of public confidence. 
 
 Patterson's official and public life has thus stood for 
 absolutely nothing good in an affirmative sense, but it is 
 far from being barren of results in an evil way. He has 
 accomplished more evil than any other public man in 
 twice the time. 
 
156 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Patterson found the party united and triumphant, 
 and at the close of his second term, he left it divided 
 and defeated. Before he became its leader, the party 
 stood for definite principles. He left his wing of it with- 
 out any definite policy, other than one of revenge, and 
 as a vehicle of one man's insatiable ambition for offices 
 he cannot fill, but only disgrace. 
 
 The administration of his office was marked by the 
 most brazen and disgraceful system of pardon brokerage 
 that ever pilloried a state in shame before an outraged 
 nation. Murder left its bloody stain upon the governor's 
 chair while he occupied it. His was not the hand that 
 fired the shot that robbed Tennessee of its most brilliant 
 and beloved son. His may not have been the brain that 
 hatched the foul and dastardly crime. But he was so 
 close to all of it as to receive a stain that neither time 
 nor changing generations can efface. 
 
 Patterson's re-entrance into politics reveals his 
 hypocrisy in professing love for the party, because he 
 knows the only cloud upon Democracy's horizon is his 
 candidacy for the senate. For as long as murder is re- 
 garded as murder, the people of Tennessee are not going 
 to permit themselves to be represented in the United 
 States Senate, as a successor to Edward Ward Carmack, 
 by the man who pardoned the murderer of Carmack 
 before the ink was dry on the decree of the Supreme 
 Court which branded the foul crime as murder, to say 
 nothing worse of Patterson's connection with it. 
 
 Patterson's plan is to make the Democratic party 
 and the state of Tennessee share with him the humilia- 
 tion this act has invited upon him for all time, first, by 
 having the Democratic party endorse him and his act 
 by nominating him, and second, by having the state of 
 Tennessee ratify his nomination by electing him to the 
 senate.. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 157 
 
 Pattersons candidacy represents the clear-cut issue 
 of an endorsement or condemnation of Carmack's mur- 
 der. Patterson approved it by pardoning the murderer. 
 Patterson now asks the party and the state to endorse 
 him and approve through him the murder of Carmack. 
 The nominees of the party cannot afford to be an 
 accessory after the fact to the murder of Carmack, and 
 least of all on personal as well as political grounds can 
 Governor Benton McMillin afford to endorse the murder 
 of Carmack by approving and lending either direct or 
 indirect support to "the candidacy of Patterson, who be- 
 trayed him in the last senatorial fight and did more than 
 any other man to defeat him for the senate. 
 
 The time to stamp out the blight of Patterson is 
 right now. 
 
 Could there be a more ghastly, harrowing, sickening 
 sight than to witness this exponent of liquor, blood- 
 sucking corporation and every evil force with which the 
 American people are cursed rising in the United States 
 Senate with his hand wreaking with the blood of Car- 
 mack and proclaiming to that august body that he rep- 
 resents the great state of Tennessee? 
 
 No, nothing more disgraceful could come to our state, 
 and with full confidence in our people of the rural dis- 
 tricts, I predict that it will never come. In the language 
 of another, "not so long as murder is regarded as 
 murder." 
 
 Nor will it suffice to prate about the liquor question, 
 law-enforcement, back tax, good roads, corruption, graft, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 The question is, Patterson and Pattersonism, when 
 this man and his bloody wake is forever wiped from the 
 face of Tennessee's political affairs, all these things will 
 be remedied and not until then. 
 
158 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 So, come out like a man and force him to stand as he 
 truly does, upon a Pond of Liquor and a Pool of Blood. 
 
 I serve notice here and now that if I live, and the 
 sale of this book enables me to do so, I expect to go over 
 this entire state and give to the people from my own lips, 
 heart and soul, what I know (and I know more than I 
 have here told), about Patterson and ,his criminal 
 associates. 
 
 And in doing so, I shall represent no man or set of 
 men, no political party or faction of a party. I, and I 
 alone, shall be responsible, and whatever the result, let 
 it come — I will have told some new truths with refer- 
 ence to the darkest page ever written in Tennessee's 
 history. 
 
 The murder of Edward Ward Carmack. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 159 
 
 HELPING TO CIRCULATE A LIE. 
 
 THE FARCE OF PROHIBITION. 
 
 (New York Commercial.) 
 
 Kansas, Maine — the list is long — at divers times have 
 contributed illustrations of the farcical character of pro- 
 hibition, evidence of the impossibility of legislating 
 morals into all the people of a commonwealth. Now, 
 hard on the heels of Alabama, steps forth Tennessee 
 with much direct and much more indirect testimony to 
 the miserable failure of a more than two-year effort to 
 end the traffic in intoxicants. 
 
 Fifteen months ago the general public outside of the 
 Volunteer State read with surprise that Ben W. Hooper, 
 a Republican, had been elected governor — the first Re- 
 publican governor of Tennessee in three decades. Yet 
 this was not true, strictly. Hooper was the first pro- 
 hibition governor the state ever elected — and he bids 
 fair to be the last. Truth of the matter was that the pro- 
 hibition Democrats who three years ago forced state- 
 wide prohibition and state-wide inhibition of brewing and 
 distilling had been so disgusted with the failure of the 
 Democratic administration to enforce the laws passed 
 despite its resistance that they turned eagerly to the 
 Republicans and endorsed the latter's candidate for gov- 
 ernor upon his pronouncement of extreme prohibition 
 principles. Out of a campaign waged with Hooper 
 promising to enforce and strengthen the prohibition laws 
 and the Democrats urging repeal of the state-wide legis- 
 
160 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 lation and return to local municipal and county option, 
 the Republican-prohibition fusionist Hooper emerged 
 with 11,380 votes to spare. 
 
 Hooper has been in office almost fourteen months. He 
 controlled the legislature, and every part of the fusion 
 bargain was carried out with minor exceptions. And in 
 the meantime ''bootlegging" has flourished, "blind 
 tigers" have grown more and more numerous, while the 
 larger cities, led by the capital, Nashville, have defied 
 the state authority by enacting licensing ordinances, regu- 
 lating the traffic in liquors just as prior to the swinging 
 of the state into the "dry" column. Mayors and alder- 
 men have been elected on platforms calling for defiance 
 of the state liquor laws — not merely assurances of "lib- 
 eral" interpretation, but straightout promises to legalize 
 and regulate the selling of spiritous, malt and vinous 
 liquors. And it was not the lawless spirit which placed 
 such candidates in office, but the sober judgment of 
 decent citizens, who were appalled and horrified by the 
 orgy of secret liquor selling, the multiplication of "dives," 
 the debauchery of the young, and the train of evil at- 
 tendant upon unregulated trafficking in intoxicants, by 
 men drawn from the lowest moral stratum of the 
 community. 
 
 And now Ben W. Hooper, deserted by his former sup- 
 porters, standing forth as a Republican, announces his 
 candidacy for re-election, pleads that the laws are not 
 strong enough, confesses he has not kept his promises to 
 enforce the prohibition laws, and urges that it will be 
 necessary to enact all sorts of legislation if the laws are 
 to be enforced. 
 
 But, save in a few instances, the "state-widers" stand 
 aloof. The faction of the Democratic party which sup- 
 ported Hooper and prohibition has rejoined its local 
 
AND Pool of Blood 161 
 
 option brother, the two committees agreeing on a state 
 primary and gubernatorial convention. But, in ending 
 their estrangement, neither mentioned prohibition. Its 
 former supporters apparently were not willing to discuss 
 it; its foes were generous. Their brother's faults had 
 been recorded on the sands. Only, the newspapers which 
 supported Hooper, and the leaders who upheld his cause 
 when that cause was prohibition — or "state-wide," as 
 they call it in Tennessee — explain again and again that 
 the Democrats merely have harmonized, and that, any- 
 how, prohibition should be taken out of politics and set- 
 tled "on the broader basis of etc., etc." 
 
 Tennessee had the example of her sister states to guide 
 her, but as with most of us, the warning sign of "Paint" 
 did not deter, but rather invited, the questioning, test- 
 ing touch of finger tip. The gibing "I-told-you-so" 
 usually is answered by the defensive, yet half-apolgetic, 
 "Well-I-wasn't-surprised." 
 
 The above was copied from the editorial page of the 
 Nashville Democrat of Wednesday, February 21, 191 2. 
 
 Everybody knows that the Democrat is the ghost of 
 the old American, and that it will not hesitate to publish 
 untruths, or to circulate a lie when it feels that its un- 
 reasonable position will in any way be strengthened by it. 
 
 That paper eagerly reproduces such rot as its cor- 
 poration editor can find by perusing the columns of pub- 
 lications that know nothing whatever about Tennessee 
 affairs. 
 
 The New York Commercial has only done what many 
 other papers at a distance have done — it has made an 
 honest mistake. Political affairs in Tennessee are pe- 
 culiar, and only those at home understand them. 
 
 It is really pitiful to see foreign papers try to treat 
 on a subject they are absolutely ignorant of, and when 
 
 11 
 
162 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 such filthy sheets as the Democrat reproduce articles of 
 this kind the paper quoted is led to believe that it is right 
 and that it has summed up Tennessee's condition to 
 a "T." 
 
 Nashville's Morning Liar delights in rehashing such 
 stuff for its readers, and is silly enough to think it will 
 be accepted as a fact. It is a reflection on the intelligence 
 of the Nashville and Tennessee public for that sheet to 
 dish out to it reading so fraught with falsehood. 
 
 The exchange editor of Nashville's whisky sheet knew 
 when he clipped the above that he was going to give 
 publicity to a falsehood, but, like the pohcy that cor- 
 poration organ was brought into existence to pursue, 
 this was perfectly in keeping with its daily duty. 
 
 The editor of the New York Commercial is certainly 
 aware that there has never been any attempt to legislate 
 morals into people in any state by the passage of a pro- 
 hibition law. The law says specifically that intoxicants 
 must not be sold, and has nothing to say against drink- 
 ing them. A man is free to drink as much as he pleases 
 in a prohibition state, providing he can find a man who 
 wilt violate the law and sell it to him. The latter is an 
 easy matter in communities where such officials as the 
 Democrat supports get into office. 
 
 "Now, hard on the heels of Alabama, steps forth Ten- 
 nessee with much direct and much more indirect testi- 
 mony to the miserable failure of a more than two-year 
 effort to end the traffic in intoxicants," says the above. 
 
 It is true that the state-wide law has been on the 
 statute books of Tennessee for more than two years, but 
 there has not been "more than a two-year effort" to en- 
 force it. In fact, there has not been any effort to enforce 
 it. In counties where decent men were elected to office 
 the law has been rigidly enforced, but if the counties of 
 
AND Pool of Blood 163 
 
 Hamilton, Davidson and Shelby, within the borders of 
 which are the lawless cities of Chattanooga, Nashville 
 and Memphis, everything is wide open and whisky, beer 
 and wine flow freely in those places, while the sellers of 
 the hellish stuff jire protected by officials who were sup- 
 ported in their race for office by the Democrat and its 
 kind. 
 
 If "the general public outside of the Volunteer State 
 read with surprise" fifteen months ago of the election 
 of Ben W. Hooper as governor, then people beyond the 
 borders of this commonwealth are incapable of passing 
 upon conditions as they exist in the state. H those citi- 
 zens of the United States residing out of Tennessee do 
 not keep up with the daily news any more closely than 
 not to have known long before the nomination that the 
 Republican nominee would be elected governor of Ten- 
 nessee, then they were not sufficiently interested in this 
 state to care about knowing the truth. This is also a re- 
 flection on the New York Commercial and other papers 
 that are ignorant of the facts. H that paper was sur- 
 prised when Hooper was elected it certainly had a bad 
 opinion of Tennessee's citizenship. 
 
 Hooper is not "the first prohibition governor the state 
 ever elected." He was the first good man the people 
 had a chance to vote for after Patterson's second adminis- 
 tration and he will be re-elected because of Hooper's 
 administration. 
 
 The murder of Senator Carmack during Patterson's 
 administration at the hands of the latter's closest friends 
 had more to do with the election of Hooper than the 
 failure to enforce the prohibition laws, and that will be 
 the political pivot in Tennessee as long as the Patterson 
 forces try to take part in the state's affairs as 
 Pattersonites. 
 
164 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 It is true that Hooper has been in office nearly a year 
 and a half, but it is not his fault that the anti-whisky 
 law goes unregarded in Nashville, Memphis and Chat- 
 tanooga. The Democrat and its kind control the county 
 and city officials of these places and it is such outlaws as 
 these who are responsible for the law'^ violation. They 
 violate the law and assist in its violation and place the 
 blame for so doing on the shoulders of innocent parties. 
 
 It is true that Nashville, with Memphis and Chatta 
 nooga, has defied the state authority and passed special 
 laws to override the mandates of the state. These three 
 cities are in the hands of the pet officials of the Demo- 
 crat and its other subsidized sisters. They were elected 
 to defy the laws and the Democrat glories in their utter 
 disregard of them. 
 
 The New York Commercial further says: **And it 
 was not the lawless spirit which placed such candidates 
 in office, but the sober judgment of decent citizens, who 
 were appalled and horrified by the orgy of sec^ret liquor 
 selling, the multiplication of dives, the debauching of 
 the young and the train of evil attendant upon unregu- 
 lated trafficking in intoxicants, by men drawn from the 
 lowest moral stratum of the community." 
 
 If this was the case, how in the name of common 
 sense did the "men drawn from the lowest moral stratum 
 of the community" vote? Are they such quiet and un- 
 assuming citizens that they stood quietly by and risked 
 their future to a lot of "decent citizens" ? Does this kind 
 of man ever risk anything to a decent citizen ? No. He 
 never fails to vote against his business. After he exer- 
 cises the right of suflFrage he delights in tampering with 
 the ballot box. He sometimes gets more votes that way 
 than legally. 
 
 These citizens "drawn from the lowest moral stratum 
 
AND Pool of Blood 165 
 
 of the community" to a man voted for the law-defying 
 officials of the counties of Hamilton, Davidson and 
 Shelby, and the cities of Chattanooga, Nashville and 
 Memphis. 
 
 It is safe to say that each one of these voters coming 
 from the "lowest moral stratum" in Nashville, if illiteracy 
 does not prevent it, reads the Democrat. That paper 
 stands for his principles, and I am sure when he read the 
 clipping from the New York Commercial he felt 
 vindicated. 
 
 It is a sad truth, however, that some decent citizens 
 voted with this clan — enough to put its candidate in of- 
 fice. These good citizens were mislead by not giving the 
 attention to the matter as they should and were impelled 
 to give support to that crowd because it was sailing 
 under the colors of Democracy, the banners of which 
 they have so wantonly trailed in the dust and dipped in 
 the mire. 
 
 Ben Hooper is not "deserted by his former support- 
 ers." The Independent Democrats are standing by him. 
 When he is returned to his present position it will be 
 with a legislature in sympathy with law enforcement 
 and it will enact such laws as are now needed to give 
 trustworthy officials more authority and place in his 
 hands a weapon sufficiently strong to drive the outlaw 
 from the state. 
 
 The "state-wider" does not "stand aloof." The faction 
 of the Democratic party which supported Hooper has not 
 "rejoined its local option brother." 
 
 The action of the two committees had nothing to do 
 with it, and the effect of their decision was not felt out- 
 side of the circle of politicians who brought it about. 
 Luke Lea and three or four others who have been given 
 
106 Tennessee's Ponu of Liquor 
 
 much at the hands of the people, cannot "weld the 
 wooden handle to the pewter spoon." 
 
 The Independent Democrat is a freeborn citizen with 
 brains, and he will both exercise his intellect and his 
 liberty when it comes to voting for or against his wife 
 and children. 
 
 The Independent and the Regular will never mingle 
 their tears of either joy or regret. The former is right, 
 and, as that always prevails, he is taking his time. In 
 the meantime he will vote for Hooper. 
 
 No, the two committees never "mentioned prohibition." 
 They couldn't have harmonized among themselves if 
 they had. Each committee had too much respect for 
 the other to mention anything that would likely make the 
 other one blush. One restrained from mentioning pro- 
 hibition, while the other showed its appreciation by keep- 
 ing silent on Patterson. It was a congenial little bunch 
 and they didn't do a bit of harm. 
 
 One of the rankest falsehoods in the whole thing is 
 the statement that the supporters of Hooper are now 
 explaining that ''prohibition should be taken out of poli- 
 tics." The question is in politics to stay until it is finally 
 settled one way or the other. 
 
 However, the Democrat has to fill the mission of its 
 masters, and from time to time those who condescend to 
 read it will find in its columns such misstatements as 
 the above. 
 
 The Democrat, the ghost of that old vulture, the 
 American, which died from partaking so freely of car- 
 rion that its vomiting apparatus became chocked, will 
 keep this up and there is no way to purify it. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 167 
 
 BOOSTING NASHVILLE. 
 
 L. & N. TO BOOST NASHVILLE. 
 
 But Vice President Intimates City Is Already known 
 Throughout World. 
 
 Eugene Shannon, secretary of the Board of Trade, 
 recently communicated with the officers of the Louisville 
 & Nashville Railroad in regard to that company helping 
 in advertising Nashville. Wednesday he received a com- 
 munication from Vice President Mapother stating Nash- 
 ville was already so well known throughout the country 
 that it did not need any advertising, but as the Board of 
 Trade wants to keep the City of Opportunity before the 
 people of the country, he would take the matter up and 
 try and help Nashville Boosters. — Nashville Democrat, 
 January 25, 1912. 
 
 There is a great deal of truth contained in the above. 
 Nobody doubts that Nashville "is already known through- 
 out world," as stated in the head of the article here 
 reproduced. 
 
 The Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company has 
 been liberal in advertising Nashville, and I think it is 
 an imposition to ask that corporation to contribute more 
 towards making the city known. From that source 
 Nashville has had more free advertising than from any 
 other. 
 
168 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 The L. & N. R. R. is an efficient advertising manager 
 and has a knack of getting free newspaper notoriety for 
 cities it wants to bring to the notice of the public. 
 
 It doesn't even need a press agent for this. It has an 
 agent, of course, but he is a pecuHar kind of an agent. 
 No one knows he is an L. & N. agent until he acts. He 
 is sometimes suspected before he carries out his mission, 
 but no one is positive until he makes a bid for space. 
 This agent is armed, but not with credentials. By the 
 peculiarity of his acts, the source of his employment is 
 known. 
 
 It is always a strange case when it eventually comes to 
 light, in that the agent fails to recognize his employer 
 and the employer the agent. They swear they have never 
 met before and they even refuse to become acquainted. 
 
 How the agent finds out just what the employer wants 
 done is a mystery. Nashville has been the recipient of 
 much at the hands of these two. They have caused her 
 name to appear more in print than the money spent by 
 all her commercial bodies. 
 
 It was very presumptuous on Mr. Shannon's part to 
 ask the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company to do 
 more, and I am not surprised that Vice-President Ma- 
 pother, whose title is an empty one, wrote him as he did. 
 
 This gentleman was evidently surprised when he 
 learned that Nashville wanted more advertising. His 
 road has recently given it so much publicity that he felt 
 that it had enough to last a spell. This was given in 
 such large quantities that not only Nashville, but the 
 whole state of Tennessee, was advertised by it. 
 
 In 1900 this same open-handed corporation gave Ken- 
 tucky and its capital city some .of the same free adver- 
 tising it so liberally gave the old Volunteer State and 
 the seat of its government eight years later. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 169 
 
 That and the Tennessee affair were handled so 
 adroitly that space was given in newspapers published 
 in every language. It was a world-wide publicity cam- 
 paign, and all the news associations of the earth 
 collected it eagerly and dispensed it freely. News 
 editors received it with open arms and lost no time in 
 serving it hot to an expectant public. 
 
 That "Nashville was already so well known through- 
 out the country that it did not need any advertising," is, 
 according to the above news item, Mr. Mapother's idea 
 of what Nashville has received. 
 
 If the L. & N. R. R. can give Nashville advertising 
 to offset that which it has already given her, it is the 
 duty of that company to do it. However, the first thing 
 for it to do along this line will be to help right things 
 in the capital city before asking the stranger here to 
 abide. Let it first wipe out the results of its own handi- 
 work. 
 
 The best advertising Nashville could wish for would 
 be for the L. & N. R. R. to announce in the press of the 
 nation that it no longer controlled, or tried to control, 
 its politics. 
 
 While this would not v/ipe out the sins of the past it 
 would assure a better city for the future. 
 
 Wherever the L. & N. R. R. has taken part in munici- 
 pal affairs and state politics, the result has been 
 corruption in public office. This has then led to open 
 disregard of law, both by those whose duty it was to en- 
 force it and by those who should obey it. This corporation 
 has giv-en Nashville wide advertising of an immoral 
 character that I fear will require years to undo. 
 
 It has been written in blood by the agent and copied 
 in flaming headlines over the world. Death and destruc- 
 tion have been the result, and widows and children left 
 
170 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 to mourn and weep for the father and husband taken off 
 by the agent's hand. 
 
 So well did the L. & N. R. R. succeed in giving 
 Nashville publicity that the papers are still discussing the 
 city and some of its happenings. It is a shrewd ''old 
 duck" and knows how to get printers* ink without paying 
 for it. 
 
 Mr. Mapother, if your road gives Nashville adver- 
 tising, please see that it is the kind Mr. Shannon has 
 asked you for. We have had too much of the old brand. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 171 
 
 WAIT A BIT, MR. FILIPINO. 
 
 FILIPINO WANTS TO KNOW OF NASHVILLE. 
 
 Industrial Bureau Gets Inquiry From Far-Away Pos- 
 sessions, and Promptly Answers. 
 
 For some months the industrial bureau has been 
 engaged in the systematic task of heralding Nashville's 
 advantages and attractions by means of varied forms of 
 advertising and replies have been received from prac- 
 tically every part of the country. However, it remained 
 for a recent mail to bring in the opening query from as 
 great a distance as the Philippine Islands. 
 
 Evaristo Deloro, of 27 Zamora and Reyes streets, 
 Lucena, Tayabas, Philippine Islands, is the name and 
 somewhat elaborate address of an enterprising person 
 with an eye to American opportunities and who seeks to 
 know something about Nashville and what it has to offer 
 in the way of business advantages. Senor Deloro does 
 not state just what his particular line of endeavor is, 
 but his enterprise was immediately acknowledged and he 
 was supplied with facts as to what Nashville possesses. 
 
 No doubt this response came from a recent advertise- 
 ment appearing in many of the leading magazines of the 
 country, entitled 'Twelve Hours From Nashville." This 
 card, covering 40 square inches, shows a map of Nash- 
 ville with special reference to its location as the geo- 
 
172 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 graphical center of the southern territory and appeals 
 for the establishment of manufacturing plants and branch 
 houses of eastern concerns. The text of the ad is 
 "24,000,000 People Within 12 Hours." 
 
 This advertisement carries Nashville and her oppor- 
 tunities to millions of people in all parts of this and 
 foreign countries, and has appeared recently in The 
 World's Work, Review of Reviews, Current Literature, 
 Leslie's Weekly and System. 
 
 The Nashville boosting editor of the Tennesseean and 
 American had the above appear in the columns of his 
 paper Thursday morning, February 22, 1912. 
 
 Let us hope that the Nashville Industrial Bureau did 
 not mail out its literature to Evaristo Deloro, of 27 
 Zamora and Reyes streets, Lucena, Tayabas, Philippine 
 Islands, the same day the notice of the receipt of his 
 letter by that organization appeared in print. 
 
 The greatest lesson in veracity we have been able to 
 hold up to the Filipino to follow is the cherry tree and 
 hatchet story, and if the literature this particular native 
 of our eastern possessions asked for at the hands of the 
 Nashville Industrial Bureau reaches him bearing the 
 postmark of February 22, 1912, the i8oth anniversary of 
 the birth of the father of our country, and he afterwards 
 finds out the real facts regarding the so-called "City of 
 Opportunity," he will feel that the "father, I cannot tell 
 a lie" incident is a myth, and that Americans, under the 
 control of whose great nation destiny has thrown him, 
 have very little regard for that which they represent their 
 first president as holding most sacred. 
 
 When this dark-skinned brother receives the adver- 
 tising matter sent him and gives it a careful reading, no 
 doubt he will at once decide that Nashville is the place 
 for him to locate. He will naturally assume that every 
 
AND Pool of Blood 173 
 
 statement contained therein is correct, and that would 
 be enough to make any man want to come to this city and 
 make it his home. He easily concludes that opportuni- 
 ties are lying loose about the streets and that all he will 
 have to do will be to come and pick out a big, juicy one 
 and march on to success with it. 
 
 He will also see that it makes no difference about the 
 line he follows. Just anything with a Httle effort will 
 bring in the golden stream in this great city where men 
 with money are so eager ( ?) to let some one else have it. 
 
 He will gather from the inflated literature sent him 
 that he will get off the train in Nashville and begin rak- 
 ing in money. He might come here and become a loan 
 shark, deputy sheriff, magistrate, back tax collector, or 
 start a collection agency. All of these make money 
 easily in the capital city of Tennessee, and have means 
 of forcing it from the unwilling. The Filipino's name 
 will make an excellent title for a collection agency, and 
 with it he could equal any of the money sharks in extort- 
 ing a high rate of interest. 
 
 If this inquirer of the east decides to come to Nash- 
 ville he will find all the open hands he was led to believe 
 would be outstretched to him closed tightly, and that the 
 "City of Opportunity" has faded, and in its stead a city 
 of disappointment awaits him. Perhaps he is thinking 
 of opening up a gambling house or starting a saloon. He 
 will find a field for either of these, but it is best that he 
 come prepared to "plank down" the required amount of 
 "let me alone" money. This is just as essential as the 
 material to begin business on. If he will go this route 
 upon his arrival here he will not be disappointed in the 
 glaring accounts of Nashville's opportunities which fig- 
 ured in directing him to this city, for really and truly 
 he will find many outstretched hands for graft. 
 
174 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Now, senor, if you would leave the land of bamboo 
 for the city of "bamboozle," my advice to you is to come 
 to Nashville. You will find it much more profitable to be 
 a "bamboozler" than a "bamboo king." 
 
 But, Evaristo, if you will be patient a bit and put off 
 your coming about two years, you will find Nashville a 
 splendid place to stop in, and if your business is a legiti- 
 mate one — and I am sure it is — you cannot find a better 
 place in which to locate than this city. You will really 
 like the old town after some scheduled changes take 
 place, and then there will be plenty of room for honest 
 men and fertile fields for their endeavor. 
 
 Nashville is sick right now, and as soon as we can ply 
 the stomach-pump and take a stroke or two, everything 
 will then be in readiness to receive outsiders with some 
 assurance of their staying. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 176 
 
 NASHVILLE OF YESTERDAY. 
 
 Nashville, at one time you were as pure as the purest. 
 
 God had complete control of you and the devil had the 
 habit of keeping hands off. 
 
 You were .a fair gem, and when the rays of light fell 
 upon your surface there was an answering of dazzling 
 effulgence that was both blinding and pleasing. 
 
 You were a footstool of God, and Lot's wife had no 
 occasion to flee from you. 
 
 Proud and doting parents have bidden their children 
 Godspeed as they left distant homes to seek knowledge 
 in your grand institutions of learning, and it was without 
 fear they saw them depart to spend months in your pro- 
 tecting arms. 
 
 Far and wide your churches have been known, and 
 from their pulpits great divines have propounded the 
 true gospel in a way as to make you referred to as a 
 godly city. 
 
 You have sat upon a high pinnacle and received the 
 best the land afforded. 
 
 You have been pointed to with pride and no man con- 
 nected your name with shame. 
 
 With head erect you have boldly looked the whole 
 world in the face ; there was no reason then for lowering 
 it. 
 
 Law has been your protector, and in days gone by 
 crime, when it dared move at all, was forced to take to 
 the back alleys and secluded places. 
 
176 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 You have been noted for your virtue, and you were 
 the most spotless among your sisters. 
 
 Tender and unescorted femininity has walked your 
 streets in full confidence of safety. 
 
 Your officials of the past did not allow you to be black- 
 ened with crime. 
 
 At one time you were free from the gambler and his 
 evil influences. 
 
 In the years gone by you were pointed to by your 
 neighbors with pride; they cherished you as a thing of 
 value. 
 
 You have been a credit to your state, and one time 
 Tennessee was measured by your greatness. 
 
 In the past you set a good example and many pat- 
 terned after you. 
 
 For years the world knew you as a seat of learning, 
 and as "The Athens of the South," you represented well 
 that ancient city of Greece, whose famous teachers once 
 gave light to the king and the peasant, the ruler and the 
 ruled. 
 
 In your days of glory you languidly sipped sweet 
 nectar from a golden cup 'neath shade of friendly 
 branches, while balmy breezes gently kissed your fair 
 and rosy cheeks and fanned back from your spotless 
 brow careless golden locks loosely hanging from a head 
 that knew not the burden of care. 
 
 The cup of poison was not then raised to your lipsj 
 you drank only pure draughts. 
 
 In those days you needed no warning; your affairs 
 were running smoothly. 
 
 You did not have to decide between truth and false- 
 hood ; only the purest was whispered into your ears. 
 
 You had only the straight and narrow way to follows 
 and you hewed to the line. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 177 
 
 Good men and true ruled you, and the sinner was not 
 admitted to your councils. 
 
 Like a white spot you nestled in the space allotted you 
 on Tennessee's loving bosom. 
 
 Clad in your immaculate robes of purity you were 
 known to all men by your dress. 
 
 There was no slander cast abroad concerning you; 
 your neighbors knew naught but good of you. 
 
 Your actions were above reproach and your motives 
 were not questioned. 
 
 At the festal board you turned your glass when wine 
 was served ; you were a total abstainer. 
 
 Your beauty of construction was cause for other 
 builders to ask for your plans at the hands of your 
 architects. 
 
 You have led and others were content to follow. 
 
 At one time your whiteness showed with great contrast 
 beside the blackness of your sister in Shelby. 
 
 You have boldly traversed the seas and the winds 
 interfered not with your progress. 
 
 All came to you for a fair deal; you were noted for 
 your honesty. 
 
 The money shark feared you, and your sons were not 
 caught in his net. 
 
 When you paid your money the correct change was 
 given back to you; you demanded that which was yours 
 and it was given you. 
 
 As you ploughed the high seas the pirates avoided your 
 sail. 
 
 The bloodsuckers were afraid to set tooth in your 
 flesh. 
 
 The mention of your name had a magical effect; it 
 was a synonym for goodness. 
 
 12 
 
178 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 You were not trailed by the dogs; you fled to, and 
 not from, justice. 
 
 You pointed the way to affluence to your sons, and they 
 never forgot you in the division of their gains. 
 
 Dives feasted not within your doors, and there was no 
 Lazarus to beg for crumbs behind your gates. 
 
 You rested upon a downy couch and pillowed your 
 head upon feathers. 
 
 The glaring lights of brothels did not shoot athwart 
 the paths of your good citizens. 
 
 He who was hungering after righteousness was at- 
 tracted to you as if by a magnet. 
 
 In those days no man dared offer a price for your 
 chastity. 
 
 The sound of electric pianos in gilded halls of vice 
 did not fill your avenues with grating notes of common 
 tunes ; there was no opposing sound to drown the strains 
 of religious song as they ascended in praises from the 
 throats of thankful and dutiful worshipers. 
 
 Your houses of God were crowded, while beneath 
 their proudly ascending steeples knelt devout men and 
 women in great numbers. 
 
 You had no fear of the traitor then; there was none 
 within your gates seeking to put you in the hands of the 
 enemy. 
 
 You were full of life and your vigor of youth was 
 cause for envy among those who cherished your place. 
 
 Trustworthy keepers managed your affairs and you 
 had nothing to fear. 
 
 When you dined the best was upon your table, and all 
 ^vere welcome at your festal board. 
 
 At this time you had never wandered from your 
 father's house. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 179 
 
 Your locks were long and your God-given strength was 
 still with you. 
 
 You asked for bread at the hands of none. 
 
 The opportunity you then offered has never been sur- 
 passed. The fruits of your orchards were not worm- 
 eaten ; their, lusciousness was unequalled. 
 
 None feared to approach you ; your spotlessness invited 
 inspection. 
 
 The stones of time hold a record of what you were. 
 
 Having everything to brag of, boasting was not neces- 
 sary. 
 
 Men were only too anxious to tell the facts concerning 
 you as an inducement for others to come. 
 
 Your pillars rested upon a firm foundation and you 
 could not be shaken. 
 
 Those in the flock with you were content to follow 
 your leadership. 
 
 Your doors have been wide open to the fortune- 
 seeker, and when he crossed your threshold he was re- 
 ceived with a warm welcome. 
 
 You have given birth to men who have become leaders 
 in their land. 
 
 Your future as a great commercial center was not 
 questioned. 
 
 You were ever alert for the prospector, and when he 
 came and stuck pick through your surface he made a 
 lucky find when he panned his diggings. 
 
 From the boldest to the meekest of your sons the 
 stranger heard your praises. 
 
 Being blessed by nature, you showed your appreciation 
 by being what you were intended to be. 
 
 You were bathed in drops of gentle rain and warmed 
 by tempered rays of friendly sunshine. 
 
180 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Every man who called you home was willing to give 
 you a forward push. 
 
 Pulsing through your veins was the rich blood of 
 health. 
 
 You were the fairest part of the "dimple of the uni- 
 verse/' 
 
 Having kind masters, you were well housed and amply 
 provided for. 
 
 Your sweet dreams by night were realized by day. 
 
 As a fair bride you had all the comforts love could 
 bestow. 
 
 The wayfarer found welcome shelter under your roof, 
 and he departed upon his journey with a light heart. 
 
 Those thrown around you as a guard did their duty; 
 the enemy could not enter. 
 
 The beauty of your face called for a second look. 
 
 You kept your lamp trimmed and burning. 
 
 The raging floods did not submerge you; your dykes 
 were strong and could not be swept away. 
 
 Living in Eden, you basked in the sunshine upon the 
 banks of the sparkling Euphrates: 
 
 You lived in the "land of milk and honey." 
 
 When the rains came and the winds blew your door 
 was closed and your roof was in order. 
 
 The assassin held no terrors for you. 
 
 From your orchard of love you gathered the sweetest 
 and most toothsome fruits. 
 
 You stored not away your treasures, but left the chest 
 open for all. 
 
 Fishing upon silvery streams, only gold fish struck at 
 your hook. 
 
 The servant problem caused you no concern; long 
 lines of competent and eager helpers yearned to serve you. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 181 
 
 Of the whole vast flock you were the shepherd's 
 
 favorite. 
 
 Your coffers were full and with a lavish hand you sup- 
 plied the wants of your sons. 
 
 In holding out against the siege you were a modern 
 Troy. 
 
 There was no traitor bold enough to attempt your 
 
 betrayal. 
 
 Being reasonable in what you did, everyone had faith 
 in what you might do. 
 
 From a good investment you were reaping big divi- 
 dends. 
 
 You were always seen in good company and your 
 deportment was excellent. 
 
 Of all your sister craft you were the most stalwart. 
 
 At your head were men of brains; you benefited by 
 their superior knowledge. 
 
 Because of your geographical position you should have 
 been the South's greatest center of shipping and travel. 
 
 There was none more charitable than you. 
 
 You were the queen bee in a hive of "workers." 
 
 If there were those who would traduce you they feared 
 to give speech to their thoughts. 
 
 Not having broken a mirror, you had not counted on 
 seven years of bad luck. 
 
 You gave employment to all who asked it. 
 
 Your sobriety being known, you were never asked to 
 partake of strong drink by your companions. 
 
 The weakening eflfect of dissipation was a thing you 
 knew not of. 
 
 The teacher's rules you rigidly observed, and your 
 monthly report card showed you to have received the 
 highest per cent in every study; you were perfect. 
 
182 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Your landmarks, left as traces of great men and 
 greater deeds, attest what you were. 
 
 Your beauty was more than skin deep. 
 
 As a fitting place for such a structure, the matchless 
 Sam Jones erected a vast temple within your borders 
 and consecrated it to God. 
 
 Your sons have gone out into all avenues and found 
 themselves equipped to meet and master the world. 
 
 On the Sabbath your people went to your houses of 
 worship to pray and received sufficient strength for the 
 coming week. 
 
 Political trickery was a thing unknown as an avenue 
 to your offices. 
 
 The private and pure lives of your citizens were not 
 pried into by unscrupulous and heartless semi-civilized 
 human beings to gain their own nasty ends. 
 
 The cry of fraud was not heard after each of your 
 elections; men were trusted then who did your duties 
 for you. 
 
 Those who unhesitatingly claimed you as the place of 
 their birth have assisted in writing the history of the 
 countries of the world. 
 
 Your needs of the past are written in red on your 
 country's glorious record. 
 
 There was no Vesuvius to erupt and bury you under 
 molten rock and beds of ashes. 
 
 You were a "Happy Hunting Ground" on earth, and 
 unrestrained your braves followed the chase through 
 your field and wood. 
 
 The characters of your good people were free from 
 the tongues of liars ; there was no place for the slanderer 
 under your roof. 
 
 The political reprobate was forced to operate in other 
 fields. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 183 
 
 The Pope had not placed his foot upon your neck, and 
 you were not ground down by his unwholesome church 
 and willing puppets. 
 
 Protestantism gave you her followers as servants, and 
 you were not in constant fear of having your costly fur- 
 nishings stolen. 
 
 The criminal foreigner had no voice in your affairs 
 and you were run on "the American plan." 
 
 Your business organizations did not have to manufac- 
 ture good stories to circulate concerning you; the truth 
 was then the best that could be said of you. 
 
 You had not been seized in the clammy tentacles of the 
 unfeeling octopus and dragged to the watery depths 
 where he reigns. 
 
 The secret ballot was not in existence to assist secret 
 crime. 
 
 The right of suffrage was considered by your voters 
 a thing too sacred to be sold to whomsoever might be in 
 the market, 
 
 "Come to Nashville" was the proud invitation your 
 every citizen was glad to extend to friends back home. 
 
 You were truly the "City of Rocks ;" you were upon a 
 firm foundation. 
 
 You did not have to be veneered ; you were solid 
 mahogany. 
 
 There is no dross in your make-up; you were of the 
 purest metal. 
 
 You housed no man willing to work who had an empty 
 dinner pail. 
 
 On your hearthstone blazed a cheering and warming 
 fire. 
 
 Pussy-gutted beer drinkers did not gather around your 
 polls on election day and harass your dutiful sons while 
 they were exercising the right of citizenship. 
 
184 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Decency ruled you and the scum was not allowed to 
 gather about you. 
 
 As a place for homes you were ideal ; your atmosphere 
 was perfect. 
 
 You were not forgotten in a scramble for money and 
 position. 
 
 You were an honor to your state and a credit to your 
 nation ; all paid homage to you. 
 
 You did not know the stain of crime, and there was 
 nothing to retard your progress. 
 
 Each one of your citizens had an equal chance with 
 the other: favoritism was unknown. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 185 
 
 NASHVILLE OF TODAY. 
 
 Nashville, you are surely in a bad way. 
 
 The devil's emissaries are completely in charge of you. 
 They are conducting your affairs, and God's methods are 
 well-nigh throttled. 
 
 At one time you v^ere a gem filled with rare luster, but 
 now your black depths fail to give off the faintest ray 
 when the reflector is turned on you. 
 
 From a Jerusalem you have degenerated into a Sodom. 
 
 Once boasted of as the home of institutions of moral 
 learning, you have become a school for vice. 
 
 Within your borders crime is rampant, while your 
 churches seem not able to disseminate good in sufficient 
 amounts to cause you to become conscience stricken. 
 
 From the best you have sunk to the worst; from the 
 highest you have gone to the lowest. 
 
 All men point to you with shame, where once they 
 spoke of you with pride. 
 
 From a city of churches and schools (though they are 
 still here) you have turned to a city of dives and dens. 
 
 You have held your head high with pride; now it is 
 drooped with shame. 
 
 Crime stalks about your thoroughfares with head erect; 
 while dejected and forgotten law gropes aimlessly about. 
 
 Haughty and courageous vice carelessly elbows unsus- 
 pecting and unguarded virtue. 
 
 Lewd denizens of the under-world brazenly promenade 
 your streets, while blushing and timid purity is forced to 
 search for safer passages. 
 
186 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Your laws are trampled upon and your officials heed 
 it not. 
 
 Diamond-studded gamblers stand upon your pave- 
 ments, and with smooth tongues entice the uninitiated 
 to the slaughter. 
 
 The finger of scorn is pointed at you from without, 
 where once you were honored by your neighbors. 
 
 Instead of being a credit to your state as of yore, Ten- 
 nessee now knows you as a disgrace and a burden. 
 
 At one time you were pointed to as a paragon; now 
 you are spoken of as a poor example. 
 
 You were once the proud "Athens of the South/* but 
 you have fallen. 
 
 From the bitter cup you have freely drunk; and there 
 is not yet in sight an assuaging draught 
 
 You have taken a dose of poison ; but you were told it 
 was a sedative. 
 
 You were warned and you heeded it not. 
 
 You believed the hypocrite and turned from the truth- 
 teller. 
 
 The straight and narrow road was pointed out to you, 
 but the fake grandeur of the broad way was too alluring 
 and you heeded its beckoning. 
 
 Within your borders the sinner rules where once the 
 saint held sway. 
 
 You are the blackest spot on an unwilling and helpless 
 state. 
 
 The white robes you once proudly wore have dragged 
 in the mire until they have become unrecognizable. 
 
 Your old-time fair name is besmirched, and you are 
 supplying slander for the gossip of your neighbors. 
 
 You have acted a fool and the dunce-cap graces your 
 head. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 187 
 
 At first you sipped at the wine just to see how it would 
 taste ; now you are a confirmed drunkard. 
 
 Trustworthy architects planned your future, but you 
 have long since lost the drawings. 
 
 You have been a bold leader ; now you are a timid fol- 
 lower. 
 
 You have made sport of your sister over on the big 
 river, but she is now enjoying the proverbial last laugh. 
 
 You are a wreck and the winds still beat against you. 
 
 You have been a grand city ; now you are a grand fake. 
 
 The usurer preys upon your citizens while those who 
 can protect them look the other way. 
 
 You have been short-changed and there is no help near. 
 
 The pirates have captured you and you will have to 
 "walk the plank." 
 
 The vampires are sucking your blood and you are 
 growing weaker from its loss. 
 
 The card sharks have given you an unfair deal; you 
 cannot win with the pasteboards stacked against you. 
 
 At one time your name meant much; now it means 
 nothing. 
 
 The hounds are baying at your heels and there is no 
 friendly tree near. 
 
 You have made your sons wealthy and they use their 
 riches against you. 
 
 Your sons of dives allow only the crumbs to the chil- 
 dren of Lazarus. 
 
 You have chosen a bed of thorns, while the couch of 
 softness was offered you. 
 
 The white lights of your dens of iniquity are more 
 attractive to your citizens than the soft rays illuminating 
 your temples of God. 
 
 You hold out more hope to the seeker of crime than 
 encouragement to the searcher after righteousness. 
 
188 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Your good citizens weep for you while those who have 
 blackened your name laugh at their work. 
 
 You have sold your birthright for a mess of pottage. 
 
 The sweet strains of heavenly anthems that penetrated 
 your pure atmosphere have given away to the harsh 
 tones of worldly music set free by the dropping of a coin 
 upon the trip-hammers of costly instruments in your pro- 
 tected brothels. 
 
 The spires of your churches that have proudly pointed 
 heavenward from a God-fearing city, now seem to be 
 only holding themselves aloof from the filth below. 
 
 You have been betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, but 
 the traitor is not clamoring for a piece of rope with which 
 to hang himself. 
 
 You are dead and the vultures sicken at the stench 
 which arises from your carcass. 
 
 Those whom you selected as your keepers have sold 
 you into slavery. 
 
 You have dined at a sumptuous board; now you are 
 eating with the swine. 
 
 You are a travel-worn prodigal, and the fatted calf 
 and protecting shoulder are yet afar off. 
 
 You were a Samson, but your locks have been shorn 
 while you slept confidingly upon the knee of your trusted 
 Delilah. 
 
 You asked for bread and received a stone. 
 
 You offered opportunity and the devil availed himself 
 of it. 
 
 Your fields were sprouting good grain, but the enemy 
 sowed tares broadcast in them while your laborers slept. 
 
 You are a leper and must shout "unclean" when ap- 
 proached. 
 
 Your virtues have been chiseled in the rocks, but now 
 your deeds are only worthy to be written in the sands. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 189 
 
 You have been boasting of your greatness, but now the 
 boosts of your boosters are heeded not. 
 
 Once you were proud to herald the truth of your con- 
 dition abroad ; now Hes only suffice to attract to you. 
 
 At first your house was builded upon a rock, but you 
 have removed it to a foundation of sand, and it is 
 crumbling beneath the weight of your sins. 
 
 You have been a leader of the flock, but you have now- 
 wandered from the fold. 
 
 Your house has become dirty and the dust from your 
 unsanitary floors is blown into the homes of your help- 
 less neighbors. 
 
 You were praying in the garden and the soldiers came 
 upon you unawares. 
 
 You went snipe hunting and were left to hold the bag. 
 
 You made a draw at the lottery and drew a blank. 
 
 From a righteous Oberammergau you have developed 
 into a sin-burdened Monte Carlo. 
 
 Your helm has been deserted and you are drifting upon 
 the breakers. 
 
 With a free hand you have meted out blessings ; now 
 you are receiving only curses in return. 
 
 You have been charitable, but your kindness has been 
 taken advantage of. 
 
 For gratefulness you have received ingratitude. 
 
 At your once fair breast a snake is feeding. 
 
 The money changers are in your temple and there is 
 no whip of small cords raised against them. 
 
 The Jews have nailed you to the cross and there is no 
 Joseph to furnish a sepulchre in which to lay your bleed- 
 ing body. 
 
 You have advertised yourself as a gateway to the 
 South, while you can only offer a passage to hell. 
 
190 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 You were God's jewel; now you are. Satan's black 
 diamond. 
 
 Ignorance is enthroned at your head and you are 
 judged by its incompetency. 
 
 You are lost in the desert and the camel train passes 
 not near you. 
 
 Your mainmast has been torn away and the smaller 
 sheets of canvas cannot gather wind enough to force 
 your hulk through the troubled waters. 
 
 You chanced a leap from the balloon and your para- 
 chute failed to open. 
 
 You have boarded the "Fool Killer" and are racing 
 toward the great falls. 
 
 You were playing truant and the ice broke with you. 
 While in the throes of a spell of somnambulism you 
 walked overboard. 
 
 While searching after righteousness you were enticed 
 away from the hunt by thieves and thugs. 
 
 Your pilot fell asleep and a snag tore a gaping hole 
 in your bottom. 
 
 Evil companions robbed you of your good name. 
 You were standing on high ground and the tide has 
 risen about you. 
 
 The bloodhounds have chased you to the dark and dis- 
 mal swamp. 
 
 You lost your ticket to the circus and you are carrying 
 water to the elephant. 
 
 You staked all you had on a horse race; you were 
 given the wrong tip. 
 
 You bought stock on a high market and there was a 
 slump. 
 
 While the pumps were frozen you caught fire. 
 A tempting vegetable was handed you and you bit deep 
 into an Indian turnip. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 191 
 
 You are seasick and the swaying of the ship increases 
 your nausea. 
 
 Not knowing the way of wild fruit, you ate a green 
 persimmon. 
 
 In trying to seize a hare you caught a skunk. 
 
 You buried your treasure and dug up a chest of com- 
 mon junk. 
 
 You were anghng for trout and landed an eel. 
 
 Your servants went on a strike and you are the victim 
 of green help. 
 
 You ordered mushroom and the cook served you with 
 toadstool. 
 
 In counting his flock the shepherd finds he has only 
 ninety and nme. You have strayed into the hills. 
 
 You have handled poison ivy and your skin is peeling 
 off. 
 
 It is true you might not have known the gun was 
 loaded, but it shot you just the same. 
 
 You entered the field to steal a watermelon and fled 
 with a citron. 
 
 You search in vain for a bone for your dog ; your cup- 
 board is bare. 
 
 Your picture is hanging in the rogues' gallery. 
 
 You were drowning and turned from the life-boat and 
 grabbed at a straw. 
 
 You let down your walls and admitted the Grecian 
 horse. 
 
 You are in purgatory and are silly enough to think the 
 prayers of the priest will aid you. 
 
 You started upon the tracks without looking and your 
 mangled remains are scattered upon the right of way. 
 
 You blew out the gas and failed to raise the window. 
 
 Judas has delivered you according to contract. 
 
 You turned a deaf ear to reason. 
 
19^ Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 In trying to wade the stream you missed the ford. 
 
 The confidence man sold you a gold brick and your 
 drills fail to discover a trace of the precious metal. 
 
 You set a trap to catch a bird of rare plumage and 
 captured a buzzard. 
 
 The PhiHstines are upon you and you have not the 
 ''jawbone of an ass" with which to combat them. 
 
 You changed the bill and it was counterfeit. 
 
 Your captors have you lashed to the stake and there 
 is no one to pay your ransom. 
 
 You have been stabbed in the back and the assassin 
 goes unpunished. 
 
 You are in the lions' den, but the beasts do not recog- 
 nize in you a second Daniel. 
 
 Dying of thirst, there is no Moses to smite the rock 
 that you may have drink. 
 
 Your roof is leaking and the tinner cannot find his 
 tools. 
 
 The dog wagged his tail and you misconstrued the 
 signal. 
 
 You dodged from a bee and tread upon a snake. 
 
 You ate of the forbidden fruit and the freedom of 
 Eden is denied you. 
 
 While placing sacks of sand upon your levee to keep 
 back the rising waters, muskrats tunneled through its 
 base and the floods are upon you. 
 
 Your lamp is without oil; you will not be allowed to 
 partake of the "wedding supper." 
 
 Because of the blemishes upon your face you are com- 
 pelled to wear a veil. 
 
 You cast your pearls before a lot of swine. 
 
 Your pickets went to sleep and the enemy slipped 
 through your lines. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 193 
 
 In giving shelter to a wayfarer you admitted a spy 
 to your secret chambers. 
 
 You reached down to pick up what appeared to be a 
 coin; somebody had spit like a nickel. 
 
 You made a dive for the fat purse and now ''April 
 Fool" is shouted at you from all sides. 
 
 You carried on your courtship by correspondence and 
 took the final step without inquiring beneath the surface. 
 
 You caught the bear and cannot turn it loose until help 
 arrives. 
 
 While you slept and dreamed of a sweet meal on awak- 
 ening, someone slipped into your cabin and ate your 
 '' 'possum an' taters.'^ 
 
 You cast your lot with a bewitching maiden and found 
 too late that her beauty was only skin deep. 
 
 You have been driven in the streets by a cruel master 
 and it requires all your alertness to avoid the net of the 
 dog-catcher. 
 
 A turtle has a firm hold upon you and there are no 
 signs of an approaching thunderstorm. 
 
 Your veins are choked with foul gore and there is no 
 phlebotomist to relieve the blood pressure. 
 
 Strong shoulders have given you boosts; now you are 
 howling at the point of the politician's boot. 
 
 You are a sore spot on the face of the earth and the 
 foul corruption that is flowing from you is polluting 
 your protesting neighbors. 
 
194 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 HOW TO GET A POSITION OF PUBLIC TRUST. 
 NASHVILLE OFFERS OPPORTUNITY. 
 
 I must confess to getting revelations sometimes, 
 though they are divested of the supernatural feature. I 
 am not able to say, however, that the authors of these 
 revelations don't receive the inspiration from the king of 
 a tropical country. At all events, I had it revealed to 
 me how not to get elected. I thought that the right way 
 was to try to convince the voters that I was capable of 
 doing what they wanted done — (or what they said they 
 wanted done) — ^and that I could be depended upon to 
 do it. 
 
 Well, the result showed that I was a very "dense" 
 member, for I found that what they wanted done was 
 what somebody else wanted done, and not them at all; 
 that I had taken the wrong pig by the tail. I found that 
 a large number of the greatest business men and most 
 exemplary christians (on Sunday) were too busy to go 
 and find out what ought to be done, and had to go and 
 ask men engaged in "other lines" of business who didn't 
 fool away their time going to church on Sunday, to find 
 out what ought -to be done and who to vote for to get 
 it done. I didn't ask these fellows anything about it and 
 there's where I lost out. I thought that if I could make 
 them believe that I was all right I would be elected sure. 
 They evidently believed it, for I was defeated. 
 
 But I got the revelation and am here to tell you that 
 if you want to get elected in this neck of the woods, and 
 are not able to prove that you are the biggest liar, the 
 
AND Pool of Blood 195 
 
 most accomplished hypocrite and unreliable puppet that's 
 on the track, you have about as much chance to get 
 elected as "Dives had to warn his brothers of the wrath 
 to come," for candidates generally have a record to prove 
 these things, and they are the only ones that get enough 
 votes to be elecied. Then the majority opposes putting 
 one of these meddlesome fellows in office lest he go to 
 enforcing some of these fool laws that were passed by 
 the legislature of 1909. They don't want that sort of 
 judge, sheriff or attorney-general, and for mayor they 
 want a man that will keep the police from getting trou- 
 blesome, and above all be able and willing to swing the 
 pendulum the right way on each election day; a man 
 that's a law unto himself, able to annul or repeal any 
 laws that we don't need and substitute such as we do, a 
 man that keeps *'ready-made^' laws always in stock to 
 fit every emergency ; a man who thinks a good mayor will 
 not want much power, or that a bad one can have enough. 
 Fortunately we have such a mayor now. As a conse- 
 quence we can quietly pursue our business and have no 
 disturbance (only what we m.ake). He is a very shrewd 
 politician and can always elect anybody he pleases, and 
 he always pleases us. When he sees they are not going 
 to vote the right way, he at once produces a law some- 
 times called the "boodle act," with proper penalties for 
 violation, and that brings a lot into line, and what is 
 known as the commission "firing act" catches the rest. 
 So you see our mayor has the whole thing in his pocket 
 and can keep us properly represented in state, county and 
 city, the only trouble being for him to determine which 
 candidate is the most contemptible cuss among them, and 
 he seldom makes a mistake, but the candidate makes a 
 big mistake when he goes to talking morality, decency, 
 honest dealing, fair elections and that sort of rot instead 
 
196 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 of trying to convince the mayor that he is ready to 
 sneeze whenever his honor takes snuff. 
 
 But the people who want office are getting their eyes 
 opened, even huge corporations that want to get fran- 
 chises know that they must first get the mayor. The new 
 gas company realized that and proceeded to get him first 
 — then they struck open water with icebergs out of the 
 way and got the franchise. 
 
 Charlie Longhurst got the mayor and got the nomina- 
 tion for sheriff. Likewise A. B. Neil holds the nomina- 
 tion for criminal judge, but Borum got to meddling in 
 the mayor's business and went where the woodbine 
 twineth. 
 
 Nashville does indeed offer opportunity to the stranger 
 that enters her gates, much of which has been told you 
 through the medium of our many enterprising industrial 
 organizations, but the subject is inexhaustible, and any- 
 one familiar with conditions existing may travel if they 
 so desire the entire route from Dan to Beersheba, telling 
 at each stop a different opportunity, but not to leave the 
 mayor too abruptly. We will begin by telling some of 
 the opportunities that his honor must be consulted about. 
 
 If you happen to have an appetite for an official posi- 
 tion, you have a splendid opportunity to get it. If you 
 can convince his honor that you are the meanest applicant 
 or man that will take it — likewise a nomination — and to 
 hold the office when you get it, youVe only to "make 
 good." He doesn't like men who deceive him. When 
 there is a vacancy in the city departments anywhere you 
 have a very good opporunity to get a job, but to hold it 
 and steer clear of the firing board, it would be the part 
 of expediency to throw up your hat, shout hurrah for 
 straight democracy and vote for whosoever his honor has 
 slated. If you find no vacancy, you have the "oppor- 
 
AND Pool of Blood 197 
 
 tunity" of tramping — largely on granitoid pavements — 
 looking for something else to do, which beats rough brick 
 pavements out of sight, and if you have rented a house 
 and tramped around looking for a job until your means 
 are exhausted, you are not denied the "opportunity" to 
 get out of it and camp out. 
 
 There is a state law here forbidding the sale of intoxi- 
 cants, but if you wish to do so anyway you have only to 
 conform to the manner prescribed by his honor, and 
 there's another opportunity, likewise a gambling house 
 or brothel. 
 
 If you are a student desiring to attend school here — 
 and to go on a "lark" and liven things up occasionally — 
 you have the "opportunity" to apply to his honor, who 
 will give you a card of immunity from police interference, 
 with a coupon attached, directing said police to see you 
 safely home and in bed. This is a special opportunity 
 offered by no other city. In short, you are oflFered oppor- 
 tunity to do anything his honor may direct, coupled with 
 the opportunity to fight shy of everything that is dis- 
 tasteful to him. But there is one thing that I overlooked 
 which deserves special notice, to-wit: if you happen to 
 have legislative aspirations you have an opportunity for 
 that, only when you have satisfied his honor that you are 
 absolutely fit for nothing else. 
 
 In case you should write a book and don't say anything 
 about anybody or any thing in the book, you have an 
 excellent opportunity to get it published, by paying not 
 more than double what it would cost in Chicago or New 
 York. But if you mention the name or names of any 
 of our prominent citizens, state anything in your book 
 that is true, Nashville offers you the opportunity of going 
 somewhere else to get it published. See what a fine free 
 ad. you get there. 
 
198 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Again Nashville offers you the opportunity to become a 
 candidate in any of her primaries by simply staking the 
 ''ante/' which ranges from $5.00 for a delegate to go to 
 a convention, to $500.00 to be a candidate for governor. 
 Now I imagine I hear some one say that's an outrage 
 and discriminates against the man of limited means. 
 
 To all such I say, look at the opportunity. A man has 
 to bring himself into prominence, which must precede 
 getting into office. Again Nashville offers opportunity 
 to a man to realize on his suffrage with no liability for 
 disagreeable or dangerous consequences. He has only to 
 practice discretion and good judgment to get his full 
 value at any election. This is considered by many as the 
 surest, safest and easiest road to wealth, prosperity and 
 happiness. Abundant opportunity is also afforded to 
 ''buck the tiger" in guilded palaces or low dives, as a 
 man's inclination may direct. 
 
 If a man happens to engage in a "strictly legitimate 
 and honorable business and conduct it on strictly honor- 
 able principles"^n some lines — he has the finest oppor- 
 tunity in the world to create a monopoly without 
 assistance, for he will have no competitors. 
 
 It is a source of wonder, almost a miracle, that with 
 such magnificent opportunities that people are not count- 
 ing the tics and stumbling over each other to get here. 
 It is reasonable to suppose that they haven't heard about 
 it. 
 
 We suggest to non-residents who want to send their 
 sons here to college, that they just employ a gambling 
 expert to give them a graduate course, as a matter of 
 self-protection, as Nashvitte offers no opportunity along 
 that line. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 199 
 
 THE NASHVILLE FARCE, ERRONEOUSLY 
 CALLED A CRIMINAL COURT, BUT PROP- 
 ERLY A CITY OF REFUGE FOR DIA- 
 MOND-STUDDED CRIMINALS. 
 
 To make myself fully understood, it is necessary to 
 begin at the trial of the Coopers for the murder of Sen- 
 ator Carmack. This was one of the fairest trials on the 
 records of any criminal court. The jury was most care- 
 fully selected and accepted by both the defense and 
 prosecution. The judge in his rulings gave the defense 
 the benefit of the doubt in every instance. The jury 
 returned a verdict of murder in the second degree and 
 fixed the penalty at twenty years* confinement in the pen- 
 itentiary. The case went to the supreme court and early 
 in April, 19 lo, was affirmed as to Duncan B. Cooper, who 
 was pardoned by the governor in the self same hour. As 
 to Robin J. Cooper, the case was remanded on a tech- 
 nicality. It is generally believed that the governor was 
 in a position that practically compelled him to pardon the 
 Coopers, the governor admitting that as personal and 
 political friends it was his desire to do so. 
 
 At this time the governor's political star was rapidly 
 waning. Jeff McCarn was attorney-general, and he, the 
 governor, had a good reason to believe that before Robin's 
 case would reach him — in the regular routine — his term 
 of office would expire. The question disturbing him then 
 was how to get Robin cleared. The very sudden and 
 unexpected death of Judge Hart opened up a possible 
 way — he could make the appointment of his successor 
 
200 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 contingent on an assurance that Robin Cooper would be 
 acquitted in his court. Whether he did that or not I don't 
 know. The reader must judge that by the clandestine 
 manner in which he was acquitted, which is here ex- 
 plained : 
 
 The case was docketed and time set for trial and pub- 
 lished in the newspapers. When the day set for trial 
 was at hand, the Hon. G. T. Fitzhugh, of Memphis, who 
 was associate counsel in the original trial, came from 
 Memphis to offer his services as aid in the prosecution, 
 fully equipped with all necessary information for the 
 prosecution of the case, and was turned back by false 
 information obtained from the criminal court clerk's office 
 — that the trial had been postponed. Next in order that 
 same day was the appearance at this "Nashville Farce" 
 of those interested in the defense, ready for trial. The 
 case being called, the attorney-general very promptly 
 advanced with a "nolle prosequi," asking the court to 
 allow it on the grounds that he was "perfectly helpless," 
 the witnesses had all "vamoosed the ranch," no one had 
 consulted him in the capacity of prosecutor and he could 
 do nothing. He had evidently forgotten, or never knew, 
 that his duty was to prosecute ex-officio, and if those 
 things failed to come to him of their own accord, to look 
 about a little and see if he could find them. Well, the 
 judge admitted the plea without protest or suggestions, 
 and at the request of the attorneys for the defense called 
 up a jury from the regular panel and ordered a verdict 
 of acquittal, and Robin Cooper, the murderer of Senator 
 Carmack, was a free man, notwithstanding he was a felon 
 convicted by the verdict of twelve jurors. (And Judge 
 Neil says they are as competent to render justice, or more 
 so, having heard evidence, than a supreme court who had 
 only read it.) 
 
AND Pool of Blood 201 
 
 Since demagogues choose "darkness rather than light" 
 to concoct their wily schemes, the only way the general 
 public can get a knowledge of things it has a right to 
 know is to combine rumor, logic and circumstantial evi- 
 dence, and form its conclusions therefrom. It is rumored 
 that the judgeship was tendered another gentleman and 
 was declined because of a string dangling from it. 
 
 Circumstances point to the rumor as consistent with 
 the logic of events both before and after the appointment 
 was made, and if that rumor is true, why should a string- 
 less position be given to another? Echo answers, Why! 
 
 Closely following this acquittal, some of the attorneys 
 who had been connected with the original prosecution 
 made a futile attempt to get the case reinstated on the 
 docket, but were curtly informed by the judge that there 
 was no such case in the court, which, of course, was true, 
 since it had been juggled out in a manner similar to a 
 snake juggling out of its skin. Would an honorable, 
 unsubsidized court tolerate such a farcical administration 
 of justice as that? Would it not rather resent and hold 
 for contempt the author, or even an insinuation that it 
 would? I leave the case with every rational reader who 
 is not subsidized to decide as to the logic of these deduc- 
 tions. 
 
 About this time the clamor for the enforcement of the 
 liquor laws had assumed magnitudinous proportions and 
 was increasing in its intensity. Every criminal executive 
 officer in the city with power and authority had ignored 
 and practically nullified them, and this judge evidently 
 felt it incumbent on him to say (not to do) something. 
 It was getting rather warm for him ; an opportunity was 
 afforded him at a meeting of the Nashville Business 
 Men's Association on April lo, 191 1. I append an extract 
 from his speech on that occasion, in which he declared 
 
302 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 what he wanted the pubhc to believe was his sentiment 
 and intentions in the premises : 
 
 "I wish to speak to you, gentlemen, concerning my 
 business, as the court over which I have the honor to pre- 
 side deals with matters in which every citizen is more or 
 less interested. Every man should be willing to take 
 time from his business to be interested in the affairs of 
 his country. No business can go on unless it has the 
 strong arm of the law thrown around it. Our courts, 
 our laws, our branches of government are the product of 
 toil and suffering and bloodshed of a thousand years, and 
 yet you would be surprised at the number of the very 
 best citizens who have no time to take even the smallest 
 interest in matters that aft'ect the good of their country. 
 How many business men are there who refuse to do their 
 duty! In the position I occupy you can not appreciate 
 the value that honorable men could be to me. A case 
 came up before me the other day in which everyone was 
 more or less interested, and to get a jury I had to draw 
 a panel of 200 men ; 75 of these did not come at all, mak- 
 ing it necessary for me to impose a fine of $25.00, and 
 forty others came with affidavits as long as your arm, 
 when it would have taken only about one and one-half 
 hours to try the case. 
 
 "I confess that the task has sometimes been discourag- 
 ing and that I have sometimes felt that I stood alone in 
 the important duties of the administration of the law. 
 
 "We all want our city to prosper and continue to be 
 as it is now, the greatest city in the Southland. We will 
 all be glad when the fretful circumstances are past and 
 Nashville can be seen from afar as an honor to this glo- 
 rious state. I know I love my country and v/ant to see 
 her in the midst of peace and prosperity, where all can 
 enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, a«; is pro- 
 vided bv the constitution and laws of the land." 
 
AND Pool of Blood 303 
 
 These declarations met with a ready response from a 
 large number of the order-loving citizens, including the 
 officials of the Anti-Saloon League, who, collectively, re- 
 ported more than one hundred cases of law violations by 
 liquor men, with incontrovertible evidence to warrant an 
 indictment and conviction in each case, but no indictments 
 could be obtained from the grand juries which the judge 
 had labored so strenuously to select from the "best citi- 
 zens." 
 
 Now, would not an honorable and unsubsidized court, 
 cognizant of these facts, have ascertained who and how 
 many were refusing to do a sworn and plain duty and 
 discharged them from further service, instead of closing 
 its eyes and granting them an honorable discharge at the 
 end of the term? 
 
 Both common sense and logic proclaim in thunder- 
 tones that it would. 
 
 It necessarily follows that the good citizens and Anti- 
 Saloon League, having other fish to fry, ceased to be 
 parties to so ridiculous a farce, and the matter rested in 
 statu quo for a while, and the law-breakers and their best 
 friend, "the city of refuge," were given a period of rest, 
 the judge supposedly mourning over his failure to get his 
 juries to indict and give opportunity to him and his 
 attorney-general to "vigorously prosecute to the extent of 
 the law," — which both were so eager to do. 
 
 But their rest was broken awhile later, when the sheriff 
 contracted a dangerous disease from which all crim- 
 inal executives in Nashville were supposed to be immune, 
 and began to stir up trouble, which resulted in a number 
 of arrests, variously estimated and running up into the 
 hundreds, but this grand jury had been vaccinated and 
 no indictments could be obtained on positive evidence, and 
 as the judge and attorney-general were still immune, this 
 
204 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 jury also maixhed out with the honors of war at the end 
 of the term. 
 
 At this juncture Governor Hooper gave out the fol- 
 lowing statement, which explains itself. Let the reader 
 bear in mind that the beneficiaries referred to must be 
 one of five criminal executive officers, three of whom are 
 officials in the "Nashville Farce," and the facts, when 
 disclosed, might have implicated one or more of them, in 
 which it would be a court sitting in judgment on its own 
 acts, unless, indeed, the liquor men expected to use it in 
 the grand jury room, and it would hardly require $25,000 
 to buy two grand jury men, all that would be needed to 
 quash an indictment. In this connection I append also 
 the judge's letter to the governor and an editorial from 
 the Nashville Banner corroborative of the positions as- 
 sured relative to the "Nashville Farce :" 
 
 "SAYS $25,000 WAS RAISED HERE— GOVERNOR 
 
 CHARGES LIQUOR INTERESTS OF CITIES 
 
 WITH GETTING UP CORRUPTION 
 
 FUNDS. 
 
 "Knoxville, Tenn., April 30. — In an interview printed 
 here. Gov. B. W. Hooper, now at Mooresburg Springs, 
 charges that funds are being raised in the cities of the 
 state to prevent the enforcement of the prohibition laws. 
 The governor says : 
 
 " 'The people of the rural communities of Tennessee 
 would be astounded if they could realize the conditions of 
 corruption and semi-anarchy that exist in the cities of the 
 state. There are thousands of good citizens in each of 
 these cities, but the coalition between corrupt politicians 
 
AND Pool of Blood 205 
 
 and the elements of lawlessness is completely dominant. 
 Whenever attention is called to this fact, some fright- 
 ened individual, claiming to be a "business man," always 
 protests that the matter ought not to be mentioned for fear 
 that the city will be hurt. To such a man it does not oc- 
 cur that correction and not concealment is the safe and 
 honest public policy. 
 
 " *As an example of what I am talking about, within 
 the last two weeks a corruption fund of $25,000 has been 
 raised by the whisky dealers of Nashville for the express 
 purpose of corruptly preventing the enforcement of the 
 laws of Tennessee against the unlawful sale of whisky 
 and beer in that city. 
 
 " 'When I left Nashville this fund had not yet been 
 paid over to the prospective beneficiaries, but it was in 
 the hands of the agent of the whisky interests. Let it be 
 understood, too, that the statements I have made are not 
 haphazard guess-work. I am in complete possession of 
 the facts. I know the amounts assessed against the con- 
 tributors from the brewery and wholesalers on down to 
 the little saloon keepers, and I know to whom the money 
 was paid. 
 
 " 'How much of this is going on in other cities cannot 
 accurately be stated, but it is apparent that the laws are 
 being nullified and justice thwarted in other cities, and 
 somebody is doubtless being paid in some way for these 
 results. 
 
 " The country people of Tennessee will have to take 
 these matters in hand and save the state from further 
 disgrace at the hands of the municipalities. 
 
 " 'When political committees have ceased to dicker, 
 maneuver and manipulate for the personal and political 
 advantage of more or less moribund politicians, and the 
 deck has been cleared of national political considerations, 
 
206 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 these great questions of good government will be carried 
 to the people for settlement/ " 
 
 JUDGE A. B. NEIL'S LETTER TO GOV. HOOPER. 
 
 "May I, 1912. — Gov. Ben W. Hooper, Nashville, Tenn. 
 — Dear Sir : I notice an interview from you in which you 
 state, among other things, that a corruption fund of 
 $25,000 has been raised by the whisky dealers of Nash- 
 ville for the express purpose of corruptly preventing the 
 enforcement of the laws of Tennessee against the unlaw- 
 ful sale of whisky, etc. 
 
 ''You further state that when you left the city the 
 money had not been paid over to the prospective bene- 
 ficiaries, but it was in the hands of the agent of the 
 whisky interests. You are quoted as saying that you are 
 in possession of the facts. 
 
 "I have consulted the attorney-general of this county 
 regarding your interview, and he assures me that he 
 stands ready and anxious to prosecute to the fullest extent 
 of the law any man who has ever received or agreed to 
 receive a dollar, or any man who has ever offered to pay 
 or who has paid one dollar for any such unlawful pur- 
 pose. 
 
 "It would give me great pleasure for you to give to the 
 attorney-general such evidence as you may have in your 
 possession, to the end that he may take suitable action in 
 the premises. I urgently request you to do so. 
 
 "The criminal court of Davidson County will be in ses- 
 sion on or after Monday, May 6. 
 
 "Very respectfully, 
 
 (Signed) A. B. Neil." 
 
- AND Pool of Blood 307 
 
 ENFORCING THE LAW. 
 (Editorial from Nashville Banner.) 
 
 "Judge Neil of the criminal court and State's Attorney 
 Anderson express anxiety to know the names of the male- 
 factors whom Gov. Hooper is reported to have said raised 
 a corruption fund to prevent the enforcement of the anti- 
 liquor selling law in Davidson County. This indication 
 that the court officials are mindful of their duties would 
 be quite comforting but for the record the criminal court 
 of Davidson County has made in the past. 
 
 "Last year, it will be remembered, that a number of 
 high-class citizens tendered to the grand jury conclusive 
 evidence of violations of the law on the part of a large 
 number of liquor dealers. The grand jury failed to find 
 indictments, and evidence is lacking to show that either 
 Judge Neil or State's Attorney Anderson took any steps 
 to have the grand jury do its plain duty. 
 
 ''Very recently the sheriff of Davidson County made 
 numerous arrests of violators of the law against selling 
 liquor. Many, of thgse arrested were taken in the act. 
 The proof was plain and convincing. It was a matter of 
 common knowledge before they were arrested that they 
 were selling liquor. Yet not a single indictment was re- 
 turned against any of these law-breakers. Why? 
 
 "Judge Neil selected the grand jury and the state's at- 
 torney was in attendance on that body. The state's attor- 
 ney should have reported to the court any dereliction on 
 the part of the grand jurors who refused to sign indict- 
 ments when the evidence was plain, and under such 
 circumstances it would have been the duty of the judge 
 to- dismiss the offending jurors. 
 
 "That was done by a judge in Chattanooga some time 
 
208 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 ago, and is a common and proper practice with judges 
 everywhere. 
 
 "It would be pleasing to know that the Davidson 
 County court officials have become jealous of the honor 
 of the state and are ready to make rigid enforcement of 
 the law were it not for the patent failure of the judge 
 and attorney-general to do their duty in the past. 
 
 "Until action respecting these cases is promptly taken 
 and prosecuted with vigor, very few citizens will have 
 much, if any, faith in the disposition of the court to pun- 
 ish those whom the governor may involve in the matter 
 of bribery and corruption unless perchance the exposure 
 should involve parties not now in harmony and sympathy 
 with the powers that be." 
 
 I also append the governor's reply to Judge Neil, and 
 a letter to him from the mayor. The mayor's letter is 
 inserted merely to show what variety of moral and intel- 
 lectual timber Nashville is using in the construction of 
 mayors. 
 
 GOV. HOOPER'S LETTER TO JUDGE NEIL. 
 
 "Mooresburg, Tenn., May 3, 1912. 
 
 "Hon. A. B. Neil, Judge, Nashville, Tenn.— Dear Sir : 
 A newspaper has just reached me containing your letter 
 to me relative to the statement I recently made concern- 
 ing the violation of the liquor laws in Nashville and the 
 raising of $25,000 by the whisky dealers to purchase 
 immunity from legal molestation. 
 
 "I note that you have consulted the attorney-general of 
 Davidson County and have received from him the 
 assurance that he stands ready and anxious to prosecute 
 to the fullest extent of the law any man who has received. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 309 
 
 or agreed to receive, a dollar, or any man who has ever 
 offered to pay, or who has paid, one dollar for such 
 unlawful purpose. 
 
 "I also note that it would give you great pleasure for 
 me to give to the attorney-general such evidence as I may 
 have in my possession. 
 
 "I thank you for the interest you have taken in this 
 matter and venture to make the following suggestions : 
 
 TWO VITAL CHARGES. 
 
 *'My newspaper interview to which you referred em- 
 bodied in substance two vital charges: First, that there 
 are brewers, wholesale liquor dealers and saloonists 
 operating their business in Nashville; and, second, that 
 many of them have recently raised a corruption fund of 
 $25,000 to prevent the enforcement of the law against 
 them. 
 
 ''While your letter does not indicate that you took up 
 with the attorney-general the matter of enforcing the 
 law against the flagrant violators of the liquor laws in 
 the city, I assume that it will afford you equal pleasure 
 to have me furnish the attorney-general proof against 
 these violators also. I therefore make the following 
 proposition to the attorney-general, through you : 
 
 "First, I will furnish him plain, positive and conclusive 
 evidence that several hundred men in various capacities 
 are openly, publicly and notoriously violating the anti- 
 saloon laws in the city of Nashville every day, and that 
 saloons are conducted without concealment in the hotels 
 and elsewhere throughout the business section of your 
 city. These are not the occasional clandestine violators 
 or the elusive bootlegger, but are committed in such a 
 
 14 
 
210 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 flagrant way as to constitute the absolute nullification of 
 the laws of Tennessee. 
 
 "Second, I will furnish to the attorney-general the 
 name of the man who collected and held the corruption 
 fund above mentioned, the names of numerous liquor 
 dealers who contributed to said fund according to their 
 own admission, the names of several men to whom these 
 admissions were made, the name of the attorney who 
 represented the prospective beneficiaries and other minor 
 details. 
 
 QUESTION OF GOOD FAITH. 
 
 ''With these facts as a basis it ought to be an easy 
 matter for the attorney-general to procure such additional 
 evidence as is desirable if he prosecutes in good faith. 
 
 "In this connection I will make frank the suggestion 
 that the success of such an investigation and prosecution 
 will be found to hinge not upon the evidence presented, 
 but upon the character of the grand jury which considers 
 it. No amount or kind of evidence would satisfy some 
 of the grand juries you have had in the court. For 
 example, the grand jury which recently served in your 
 court had the most overwhelming evidence at its com- 
 mand of the violation of the liquor law. Scores of open 
 saloons had been raided, the whisky removed and the 
 operators arrested in the act of making their customary 
 sales, and yet no true bills were found in these cases. 
 This is commonly considered by the public a greater dis- 
 grace to your city, county and court than the raising of 
 the corruption fund in question, especially in view of the 
 fact that no motion was made either by the attorney-gen- 
 eral or court to peremptorily discharge such recalcitrant 
 grand jurors. 
 
AND Pool of Blood -^11 
 
 "It is a well-known fact that you, as criminal judge, 
 have absolute control of the selection of the grand jury 
 of Davidson County. 
 
 "Inasmuch as you have taken this matter up with me 
 through the newspapers, I will say that merely as a mat- 
 ter of common sense and business I do not care to indulge 
 in the futile formality of presenting evidence to such a 
 grand jury as this. 
 
 AS TO UNFIT JURORS. 
 
 *Tf you and the attorney-general decide to present to 
 the grand jury the matters above set out I would like to 
 have some sort of assurance from the attorney-general 
 that when overwhelming evidence is furnished and 
 ignored, he will move in open court the discharge of unfit 
 grand jurors, as is so frequently done in the rural courts 
 where the judge and attorney-general really desire to 
 enforce the laws. 
 
 "In any answer you may make to this communication 
 kindly let me know whether the attorney-general will 
 agree to prosecute the violators of the anti-saloon laws, 
 as well as those connected with the raising of the cor- 
 ruption fund, upon evidence furnished by me, whether 
 he will assure me of his intention to use his legal power 
 if necessary to purge the grand jury as above suggested. 
 
 "I would also appreciate a statement from you as to 
 whether or not you had already acquired information as 
 to the raising of said corruption fund prior to my mter- 
 view. Very respectfully, 
 
 (Signed) "Ben W. Hooper." 
 
212 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 MAYOR H. E. HOWSE'S LETTER TO GOV. BEN 
 W. HOOPER. 
 
 "Hon. Ben W. Hooper, Governor, Mooresburg, Tenn. 
 — Dear Sir: You are reported in three Nashville dailies 
 as having given out an interview from Mooresburg, in 
 the wilds of East Tennessee, on April 19th, which reflects 
 upon the good name and honesty of all county and city 
 officials in Nashville and other municipalities of Ten- 
 nessee. 
 
 "You charge in this interview that a fund of $25,000 
 has been raised by breweries, distillers and saloonists for 
 the nullification of the state-wide prohibition law. 
 
 "I have been mayor of Nashville for two years and 
 seven months, and during this time I have never had 
 any occasion to attack the character or impugn the mo- 
 tives of any official or individual, but I have always 
 defended my course and propose to continue this policy 
 to the end of my term. 
 
 "An honest governor with correct intentions would not 
 have sneaked off like a thief in the night to East Ten- 
 nessee under the pretense of a nervous break-down and 
 there given out an interview reflecting on the honesty and 
 integrity of all public officials, without naming a single 
 individual, or giving any specific information which could 
 be used by the constituted upholders of the law and de- 
 fenders of the people in this and other municipalities of 
 Tennessee. 
 
 "It is both cowardly and contemptible for you to 
 
AND Pool of Blood ^13 
 
 undertake to stain the good name of all officials in this 
 state, when you have, as you claim, in your possession 
 complete and accurate information in reference to some 
 man or men, who have, as you state, been guilty of this 
 
 offense. 
 
 "You appear to be laboring under the delusion that 
 the people in the rural communities of Tennessee are 
 ignorant, uninformed and unacquainted with conditions 
 in the various cities of this state, but in this you are 
 sadly mistaken. How is it, governor, that you always 
 make these raw breaks when away from Nashville on 
 one of your periodical nervous break-downs ? 
 
 ASKS FOR NAMES. 
 
 "I now call upon you, as I have a right to do, to give 
 the names of the guilty parties, the amount contributed, 
 to whom contributed and all other information which you 
 possess, or stand branded before the people of Tennessee 
 as an irresponsible blatherskite, whose word cannot be 
 
 believed. 
 
 "I acknowledge before the world that the state-wide 
 prohibition law is violated in the city of Nashville, in the 
 same manner as it is violated in the city of Newport. 
 This same state-wide, prohibition law is violated m every 
 city in Tennessee with the knowledge and consent of a 
 great majority of the people of these various municipali- 
 ties. , 
 
 *Tt has been charged publicly and privately, and never 
 denied, that you and the man whom you appointed United 
 States senator, raised a slush fund with which to pay the 
 expenses and salary of the members at the last legisla- 
 ture, who went to Alabama for the purpose of breaking 
 a quorum. 
 
214 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 "I at one time assisted in breaking a quorum in the 
 state senate, but every member of the senate who assisted 
 in breaking this quorum paid his own expenses out of his 
 own funds. Now if you want to giye the people of Ten- 
 nessee some real live information, in which they are 
 interested, please come out like a man and a real gov- 
 ernor and tell them whether or not this oft-repeated 
 charge is or is not true. . 
 
 "I thought you had reached the limit of folly when you 
 announced your desire to possess the authority to remove 
 mayors and sheriffs and interchange judges to suit your 
 own political ambition, but it seems now that you are 
 anxious to name the grand juries in Nashville and else- 
 where. 
 
 DEFENDS JURORS. 
 
 ''You are too cowardly to call the names of any of the 
 members of the late grand jury, but I want to tell you 
 they were honorable citizens of Davidson County, and 
 their characters and good names are immune from any 
 slander which a nervous governor might make. 
 
 "Have you forgotten the fact that Judge A. B. Neil 
 recently made a race before the people in opposition to 
 one of your anointed saints and was nominated by an 
 overwhelming majority? 
 
 "Is it not a fact that the attorney-general, the Hon. 
 A. B. Anderson, made a race in the primary where he 
 defeated the opponent by a large majority and was then 
 opposed by one of your saints, who was in turn defeated 
 by an overwhelming majority? These facts are a living 
 testimony to the confidence which the people of Davidson 
 County have in these officials, and no irresponsible charge 
 which you can make will serve to reverse the decision of 
 the people of this city and county. 
 
AND Pool of Blood '-^15 
 
 "Now, governor, I have never given you credit for 
 being overburdened with inteUigence, or possessing any 
 patriotism at all, but why don't you be honest for a day 
 and tell the people of Tennessee that the state-wide pro- 
 hibition law is a complete failure; that it breeds law vio- 
 lators, creates confusion, hurts business and keeps the 
 minds of the people in a state of disturbance. We all 
 know that you do not sincerely believe in state-wide pro- 
 hibition, and that you simply took advantage of a political 
 situation and thereby became an accidental governor, 
 which has and will continue to be a misfortune to the 
 state of Tennessee. 
 
 "If you would devote as much time to the office of 
 governor as you devote to abusing, criticizing and slan- 
 dering the officials of this state, everybody would be 
 benefited thereby, and it would not be necessary for offi- 
 cials who do not have time to take a vacation of thirty 
 days, six times a year, to be continiially answering irre- 
 sponsible communications and refuting unfounded 
 charges. 
 
 "Give us your information now, or forever after hold 
 your peace. Very respectfully, 
 
 "H. E. HOWSE, Mayor.'' 
 
 To the mayor's letter the governor made no reply, and 
 in answer to a reporter, gave as his reason, "that a man 
 in pursuit of more respectable game didn't leave the trail 
 to chase pole-cats." Of course, every sane man knows 
 (no matter what they say) that the governor would be 
 a gillipod to submit his case for trial to a court whose 
 officers might be so busy defending themselves that they 
 would have no time to prosecute. 
 
 The judge says, as quoted above, that "no business can 
 go on without the strong arm of the law thrown around 
 
216 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 it." Hence, it follows, if this statement is correct, th^t 
 the strong arm of the law is around the unlawful liquor 
 business, since it is "going on" faster than any other 
 business in town. 
 
 This "City of Refuge" neither stops at the nullifica- 
 tion of secular law, but controverts as well divine law, 
 which says, in substance, that "rulers are a terror to evil 
 doers." 
 
 And the great Democratic party of Davidson County 
 (on the shoulders of which they claim rests the redemp- 
 tion and final salvation of the state) has re-elected this 
 judge who, in five attempts since his induction into office, 
 has failed to get a grand jury which would indict pro- 
 fessional lawbreakers on incontrovertible evidence, or to 
 find a cause for complaint against any of them for not 
 doing so. 
 
 If any of the foregoing facts are doubted, show us the 
 man who had money or political prestige, who has re- 
 ceived a sentence commensurate with his crime in Judge 
 Neil's court. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 21? 
 
 WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY. 
 
 When years ago, conditions became so intolerable in 
 Nashville, that decency hid her face behind a veil of 
 shame, that old patriot, A. S. Colyar, took the reins in 
 his hands and the bit in his mouth and led a crusade 
 against indecency and lawlessless, which completely 
 routed them and placed order and respectability on the 
 throne in their stead. Then he looked up the law years 
 later. When the troubles at Coal Creek were rapidly 
 growing in their intensity, John P. Buchanan, who was 
 governor, called out the state guard and quelled the dis- 
 turbance, and he also looked for the law later — if at all. 
 When the Reelfoot tragedy occurred in 1908, the gov- 
 ernor, M. R. Patterson, called out the state troops, created 
 consternation in that country and never did look for the 
 law, but the most effectual example of all was subsequent 
 to the end of the Civil War. When conditions had become 
 unbearable and the law was ignored "by the powers that 
 were," there was an organization formed which was a law 
 unto itself— known as the "Ku Klux Klan," but they 
 brought order out of chaos, acting on the principle that 
 "necessity knows no law." They gave the death blow to 
 carpet bag rule and made it possible for the old Volun- 
 teer to stand erect in her integrity and without shame 
 in the presence of her sister states. The incidents cited 
 were cases where necessity demanded action; from dif- 
 ferent causes the law proved inadequate to afford the 
 needed protection and the people, who are the source of 
 all power, took matters in their own hands and no one 
 
218 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 has ever questioned the justice or propriety of their ac- 
 tion. But what about the conditions existing now, when 
 five successive grand juries have refused to indict open 
 violators of a state law and have virtually said to the 
 state, "You go to the devil with your laws, we care noth- 
 ing about them. This is Nashville ; you keep your hands 
 off; when we want your assistance, we will let you know. 
 We are competent to make our own laws, constitute our 
 courts, elect our officers and run things to suit ourselves ; 
 we have fully proven our ability to do that, we have your 
 sheriff tied, our friend, the judge can make him look 
 like thirty cents and feel like he could creep through an 
 auger hole, which he would doubtless like to do and pull 
 the hole in after him, and we know that we can depend 
 on our judge to see that we are not hurt to any extent, 
 because he knows we have his job in our pocket, so just 
 go on an' stop 'kickin' our dawg aroun'." 
 
 Seriously, is not this a correct picture and can anyone 
 point to a peg stout enough to hold the weight of a hope 
 of bettering unlawful conditions in a lawful way? It is 
 true that a legislature might be elected who would enact 
 laws that would in time give some relief, but are the 
 friends of law, order and decency numerically strong 
 enough and wide awake enough to accomplish it, know- 
 ing that thousands of dollars will be unlawfully used to 
 prevent it, it being a small margin at best to those who 
 have kept up with political methods employed in Ten- 
 nessee and results of former contests? We know that the 
 chance is a slim one and that there exists no other "and 
 there you are," and what will you do about it? Tamely 
 submit as weaklings to your state being held in bondage 
 by a lawless crowd, who, by shrewd manipulation of 
 political wires, have so strongly entrenched themselves in 
 power that no legal way exists to supplant them, that you 
 
AND Pool of Blood 319 
 
 may do, if you can content yourself to do it; otherwise 
 it looks as though the necessity for a Ku Klux Klan was 
 imperative and if it ever was justifiable to fight the devil 
 with fire, it is now. A lawless gang have the state bound 
 in chains, which are securely locked and the key (the 
 law) thrown away, then what chance is there except to 
 dynamite the fortifications, take out these faithless and 
 perjured court officials, together with the mayor, and 
 make them understand from experience, the real use and 
 benefits of the old whipping-post law. 
 
 When a patient is dangerously ill — a wise doctor hav- 
 ing exhausted all known remedies that are absolutely 
 safe — and seeing the patient gradually but surely sinking, 
 resorts to such remedies that will — "kill or cure" — being 
 justified by the fact that the patient is sure to die if he 
 doesn't and may be saved if he does. The patient (Nash- 
 ville) is very sick. There remains one safe remedy where 
 there is barely a slim chance to eflPect a cure. If the 
 people are now convinced that we have no criminal court, 
 nor can have — without a judge — elect a Ku Klux Klan 
 and apply the remedies that will kill or cure. 
 
 If they are yet too blind and too indifferent to do any- 
 thing, then stop talking, bow to Baal and let the city go 
 to the devil or the dogs, as it may prefer. 
 
 But remember, she deserves just what she will get. 
 
220 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 THE ABSENCE OF RELIGION IN POLITICS A 
 LEADING CAUSE OF BAD GOVERNMENT. 
 
 I imagine I hear someone say: "Keep religion and 
 politics separate; don't mix church and state; let the 
 preachers preach the gospel and let politics alone, and 
 other hackneyed expressions of similar import, the real 
 object of which is to keep everybody out of politics, save 
 such as are willing to prostitute the highest prerogative of 
 an American citizen to the promotion of the interests of 
 political demagogues. 
 
 The majority of people who talk that way, if asked 
 what is religion, would be at a loss for an intelligent 
 answer, even if they were able to give a correct definition 
 of politics. And the intelligent suffragist who really de- 
 sires the right, but is possessed of that idea has evi- 
 dently failed to give due consideration to the matter, or 
 has a false conception of religion, and its proper relation 
 to civic government. 
 
 In the consideration of this subject it must be borne 
 in mind that religion and sectarianism are two very dif- 
 ferent things. Religion is a principle not to be adjusted 
 at the will of the wearer, used on Sunday and pigeon- 
 holed for the week, neither does it give immunity to any 
 man from the duties of citizenship, but, on the contrary, 
 gives emphasis to that duty, the most important phase 
 of which is to employ his talents in the promotion of 
 good and righteous government and the selection of the 
 best men to constitute the "higher powers" to whom he 
 is enjoined to subject himself. 
 
 Now, the man who thinks he has religion and may lay 
 
AND Pool of Blood ^^1 
 
 it aside when he enters pohtics, is only gifted with a 
 superficial knowledge of it, and is ignorant of the ex- 
 perimental teachings and spiritual discernment, by which 
 he may rightly understand the teachings of holy writ. 
 Nor do we find any parole given to preachers, and 
 therefore, being citizens, they must perform the duties 
 of such. 
 
 Now, what is meant by rehgion in politics ? Certainly 
 clean politics ; to bestow suffrage only on clean men, and 
 for clean principles and to use his influence with others to 
 that end, to openly and fearlessly advocate the right and 
 condemn the wrong, on all proper occasions, and we can 
 find no justification for the preacher who fails to do that, 
 for it is clearly his duty to denounce sin wherever it is 
 found, and certainly politics, especially in Nashville, af- 
 fords a fruitful field, and the preacher who shirks the 
 responsibility can find no better excuse than cowardice. 
 
 What means the separation of church and state? Cer- 
 tainly not keeping religion out of politics, or in other 
 words, the principles of right as laid down in the scrip- 
 tures. It means that no religious sect shall usurp the 
 powers of civil government and conduct it in accordance 
 with their particular creed or ecclesiastical law, as they 
 conceive it. To illustrate: A government official shall 
 not be required to be baptized in any particular form, or 
 even baptized at all, unless he so desired, nor shall he 
 be ineligible because he is baptized or is not a member of 
 some particular sect. 
 
 The constitution is clear in its provisions on this sub- 
 ject, and, while permitting religion to enter politics, it 
 clearly provides that sectarianism and denominationalism 
 shall not, and certainly is more than tolerant, that the 
 principles of religion shall be a fundamental principle of 
 civil government. 
 
222 Tennessee's Pond of. Liquor 
 
 Religion entering politics inquires as to the com- 
 petency and integrity of a candidate, sectarianism wants 
 to know if he is of my belief or creed. That it is the 
 duty of all Christians to use every legitimate means to 
 promote good civil government cannot be denied in the 
 face of the injunction that "to him that knoweth to do 
 good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." 
 
 It is not the mixing of religion in politics, but the ab- 
 sence of religious principles in politics that endangers the 
 perpetuity of our free institutions and causes the founda- 
 tions of our republic to tremble. 
 
 The political party that embodies the most religious 
 principles in its platform is the one best fitted to adminis- 
 ter the affairs of state, in the manner best calculated to 
 bring the greatest good to the greatest number. That 
 this position is right and constitutional is evidenced by 
 the fact that the people in the exercise of their sovereign 
 suffrage have never elevated an outspoken unbeliever to 
 any high position of honor and trust. Dynasties that 
 have ignored these principles have crumbled while others 
 with "religion in their politics" have built permanent 
 structures on their ruins. 
 
 The great and good Queen Victoria, on being asked by 
 a foreign potentate the secret of her successful reign, 
 answered, pointing to her Bible, "it is there." 
 
 However, before religion can enter politics, it must 
 first be engrafted into the voter, when it becomes auto- 
 matic, for where the mind is enlightened by the spirit of 
 divine truth, the voter needs no instructions as to how to 
 mark his ballot. 
 
 He will not on Sunday pray for blessings on his coun- 
 try, and on Monday vote for curses. If relisrion is in the 
 voter you can no more keep it out of politics than you 
 can keep bribers and corruptionists out. The same crowd 
 
AND Pool of Blood ^^3 
 
 that are so exercised with fear that religion will get 
 into and "corrupt politics," are also very much disturbed 
 lest woman shall do so, which is about as reasonable as 
 the first. 
 
 The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, realizing 
 the fearful consequence to the coming generation, is 
 rightfully using every lawful means to influence men to 
 cast their suffrage for the destruction of this curse, which 
 is the prime cause of a large majority of the crimes 
 being committed all over the land. We know of no 
 instance where it has made itself conspicuous touching 
 any phase of politics only such as is embodied in this or 
 other moral issues. 
 
 Being the most praiseworthy organization extant 
 today, and gathering its membership from the best class 
 of people, and largely from the most consistent Christian 
 families, as well as the most intellectual, it is as capable 
 of determining . questions of right and wrong as any 
 body of men. Its political work is uniformly conducted 
 decently and in order, and, being the principal sufferers 
 from the consequences and evils of bad government, 
 owned and controlled by the vicious element, which ele- 
 ment is largely composed of liquor men, gamblers and 
 corporation bosses, who practically control politics be- 
 cause of their ability to swing the majority. 
 
 Now, this class, in making their little speeches about 
 women in politics, are not explicit enough to make them- 
 selves understood by the average voter. We who have 
 given some study to politics, and try to read between the 
 lines, in a measure, either in printed, or oral declarations, 
 think we comprehend it. 
 
 V/e think that it is only respectable, intellio^ent, Chris- 
 tian women whom they object to, not the dirty denizens 
 of black bottom who, notwithstanding their sex, were 
 
2M Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 paraded on the streets adorned with "straight democracy" 
 badges at a recent election in the city. I am rather 
 surprised that these "gentlemen" are not advocating 
 woman suffrage, so they could buy the votes of these 
 wenches to offset the effects of religion in politics. 
 
 Woman wields a power in the land for which she has 
 no concession. Being intellectually the peer of man, she 
 is morally and spiritually his superior, and her influence 
 for good is, therefore, more potent, and it is not to be 
 wondered at that those who favor bad government should 
 fear woman's influence in politics. No good citizen will 
 object to the influence of good women in politics. 
 
 But the amusing part of it is that these very chaps 
 will brazenly proclaim themselves the champions of law, 
 order, and morality. But we presume they mean vicious 
 law, bad order, and loose morality. And I feel that I 
 am not judging them, only "knowing the tree by its 
 fruit." 
 
 Men have proven that they are either unable or unwill- 
 ing to promote decent government, and if the women 
 don't take a hand to the extent of their influence, Gk)d 
 save the country, for they can't make conditions worse, 
 and may make them better. 
 
 In this age of political degeneracy and duplicity, it is 
 not surprising that men dread the purity, and truth, in 
 their dirty politics, which radiates from the circle in 
 which good women move. The following verses seem 
 to be appropriate to this subject. 
 
 ABOUT SALLY AND THE BALLOT. 
 
 "This country is ruled by the people, we say, 
 But not ruled by women; in consequence, they 
 Cannot be called people, though pretty; 
 
AND Pool of Blood 225 
 
 By this syllogistical solution we see 
 
 That woman can't vote, in the land of the free, 
 
 Though ever so handsome and witty. 
 
 "We pity them ; also their half-blooded brats. 
 The offspring of Woman and People; like bats 
 They seem to be classified double ; 
 And what this great nation, in future will do 
 For full blooded people to carry it through 
 Is the problem now giving us trouble. 
 
 ''Some think its solution can never be wrought, 
 
 Unless we give Sally the ballot; this ought 
 
 To work a complete revolution; 
 
 While others believe that her talents should rust, 
 
 Lie hid in a napkin and she in the dust, 
 
 To wait for some slow evolution. 
 
 "Would you blush to confess of a woman you're born, 
 
 Deny your nativity even, and scorn 
 
 That you're kin to your mother and sister? 
 
 Did it ever occur to your mind when at school 
 
 That the girl you picked for a wife was a fool? 
 
 Did you think so the first time you kissed her? 
 
 "O, shame be to him who unjustly complains 
 
 That women like Sally have not enough brains 
 
 To cast an intelligent ballot. 
 
 This is a free country you know ; even men 
 
 Are not bound by law to use common sense when 
 
 They vote, if they find they don't have it. 
 
 "Superior powers we doubtless possess; 
 This fact even Sally, herself, will confess, 
 
 15 
 
326 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Having felt its relentless dominion — ■■ 
 That physical force of the muscular brute, 
 To which we resort when we fail to refute, 
 By reason, a woman's opinion. 
 
 *'Say not that this picture in colors is drawn 
 
 Too vivid, for certainly muscle and brawn 
 
 Stand guard over Sally's objection; 
 
 For let her persist in attempting to vote, 
 
 She'd first be admonished then seized by the throat 
 
 For contempt of the laws of election. 
 
 "The rumsellers' victim we drag from the ditch 
 
 And call him good fellow, and label him, 'which 
 
 Of the parties will dare to ignore him?' 
 
 And then on a stretcher we give him a ride 
 
 To the polls where he votes with American pride 
 
 For the party that bids the most for him. 
 
 "If Sally were willing to barter her vote 
 
 For a new spring bonnet, or a seal skin coat, 
 
 And vote while her husband was looking — 
 
 If she'd swagger and swear, like a trooper or tar. 
 
 And smoke a cob pipe or a nickle cigar, 
 
 And spit on the stove while she's cooking — 
 
 "If she'd flavor her breath with the essence of corn, 
 
 Transmit to her children before they were born, 
 
 A hankering after bad whisky. 
 
 And bet on elections, the solons would say, 
 
 'Yes, give her the ballot, she'll vote the right way — 
 
 She's sound — neither cranky nor risky.' " 
 
 — Selected. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 227 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF LIQUOR IN THE POLIT- 
 ICAL ARENA, AND THE EFFECT ON GOOD 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN TENNESSEE. 
 
 As the grand old Volunteer once felt impelled to 
 secede from the general government on patriotic grounds, 
 it looks as though she would now have to secede from 
 the state government for reasons of equal force, since 
 that government has become so vicious in its tendencies 
 that the unthinking mind can scarcely have a conception 
 of it. A governm.ent dominated and administered by a 
 conscienceless oligarchy of political demagogues, the 
 henchmen of soulless corporations and monopolistic in- 
 terests, who would sacrifice their country on the altar of 
 an unholy ambition, and greed for power, a gang of 
 merciless vampires who heed not the tears of widows and 
 orphans, care not for the destruction of the morals of 
 the youth — on whose shoulders must soon rest the respon- 
 sibility for the future weal or woe of the state, when it 
 stands in the way of their unrighteous ambition. 
 
 She must get from under the dominion of this soulless 
 gang of chronic office-seekers, who will promise any- 
 thing during their candidacy, and perform nothing dur- 
 ing their encumbency, except such things as meet the ap- 
 probation of the whisky trust and brewers' association 
 and their corporate allies. 
 
 She must fill her offices with men whose past record 
 is a guarantee for future i>erformance ; men who are 
 unpurchasable ; men who know the right and have the 
 courage to defend it ; men who are not perpetual can- 
 
228 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 didates, and who, when called out by the people, prefer 
 honorable defeat to election obtained by bribery and 
 fraud. 
 
 What kind of a spectacle have we before us now? 
 Certainly the tail wagging the dog. The cities which 
 are supposed to belong to the state, by the aid of vast 
 corporations of which liquor is an important factor, by 
 the use of money holding the balance of power, there- 
 fore dictating the laws and electing the officers whose 
 duty it is to enforce them, but will not, or at least only 
 such as are in line with the will of the corporate liquor 
 bosses to whom they owe their tenure. 
 
 The great evil and chaotic conditions due to the ingress 
 of liquor into the political arena had their birth at the 
 time of, and consequent to, the Civil War. . The necessity 
 for enormous revenue was met by taxing liquor, tobacco 
 and things of corresponding character to a great extent ; 
 and the states, seeing the large revenue derived by the 
 government from liquor, and many of them being on the 
 verge of bankruptcy, conceived the plan of extra license 
 fees for engaging in the business to replenish their 
 treasuries. 
 
 The countries and cities fell into line, and the whole of 
 our governmental structure was, as it is now, resting on 
 foundations of whisky and beer barrels, not thinking or 
 caring that this tax cost the liquor men not one cent, but 
 came out of the pockets of the consumer, many of whom 
 were poorly able to bear it, which caused thousands of 
 women and children to be homeless, unfed and poorly 
 clad, while it gave the excuse and furnished the tempta- 
 tion to the liquor men to advance the price, and adulterate 
 the liquor with all sorts of cheap poisons that would 
 renew the strength taken from it by the copious use of 
 "Adam's Ale.'' 
 
AND Pool of Blood 229 
 
 Previous to that time the price was so low that 
 adulteration was unprofitable, as liquor could be obtained 
 at retail for twenty-five cents per gallon as good as you 
 get now for three and four dollars. 
 
 It soon became apparent that bad consequences result- 
 ant to the traffic were intensified, and that some measures 
 must be taken to protect the schools from the ravages 
 of this fast growing evil, something dangerous to the 
 schools, but must be tolerated because of the revenue 
 it produced. There was but little opposition on the part 
 of the better element to the traffic at that time, all seem- 
 ing to think that the state would be forced into repudia- 
 tion should that revenue be cut off. 
 
 On the part of the liquor bosses there was but a 
 minimum, for far-seeing politicians as they are, they had 
 seen the writing on the wall, showing that the traffic 
 must be modified in a measure to retard the growth of 
 the prohibition party which had been born, but was grow- 
 ing at that time but slowly. 
 
 Further, the larger interests in the cities were willing 
 to foster a monopoly, and the manufacturers knew that 
 their business would not be curtailed in consequence. But 
 it was the part of wisdom and sagacity to form a politi- 
 cal alliance, which, of course, must be formed with the 
 party in power, which was already in the toils of cor- 
 porate domination, and the well filled coffers of the liquor 
 bosses made that easy of accomplishment. They had only 
 to contribute liberally to the campaign funds, and shout 
 democracy in clarion tones and the work was done. 
 
 Now, to avoid giving offense to our friends of the 
 "straight" Democratic persuasion who dislike to hear it 
 said that they belonged to the whisky crowd. We'll say 
 that the whisky crowd belongs to them, and offer as proof 
 the fact that the said whisky crowd uniformly gives them 
 
230 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 their individual support at every election, and that the 
 said "straight" Democrats, neither in the legislative coun- 
 cils of city or state, ever do, or attempt to do anything 
 that evokes even a criticism from the aforesaid whisky 
 crowd. Neither do they fail to enact, or attempt to en- 
 act, all measures that will redound to their interest. 
 
 Well knowing that, having no politics, they will give 
 their support only where their interests demand, being 
 Democrats in some states, Republicans in others. As the 
 Jew is without a country, so is the liquor man without 
 party. 
 
 Little objection was made to the extension of the "four- 
 mile law" until it became apparent that the business was 
 endangered in some of the principal cities. Alarm spread 
 in the camp, and at once all hands became local optionists. 
 It was the last trench in which to make a stand against 
 the now rapidly increasing army of prohibitionists. The 
 laws, made by men elected by themselves, had been so 
 outrageously violated that public sentiment had increased 
 until the majority in the state was clearly for prohibition, 
 but the cities had, and are likely to have, a majority the 
 other way, and in the so-called Democratic party in the 
 state they had unbounded confidence, well knowing there 
 was no danger there. 
 
 The crucial point was then reached, and the slogan of 
 "straight" Democracy must be sounded from the hill 
 tops and echoed in the valleys, lest the honest sentiment 
 of all the people find expression at the polls, and the 
 traffic be utterly destroyed. 
 
 The first prominent fight where the lines were clearly 
 drawn in the party ended in the defeat of Senator Car- 
 mack in the primary of 1906, followed two years later 
 by a second defeat in the primary for governor. 
 
 Not anticipating a loss of the majority in the general 
 
AND Pool of Blood 231 
 
 assembly, they were caught unawares, and the prohibition 
 law was placed on the statute books. We have tried to 
 show that this alliance on the part of the liquor crowd 
 who have no politics was desired for personal gain, while 
 on the part of the so-called "straights" the retention 
 of political prestige and power with the emoluments of 
 office was the end to be attained, they well knowing that 
 were their liquor and corporate allies eliminated they 
 would be wiped off of the map, because of the stigma 
 they have placed on the fair name of the state by filling 
 the positions of responsibility and trust with a troop of 
 political shysters and demagogues, who, purloining the 
 time-honored name and banner of Democracy, have 
 dragged them in the cess pools of slime and corruption 
 until they would not be recognized by the spirits of Jef- 
 ferson and Jackson, were it possible for them to return 
 to earth. 
 
 Let us take a retrospective view — go back but a few 
 years, and see such characters as Bate and Porter in the 
 chief executive's chair, who reflected honor and credit 
 on the then fair name of the state, nor caused a blush of 
 shame to mantle the cheeks of her yeomanry. 
 
 Descending the ladder and advancing a few years for- 
 ward, we find John I. Cox and M. R. Patterson occupy- 
 ing those exalted positions and dragging the fair name 
 of the old Volunteer State in the very slush of political 
 corruption. 
 
 A few years back, we find such men as George B. 
 Guild and James M. Head occupying the mayor's chair 
 of the city of Nashville, men who gave grace and prestige 
 to the position and invited praise and admiration of sis- 
 ter cities. 
 
 Today we are under the domination of Hilary E. 
 Howse, who is possessed of powers of which no mayor 
 
;ji32 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 before could ever boast. Since he can nullify state laws, 
 ignore decisions of the Supreme Court, make, modify, 
 and amend or repeal any laws, not excepting the Ten 
 Commandments, or provisions of the constitution. That 
 he hasn't repealed the fifteenth amendment to the United 
 States Constitution, is probably due to the fact that a 
 splendid type of "straight" Democrats can be produced 
 from a tree of erstwhile contrabands, and are a valuable 
 asset for so-called straight Democracy. In fact, we 
 know of no failures he has made, except to cleanse the 
 dirt from the honor of Nashville's escutcheon, which has 
 accumulated during his encumbency. 
 
 The devil evidently felt himself indebted to Nash- 
 ville, and decided to pay it off in a mayor, criminal judge 
 and attorney-general, giving us an attorney-general who 
 had proved a failure as a kidnapper. 
 
 Being so well represented here, his majesty doesn't 
 deem it necessary to come here in person, and God knows 
 that it would be a waste of time for Him to come, espe- 
 cially on election days. 
 
 Thus the once proud Volunteer State and far famed 
 ''Athens of the South" has been lowered from the high- 
 est pinnacle of fame to a position provoking contempt 
 from those who once delighted to honor them, and this 
 the fruit of the tree falsely called Democracy. 
 
 Now, how has this effected Tennessee? This terrible 
 octopus that has so completely enveloped the one-time 
 honored Democracy in the folds of its slimy tentacles, and 
 awed it into abject submission to its every mandate. 
 
 It is deplorably true that by the power of purchased 
 suffrage and the dissemination of dirty dollars, they have 
 caused every emotion of patriotism to flee the breast of 
 many of her yeomanry, and hide itself 'neath the cloak 
 of commercialism, and have become so strongly intrenched 
 
AND Pool of Blood 233 
 
 behind walls of Democracy that the citadel resists every 
 effort to dislodge them. 
 
 They have flaunted the flag of defiance in the face of 
 decency and morality, until men have actually lost sight 
 of the fundamental principles of justice and right, and 
 come to esteem injustice and wrong as cardinal virtues. 
 
 They have planted the seeds of intimidation in the 
 ranks of the so-called "straights," until they are afraid 
 to entertain an opinion, much less give expression to it, 
 unless in perfect accord with the arbitrary will of those 
 custodians of the ^loaves and fishes" whom they well 
 know, if thwarted in one party, will turn to the other. 
 As a result of this cringing subservience of the so-called 
 "straights" — to their arrogant bosses, we have the crimi- 
 nal executive offices filled with men whose conception 
 of duty and justice are measured by their chance of re- 
 tention in power, posing as "the powers that be." Not 
 ordained by God, but by the liquor octopus and causing 
 no terror to the "evil doers" that infest the high dives 
 found prominently located on the principal thoroughfares. 
 
 And this mighty power not only directs the distribu- 
 tion of justice from the archives of its temple, but 
 stretches its powerful arms around the devotees of the 
 religion of Christ and demands that they, too, "shall bow 
 the knee to Baal." 
 
 They have made it so that in the cities a man of well 
 known high moral character has about the same chance 
 of being elevated to any of the important criminal exec- 
 utive offices as he would have to dam Niagara Falls with 
 a bundle of straw. It is not only wise but necessary for 
 a man who aspires to any of these positions to prove 
 that he has always been a convenient emissary of the 
 devil, at all times ready to respond to his every call. That 
 he does not attempt, and has never attempted, to thwart 
 
234 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 him in any of his designs for the building up of his king- 
 dom, or the establishment of branches in his community, 
 and that he has given all the aid in his power to the con- 
 duct of his business so as to render the personal presence 
 of his majesty unnecessary and that to the best of his 
 knowledge and belief, he hasn't been here in the past 
 ten years. Then the election of that man is a foregone 
 conclusion unless it happens that a worse man should 
 enter the field. 
 
 Oh, shade of the immortal Clay ! Who said, "I would 
 rather be right than be president." Men have so degen- 
 erated that they would rather be dog pelter than to be 
 right, if the dog came with a dollar on his back. Oh, 
 Tennessee, where is thy ancestral pride! Has't forgot- 
 ten that thy state was once the home of a Sevier, a 
 Crocket, a Robertson, a Jackson, a Polk, a Bate, a For- 
 rest, a Sam Davis, a Carmack, with scores of nameless 
 heroes and statesmen who graced your diadem with 
 deeds of patriotic devotion to the immortal principles of 
 justice and right, that you ruthlessly and unblushingly 
 hide the honor of your once proud escutcheon with dust 
 brushed from the silk stockings of purse-proud liquor 
 bosses and diamond-studded gamblers, whom, as vam- 
 pires, fan their victims to sleep while they suck the life 
 blood from their veins? They, with arts known only to 
 them, entice their victim into their dirty dens, there to 
 be robbed of his last farthing. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 235 
 
 LAWBREAKERS ALLOWED UNDER THE EX- 
 ISTING LAW TO CHOOSE LAWMAKERS, 
 AND TO HOLD THE BALANCE OF 
 POWER AND ELECT THE CRIMI- 
 NAL EXECUTIVE OFFICERS. 
 
 In all the annals of criminal jurisprudence, there is no 
 record comparable to that of Nashville. There are places 
 where high-grade murderers can be made to suffer the 
 just penalties of the law. Not so in Nashville; law is 
 only brought into requisition there when the court deems 
 it expedient — or a political necessity — otherwise, laws 
 are forgotten, nullified, or set aside for future use, to be 
 employed against negro chicken thieves and crap- 
 shooters. 
 
 What is spoken of in Nashville as a criminal court, with 
 jail attached, is a sort of safe refuge with council cham- 
 bers, parlors and apartments, with all the modern appur- 
 tenances of a high-grade club-house for the accommoda- 
 tion and comfort of noted and "respectable murderers 
 and assassins" who, from unavoidable causes, happened 
 to be detained there until a late hour, not wishing to be 
 annoyed, as might happen, if they appeared on the streets 
 too early. 
 
 This much by way of introduction. 
 
 By ''lawbreakers" I mean professional lawbreakers ; 
 those who break law for a living instead of breaking 
 iTick for the county, as they should and would do if 
 
236 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Nashville filled her criminal executive offices with men 
 instead of puppets. 
 
 Let us inquire and see if we can find out why this is 
 so. And, in the first place, consider the lawmaking 
 power, the state legislature. In one of his sermons here 
 the late ever to be lamented Sam P. Jones, having de- 
 scribed a hypocritical character as absolutely worthless, 
 in a manner characteristic of this great preacher, paused, 
 and, as though he had forgotten something remarked that 
 such a man would do for the legislature of Tennessee. 
 
 Now, to appropriate a term often applied to the press, 
 we usually have a subsidized legislature in Tennessee, 
 as much under the domination and control of the cor- 
 porations as is the newspaper. The corporations mainly 
 referred to are the railroads, or, perhaps more properly 
 speaking, the ''railroad," which practically controls the 
 whole system, which includes the Cumberland Telephone 
 & Telegraph Company, the whisky trust and breweries, 
 the last named two controlling and directing the suffrage 
 of every professional lawbreaker in the state, more par- 
 ticularly in the cities, and most particularly in Nashville. 
 These corporations, in a great measure, possess interests 
 in common. 
 
 In the first place, it is to the interest of all to see that 
 a majority of these lawmakers are pliable, possessed of 
 an ''adjustable" conscience, or no conscience at all, that 
 they may be used in any manner that these organizations 
 may deem essential to their well-being. It would be 
 superfluous and silly to present arguments to convince an 
 intelligent and disinterested pubHc that these corpora- 
 tions, with their powerful levers, could not tip the scales 
 holding the balance of power whichever way their most 
 vital interests might demand. But the results of pre- 
 vious elections have demonstrated that it would be the 
 
AND Pool of Blood 237 
 
 crowning achievement of their existence to do so with 
 the lawbreakers opposing them, who invariably stand in 
 solid phalanx and vote as one man. Hence, as stated in 
 the caption, they really hold the balance of power, and 
 choose the men to make the laws, their interests being 
 identical with the powerful corporations, who, like an 
 octopus, closes his tentacles around everything desired 
 and in reach. They also embrace in their "loving" arms 
 many erstwhile prominent men and "would-be" good 
 citizens only for the interests engendered by virtue of 
 being stockholders. 
 
 We have said that the law permits this, and no "speck" 
 of hope is yet visible on the horizon of Tennessee that 
 suggests the possibility of relief from these intolerable 
 conditions, except the very faint hope of the country dis- 
 tricts giving us a majority of unsubsidizable legislators — 
 men who possess an enlightened conscience in their 
 anatomy and enough backbone to stand erect in their in- 
 tegrity, despite the bellowing of the golden calf that is 
 stalled before them. That such a legislature is the only 
 hope of conquering the vicious oligarchy that now domi- 
 nates the state's politics is truth that admits of no denial. 
 The felons in the state prison, though convicted but 
 one time, are not allowed a voice in the management of 
 affairs of government, while under our law a man may 
 be convicted of crime seven days in the week and vote at 
 every election to determine who shall make the laws to 
 fix the penalty for his crimes. 
 
 I imagine there would be an awful disturbance if a law 
 was made giving the right to any organization to dictate 
 all the laws in relation to their interest, yet the law vir- 
 tually gives that right to every lawbreaker who is lucky 
 enough to escape the free board and fancy suit furnished 
 by the state. 
 
238 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 And to their shame be it said that men who would be 
 insulted at an insinuation that they were aught but good 
 citizens, walk right up with "American pride" and de- 
 posit their ballot in support of the same men and meas- 
 ures that the lawbreakers do, and then complain about 
 things going wrong. 
 
 Men of Tennessee, arouse to a proper realization of 
 your responsibility to God and your fellowman ; place 
 self-interest behind you; study the intent of your suf- 
 frage, which is a gift in trust, which you have no right 
 to use as a personal asset, but only as you honestly be- 
 lieve will bring the greatest good to the greatest num- 
 ber; walk up to the polls and cast your ballot for men to 
 make laws whose convictions of equity and justice tell 
 them that the law of suffrage is wrong and must be 
 amended ; that no man shall directly or indirectly have a 
 voice in the making of laws who refuses to obey them! 
 
 Were a penalty of two years' disfranchisement added to 
 the existing penalty for every confirmed lawbreaker, for 
 each subsequent conviction, how long would they hold 
 the balance of power, laugh in the face of decency, bid 
 defiance to statute law and clothe the courts with gar- 
 ments of contempt ? 
 
 Don't they elect the officers, whose duty it is to enforce 
 these laws, in the cities, which just now are running the 
 state? If you doubt it, go to the city hall in Nashville 
 and you will find a lav/breaker by his own confession 
 occupying the mayor's chair; go to the criminal court in 
 the same city, and you will find a judge on the bench who 
 says he always picks "good men" for his grand juries, 
 yet in five successive trials has not been able to secure 
 one juror who would indict whisky men on positive evi- 
 dence, though their violations are openly enacted, with- 
 out an attempt at secrecy, and at least one of bis fore- 
 
AND Pool of Blood '4''6\) 
 
 men was a regular daily patron of a lawless saloon. Cast 
 your eye in front of the bench, and see an attorney-gen- 
 eral who could find no evidence and nobody to prosecute 
 for the second time a convicted felon. "He was perfectly 
 helpless;" couldn't even find anything to justify going 
 into a trial at all, notwithstanding that evidence could 
 have been shaken off trees all over town, and prosecutors 
 could have been found by the dozens by a blind man 
 who wanted to find them. As a matter of fact, a lawyer 
 competent to supply everything lacking came all the wa) 
 from Memphis to offer his services and was turned back 
 by false information obtained from the criminal court 
 clerk's office to the effect that the trial had been put off, 
 which was true. It was put off of the docket by being 
 clandestinely nolled at a farce trial, and Robin Cooper 
 was free to murder some one else, if he chose, without 
 fear of punishment as long as the organization of that 
 court was not interfered with. And it is not likely to be 
 unless we can get a legislature that will abolish it, or give 
 us a court of commission with impeachment powers. 
 
 Now, I shall not insult the patriotic voters of Ten- 
 nessee with as much as an insinuation that they elected 
 such a gang of degenerates to these positions of honor 
 and trust. 
 
 As to the sheriff of Davidson County, he has had us 
 guessing for some time, but it is true that within the last 
 year he was charged in the Nashville Banner by a citizen 
 who signed his ovn^u name, vvith ''aiding and abetting" 
 the violation of law right in his presence and failed to 
 interfere, and the sheriff is no coward. 
 
24:0 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 THE LAWYER AS A PROMOTER OF CRIME. 
 
 At the outset, in the discussion of this subject, I grant 
 the honorable exceptions. Be they few or many, it is not 
 my province to say. 
 
 That lawyers are largely responsible for the prevalence 
 of crime — which is on the increase — is not a debatable 
 question. Neither is there a doubt that the very lawyers 
 who are most guilty will be the loudest in their denial of 
 this statement, and all such I gladly compliment by call- 
 ing them knaves instead of fools. 
 
 A lawyer, when called upon to defend a person charged 
 with crime, is supposed to learn the facts in the case 
 from the accused before engaging in his defense, and to 
 have a pretty accurate knowledge of his guilt or 
 innocence. 
 
 Now, as they express it, let us consider a hypothetical 
 case: The lawyer has interviewed the accused and is 
 satisfied that he is guilty, and that justice would demand 
 that he be hung. Yet, for a stipulated price, he agrees 
 to defend him. He does defend him, and, being a very 
 able attorney, he succeeds in obtaining an acquittal, and 
 the man is turned loose to commit other depredations. 
 He has not been convicted in court and not been con- 
 victed in conscience, but has been convinced that it is 
 perfectly safe for him to kill somebody else if so inclined, 
 for he has learned how to avoid the possible consequences 
 which had previously served as a deterrent ; and not only 
 this man, but all others murderouslv inclined, have been 
 
AND Pool of Blood 241 
 
 given the incentive to kill with little fear of punishment, 
 which, so far, had acted as a preventive. 
 
 Now, this lawyer had far better have turned a man- 
 eating tiger loose on the community, for somebody would 
 kill the tiger and obviate the danger. I assert that this 
 lawyer is no better citizen than the man he got acquitted, 
 and, using legal phraseology, he is particeps criminis to 
 every crime that is induced, or grows, out of the influence 
 of that verdict. 
 
 How did he do it? I don't know. There are many 
 ways in which he may have done it. There is no language 
 either oral or written but that admits of more than one 
 construction, and it may be that by superior ability and 
 tact, he construed the law and evidence in the interest of 
 his client to the extent that an honest jury believed that 
 an acquittal was right. But then I hear it said that a 
 lawyer is sworn to do the best he can for his client. 
 True, but he is not sworn to take a case when he be- 
 lieves the accused to be guilty, or to continue in the case 
 when ;the evidence has shown that he is guilty. 
 
 Again, he may have done it by bribing a corrupt judge 
 and attorney-general, thus weakening the prosecution; 
 he may have done it by introducing false testimony, or 
 bribing juries. It is immaterial how he did it, but the 
 fact remains that he turned loose on the community a 
 man that was dangerous to the people if at large, and I 
 repeat that the lawyers who did it made themselves 
 parties to the crime, including all subsequent crimes 
 traceable to that act. 
 
 If one case of that kind was all it would be compara- 
 tively a small matter, but it has come to be common that 
 men who have money, or means of getting it, have no 
 fear to hinder them from committing crime. They have 
 nothing but contempt for the courts, for they know that 
 
 16 
 
M2 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 with money they can procure the best legal talent, who, 
 by the many ways known to them, can get them out of 
 the trouble unscathed. One of the smartest plans is to 
 delay and postpone trials, using the interval to corrupt 
 the court or witnesses, or to get witnesses out of the way, 
 and sometimes to circulate false statements as to the 
 date of the trial, that they may be able to secretly dis- 
 pose of the case before an honest prosecutor can find out 
 anything about it. 
 
 These things have become so common that the best 
 citizens often feel impelled, or compelled, to take the 
 law in their own hands and inflict summary punishment 
 for outrageous crimes as a matter of self-defense, justly 
 feeling that they cannot rely on the courts to mete out 
 justice to the guilty. This is lynch law, and is directly 
 and justly chargeable to lawyers who lend their talents 
 to obstruct the course of justice. 
 
 On one occasion, in conversation with a friend who 
 was a lawyer, and claimed consistency in his profession 
 of religion, I asked him how he reconciled his religious 
 profession with the defense of a criminal, believing him 
 to be guilty? He answered me in this way: "When he 
 applies to, me to defend him, I tell him that I must know 
 the whole truth about the case. When I get it and it 
 shows him to be guilty, I say to him, 'Well, I expect that 
 they will send you up, but I'll see that it is done accord- 
 ing to law.' " Now, that was a man whom I honestly 
 believe was pained to do wrong, but he had allowed his 
 mind to run in the devil's channel until he had actually 
 come to believe that he was justified in that course of 
 procedure, which was obviously a very lame defense. 
 
 Ambiguous phraseology in the wording of the law is 
 always taken advantage of by the shrewd lawyer, espe- 
 cially in such cases as those referred to. The law gives 
 
AND Pool of Blood M3 
 
 the defendant the benefit of the doubt in the letter, but 
 is not expHcit in the spirit, and it does not require a very 
 sharp lawyer to confuse a witness or place a construction 
 on some phase of the evidence that will create a doubt 
 in the minds of some of the jury. He is, therefore, 
 enabled to acquit his man with very little trouble. It is 
 always easier to defend than to prosecute, for the bur- 
 den of proof is on the prosecution and does not shift. 
 Also, the best remuneration is from the defense, for a 
 man will give more lo save his own neck than he will 
 to break somebody else's. 
 
 Shrewd lawyers know these things, and, in conse- 
 quence, the shrewdest of them are always invariably found 
 on that side, engaged in the business of promoting crime, 
 together with contempt for law, which is powerless to 
 prevent crime when not executed. 
 
 The following incident was told me by a friend. I 
 give it in his words: 
 
 "I knew a lawyer who was induced by his father, who 
 was on his death bed, to take an oath that he would 
 never prosecute a criminal. He was one of the brightest, 
 if not the brightest, intellects of which his state could 
 boast, standing on the top rung of the ladder of his 
 profession, and in perpetual retainer for the defense of 
 any criminal who could raise the price. 
 
 "On one occasion a man walked up behind another in 
 a dense crov/d, placed a pistol to the back of his head 
 and fired. The victim fell dead, not knowing who killed 
 him. The evidence bore out these facts, and I knew they 
 were true, because I saw the smoke from the pistol. This 
 man never suffered any penalty, only to remain in jail 
 until bond was made. 
 
 "Every o'^her murder case which this lawyer defended 
 — and he defended all that could pay for his services — 
 
244 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 resulted in the same way. Now, has anyone the temerity 
 to say that lawyer was not promoting crime, and even a 
 party to it, for criminals knew that he could clear them 
 and would do it if they paid the price?" 
 
 Fear of punishment, where it exists, is the most potent 
 preventer of crime, but the law is no longer a terror to 
 evil-doers, because the lawyers have defeated the ends 
 of justice so often that the best people have lost respect 
 for it, knowing that the man who depends on it for pro- 
 tection will get very little, hence they take the law in their 
 own hands and thus become lawbreakers themselves, 
 which is justly chargeable to all lawyers who use their 
 talents in defense of criminals whom they know deserve 
 to be punished, and thus jeopardize the lives of good peo- 
 ple to obtain filthy lucre or political preferment. 
 
 Again, we find lawyers representing collection agencies, 
 which are well known as emissaries of the devil, resort- 
 ing to all sorts of unlawful methods to rob their unfor- 
 tunate victims, largely by collecting usurious interest, 
 falsely called fees. There the lawyer's duty is to advise 
 them how to concoct systems that will evade the law 
 while robbing the unfortunate. In these cases they both 
 aid, abet and encourage the violation of law and promul- 
 gation of robbery. 
 
 Next we find the lawyer behind closed doors in con- 
 sultation with political demagogues, concocting schemes 
 to fill public positions with perjurers, embezzlers, graft- 
 ers and murderers, if need be, just so they agree to stand 
 with the gang and use their official influence and prestige 
 in obedience to their orders. 
 
 I can perhaps more forcibly illustrate this by an inci- 
 dent occurring in my own experience while sheriflF of 
 Davidson County. I had declared on the stump, as the 
 public is aware, that if elected I would put the notorious 
 
AND Pool of Blood 
 
 245 
 
 Jim Williams out of business, or put him on the rock 
 pile I had arrested him repeatedly and produced abun- 
 dance of evidence of his guilt, but had failed to get a 
 conviction, and had finally notified the judge that if he 
 was not convicted on such indisputable evidence I would 
 resign my office and tell the people why. 
 
 Williams had defending him the Hon. J. H. Zarecor— 
 who, by the way, is a prominent church member and 
 president of the board directing the business of the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Publishing House— who kept him 
 advised at all times what course to pursue to avoid the 
 just penalty of the law. Just how it was done, I can 
 only surmise, but that it was corruptly done there is not 
 a shadow of doubt. How the court was mampulated in 
 their interest is also among the secrets, only to be re- 
 vealed in the last days. 
 
 There is one circumstance, however, that will throw 
 some light on the matter. At one of the trials I had as 
 a witness a man with a peg leg, whose affidavit I had 
 obtained because his presence could not be procured at 
 the trial. By some means they had found that out, and 
 hunted up a peg leg man and put him on the stand, who 
 swore that he was the man, giving the same name, and 
 denying having given the affidavit, which, on investiga- 
 tion proved to be true-he didn't make the affidavit. 
 The peg was on the wrong leg. Zarecor was mistaken 
 
 (?) in. the man. . • ^ Axr 
 
 Now, was Mr. Zarecor a promoter of crime? Was 
 he ignorant of what the whole community knew, that 
 Jim Williams was the most notorious violator of law in 
 the city, grown rich by robbing husbands of women and 
 fathers of children, many of whom were forced to go 
 hungry and half-clad in consequence? Did he not know 
 that he was aiding and abetting a flagrant outlaw in de- 
 
246 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 f eating the ends of justice? I am willing to extend him 
 the courtesy of believing him a knave rather than a fool, 
 and, as the old saying is, "birds of a feather will flock 
 together," I'll leave him in the boat with Jim Williams. 
 But it is a pity that the church must carry such a bur- 
 den, but not a wonder that it has lost its power. 
 
 In discussing this question we must necessarily consider 
 occurrences in Nashville largely. Many scores of out- 
 rageous murders have in the past fifty years been re- 
 ported in the papers as having occurred in Davidson 
 County. Most of them have been brought to trial, many 
 with positive evidence of guilt. But how many have been 
 convicted and sentenced to punishment commensurate 
 with the crime? And how many have been sentenced to 
 hang by the verdict of a jury? 
 
 Reader, if you can name one white man who has 
 received that sentence in the Davidson County criminal 
 Court in that time, it will be news to me. Many lawyers 
 are responsible for this, and it would be silly to say that 
 they did not believe a large number of them guilty. It 
 would also be charging them with being a pack of fools 
 to say they did not know that this was giving license and 
 encouragement to the commission of other crimes for 
 which they should and would be held responsible by the 
 verdict of an outraged public. 
 
 I read a story in which a man, approaching another, 
 was asked the character of his business. His answ*er was 
 that he was a crook, explaining further that he was a 
 lawyer engaged for fat fees to aid criminals to escape 
 the penalty of the law. 
 
 We have here in Tennessee a "distinguished" ex-gov- 
 ernor, who is also a distinguished lawyer, Malcolm R. 
 Patterson, who is most distinguished as a promoter of 
 crime. Many are of the opinion that he promoted the 
 
AND Pool of Blood ^47 
 
 murder of his political rival. Be that as it may, he cer- 
 tainly promoted one of his murderer-friends from a con- 
 victed felon to a free citizen and prominent counsellor 
 in the "grand old Democratic party/' where he stands 
 erect, privileged to murder another man, or as many as 
 he might think a political necessity demanded. Also this 
 degenerate son of a worthy sire used the pardoning 
 power as a political asset, to the extent of flooding the 
 country with pardoned criminals of all classes, many of 
 whom renewed their former occupations as murderers, 
 and human life is paying the forfeit. 
 
 That Patterson is responsible for a large per cent, of 
 the crimes being committed over the state, as well as his 
 own, cannot be successfully denied. 
 
 We have also the Hon. A. B, Neil, another lawyer, 
 and the appointee of the distinguished ex-governor, who, 
 although appointing the "best men" on his grand juries, 
 has not been able in five attempts to secure one who, in 
 the face of indisputable evidence, could find indictments 
 against men who daily and openly violate law, without 
 even a thought of secrecy. Nor could he and his re- 
 doubtable attorney-general, A. B. Anderson — another 
 lawyer — find any evidence to necessitate a second trial of 
 a convicted murderer, found guilty by the verdict of 
 twelve carefully selected jurors. (Neil says jurors who 
 hear the evidence are as competent, or more so, than a 
 supreme court that only reads it, to render a just 
 decision.) 
 
 No, they were perfectly "helpless," according to the 
 attorney-general, though you could not walk six blocks 
 in Nashville without running into evidence of the Car- 
 mack murder. These two, in co-operation with the other 
 nefarious lawyers connected with the defense, aided by 
 false information circulated from the criminal court 
 
248 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 clerk's office, succeeded in secretly and quickly wiping 
 the case from the docket — Robin Cooper was free. And 
 an unprejudiced public was of the opinion that were 
 exact justice meted out, that judge, attorney-general and 
 their colleagues in crime would get the twenty years of 
 which they relieved Robin Cooper, instead of occupying 
 high positions of public trust, as some of them do. 
 
 Then we find another "distinguished" ex-governor, so 
 denominated by his opponent, who, in his first race for 
 governor had produced evidence proving him an embez- 
 zler, which has never been retracted or disproven. This 
 is John I. Cox, who wears the blue ribbon as a political 
 schemer and trickster — more of the latter than of the 
 former — seated in the state senate, using every eflfort 
 known to the would-be political demagogue to secure the 
 repeal of the only fair election law the state ever had, by 
 the substitution of another that would enable him and his 
 beloved predecessor to fraudulently obtain any place they 
 might covet. 
 
 Certainly the blush of shame should mantle the brow 
 of every patriotic Tennessean to see such men occupy- 
 ing her governor's chair, her senate chamber, her judges' 
 seats. Men of Tennessee, arouse from your slumbers, 
 awake from your lethargy and by the power of your bal- 
 lot, and in the language of your illustrious prototype, 
 swear by the "eternal" your country shall be free. 
 
 Again, the lawyer, like other citizens, when he casts 
 his vote for a man whom he knows will not enforce the 
 law, when it is his duty to do so, also promotes crime. 
 It would be interesting to know how many and what 
 lawyers voted for the present mayor of Nashville, not- 
 withstanding his public declaration that he would not 
 enforce a law which he had in his first campaign ad- 
 mitted it was his duty to do. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 349 
 
 The judge, who in five attempts could not pick a grand 
 jury from the ''best citizens" who would indict whisky 
 men, said that ninety per cent, of the lawyers who prac- 
 tice in his court were for him. It would be interesting 
 to know also how many and who they are, for they are 
 in the same boat, and, not being fools, they know that 
 he only enforces law against such as are without money 
 or political influence. 
 
 And now, reader, with your permission, I'll tell you 
 some dreams and ask you if they are not correct. I 
 dreamed that, some years ago, several lawyers were de- 
 fending a noted criminal charged with murder. After 
 hearing the evidence produced by the prosecution, they 
 were convinced that Ben Dowell was murdered, and that 
 they had no evidence that would acquit his slayer. They 
 saw that something must be done which wouldn't do for 
 them to do. It wouldn't do to ''show their hand" in a 
 "bluff game," so they must use a "cold deck;" accord- 
 ingly procuring another lawyer who was not to appear 
 in the case, had him to summon a witness, drill him, 
 "coach" him and present him to the illustrious attorneys, 
 he swearing to order and automatically, but the cat 
 jumped out of the bag and Tom Cox was convicted. 
 
 I had another dream. I seemed to see an eminent law- 
 yer who was very anxious to get a bill through the legis- 
 lature, but there was a sturdy representative who saw 
 "a 'nigger' in the woodpile" and was an effectual hin- 
 drance to its passage. This man must be handled some 
 way or the bill would fail to pass. This crafty lawyer 
 knew that he dared not offer him a bribe, therefore, re- 
 sorted to the hidden hand process, knowing that every 
 man has a hobby of some sort. He went to work to 
 find out what this man's hobby was, and found that he 
 had invented a churn, but had no funds to put it on the 
 
250 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 market. There was his chance. He ingratiated himself 
 into favor with the man, and proposed to take half inter- 
 est and furnish the necessary funds. He put up a for- 
 feit of $500.00 until such time as he could give it his 
 attention. In the meantime the bill came up and was 
 passed, the man offering no opposition. He did not like 
 to oppose his partner, but he got the forfeit money, find- 
 ing that he was *'sold" when it was too late. Of course, 
 the lawyer lost his money. Then I saw in a vision the 
 name of Thomas O'Connor. 
 
 I had another dream in which I seemed to s^e the hand 
 of a great lawyer who lived in a marble palace. 
 "Where the chandelier's light 
 Drove off with its splendor, the darkness of night, 
 And the soft hanging velvet in shadowy fold, 
 Swept gracefully down with trimmings of gold 
 And mirrors of silver took up to renew 
 In long lighted vistas the 'wildering view." 
 I seemed to see a banquet where the judges of the 
 Supreme Court were the guests of honor; where they 
 were wined and dined on one occasion, and dined and 
 wined on another; where "all went merry as a marriage 
 bell," only much oftener. I looked again and saw a case 
 sent up to the Supreme Court in which one of our great 
 corporations was vitally interested on one side and the 
 people on the other. I seemed to see these judges halt 
 and consider, and thought I heard them say : "Why, our 
 friend of the marble palace represents this case. We 
 can't decide against him! Selah!" and in my vision I 
 could see W. L. Cranberry. 
 
 "Now, look at the judge, with his dark flowing gown. 
 With the scales wherein law weigheth equity down. 
 Where he frowns on the weak and smiles on the strong. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 251 
 
 And punishes right while he justifies wrong, 
 Where jurors their lips to the Bible have laid, 
 To hand in a verdict the judge has just made; 
 Ah ! go to the courtroom and find, if you can, 
 Any law that will baffle a corporate clan/' 
 
252 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 SOME PREACHERS A DETRIMENT TO GOOD 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 I wish to be understood that in the discussion of this 
 subject it is foreign to my purpose to cast any reflection 
 on that noble band of God-fearing men who are His 
 true and loyal servants, fearlessly treading each path 
 where duty points To all such I gladly raise my hat 
 and accord the meed of praise justly due those who are 
 the "salt of the earth/' 
 
 It is with those who seem possessed with an erroneous 
 idea of their calling that I wish to deal ; those who, may- 
 hap, were never called at all, but answered when another 
 was called. 
 
 I once heard a story that clearly illustrates my position. 
 A preacher had gone to a new charge. One of the older 
 members took him aside, telling him that, being a stran- 
 ger he thought he might appreciate a few pointers, and 
 began telling him that he had better not say anything 
 about liquor, that a large number of the members were 
 engaged in the business who paid liberally toward the 
 support of the church; and not to say anything about 
 gambling, as numbers of the members engaged in that 
 pursuit, and they also paid liberally ; and not to speak of 
 dancing, as all of the young members indulged in that 
 amusement, and if they were ofifended their parents 
 would be, and the church would be broke up. 
 
 Well, he continued along that line until he had enum- 
 erated about all the sins in the calendar, and warned the 
 
AND Pool of Blood ^53 
 
 preacher against speaking of them, when the minister 
 said to him : 
 
 "Well, my brother, what is a man to preach about m 
 your town?" And he was told that he could just give the 
 Mormons fits, as they didn't have a friend in that place. 
 
 Now, my complaint is with the preacher who spends 
 his time hammering the Mormons, but fears to raise 
 his voice in condemnation of the most glaring sins, be- 
 cause, forsooth, the rich and influential elements in his 
 church is guilty of participation in divers forms of law- 
 lessness and crime through the week, but occupy the 
 uppermost seats in the synagogues on Sunday. But they 
 pay, and, therefore, must be toadied to. Having eyes, 
 he cannot see; and, having ears, he cannot hear of the 
 crimes of which they are guilty, and which it is his duty 
 to denounce in unmistakable terms. 
 
 Living in a very quiet section of the city and usually 
 remaining there of a Sunday, I know very little, per- 
 sonally, of what is going on in town, but I have mtel- 
 ligent and reliable sources of information on which to 
 
 rely. 
 
 It requires no argument to convince the ordmary mmd 
 that all forms of lawlessness should be suppressed where- 
 ever they exist, and to the extent that circumstances will 
 allow. It would, therefore, be pertinent to ask whose 
 business it is to suppress them. If the government is of, 
 for and by the people, it would seem to be the duty of all 
 good citizens. Surely ministers are not exempt, since 
 Christ drove the money changers from the temple. 
 
 It is an open secret that many prominent church mem- 
 bers derive large incomes from renting property for the 
 use of saloons, gambling houses and other immoral pur- 
 poses. They know that their property is but a den of 
 iniquity and that God's law stands opposed to all that is 
 
254 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 evil, and the minister that fails to use his influence and 
 prestige against such things is not only recreant to his 
 trust, but is, by his example, a stumbling-block to the 
 maintenance of good government, as well as jeopardizing 
 his own soul by failing to sound the warning. 
 
 Do these ministers condemn parlor gambling for sil- 
 verware and loving cups, the influence of which is more 
 corrupting than crap-shooting in back alleys, because the 
 thing corrupted is of more value ? Have they raised their 
 voices against clubhouse tippling, which is but the step- 
 ping-stone to the low dives? Have they suppressed any 
 of these evils among their members which everybody 
 knows exists there? Have they put forth a persistent 
 effort to do so? Failing, have they used the lash of small 
 cords to drive them from the temple? Can they plead 
 ignorance of that which is the talk of the town ? 
 
 Why, a well informed gentleman said to me : 
 
 "If you take from the church the support derived from 
 the immoral and gambling element, it would be scarcely 
 able to stand." Honestly, who can gainsay it? Would 
 it not be laying the ax at the root of the tree to begin 
 there? It would doubtless cripple the church financially 
 to enforce this rule, but would it not be better to destroy 
 it than have it stand on a foundation of gambling hells 
 and whisky tubs, shorn of its power for good? But the 
 preachers' salary would have to be decreased and there 
 comes the trouble. 
 
 Some preachers are often seen at banquets and other 
 entertainments in high life, where intoxicants are dis- 
 pensed in frequent courses, v/ithout offering a single 
 rebuke or even admonition in the face of the injunction to 
 "abstain from every appearance of evil and associate 
 with the votaries of folly onlv to reform them." 
 
 These preachers are supposed to give moral tone to 
 
AND Pool of Blood ^55 
 
 society and bring the world to Christ. Can this course 
 of conduct accomplish that end? Nay, verily it can only 
 be a stumbling-block in the way of those who would 
 promote good government, law, order and morality. 
 
 After all, it is only history repeating itself, for instances 
 are rare, though some exist, where ministers have been 
 possessed of the moral courage and backbone required to 
 antagonize the rich and influential element in their 
 churches, hence wickedness in high places must increase 
 and go unrebuked, while the weaker, more insignificant 
 and less dangerous element must be the scapegoat to carry 
 the sins of the world until that day when the Lord shall 
 separate the wheat and burn up the chaff with unquench- 
 able fire. Verily, "the love of money is the root of ^11 
 
 evil." 
 
 Just imagine the lamented Sam Jones or Dwight L. 
 Moody in such places without uttering a protest, or cring- 
 ing and toadying to a wealthy congregation for filthy 
 lucre. Why, Mr. Moody refused a one thousand dollar 
 offer to sit for a picture under conditions that failed to 
 meet the approval of his conscience. 
 
 Now, a time-serving preacher may have charge of a 
 big church and be possessed of the highest order of intel- 
 lect, receive a princely salary and perquisites of cor- 
 responding value, but as long as he is a mere toady to 
 wealth and position, the power of his influence to pilot 
 men to heaven, or elevate their character as citizens, is 
 paralyzed, and he is but a detriment to the uplifting of 
 society to a higher plane, or perpetuating the principles 
 of good moral government. 
 
 How many preachers are there who can boast of a con- 
 o-regation free from lawbreakers, especially in the big 
 churches? How many bankers or others are there in 
 their flocks who are earning money by usurious interest 
 
256 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 in direct and uninterrupted violation of law ? How many 
 who are directly or indirectly getting revenue from the 
 liquor traffic, which is openly conducted in violation of 
 law? How many have you who cast their ballots on the 
 immoral side of every question exactly the same as every 
 lawbreaker and thug in the city? If you have such and 
 have not sounded the warning, God says their blood shall 
 be required of you. 
 
 But it is said preachers should preach the gospel and 
 keep out of politics. But God says preach the truth ; be 
 instant in season and out of season ; denounce sin where- 
 ever it is found. And if there's a spot on God's earth 
 where it grows more luxuriantly or yields a bigger crop 
 of crime than in Nashville and Tennessee politics history 
 fails to record it. 
 
 The whisky men and gamblers are especially worried 
 lest the preachers go wrong, and, in fact, all others who 
 oppose them. They would doubtless be glad if they were 
 allowed to make all the laws touching the whisky busi- 
 ness and the gamblers would be equally as glad of the 
 same privilege concerning themselves. Thieves would 
 be glad to make all laws pertaining to larceny and mur- 
 derers to make all laws concerning felony. But what do 
 they know about the gospel? Let us illustrate: 
 
 During the Civil War Elder Wilkes, of the Christian 
 Church, was preaching in Missouri. It seems there was a 
 military law requiring a man to have a license to preach 
 the gospel. Elder Wilkes was not aware of the existence 
 of such a law, perhaps. Anyway, he was preaching with- 
 out license. When it became known he was cited to ap- 
 pear before a military court for trial, which he did with- 
 out witnesses or counsel, the court having a numerous 
 train of witnesses. The first being called testified that 
 he had heard Elder Wilkes preach the gospel, and was 
 
AND Pool of Blood 267 
 
 turned over for cross-examination, when he was asked: 
 "What is the gospel?" Not being able to tell, he was 
 told to stand aside, and thus proceeded the trial until all 
 were examined. None was found who knew what the 
 gospel was, and Elder Wilkes demanded and obtained 
 acquittal on the grounds that witnesses who did not know 
 what the gospel was didn't know whether he preached it 
 or not. 
 
 If these people knew what the gospel is they would 
 know that it is the duty of a true minister to go into 
 politics and preach politics as long as it was the chief 
 nesting place for sin and crime. 
 
 Certainly God is on the right side and He says that 
 he that is not with Him is against Him, and he that 
 gathereth not with Him scattereth abroad. So it is 
 not sufficient to stand idly by, while the cohorts of crime 
 stalk through the land, increasing in power, but it is 
 the duty of every good citizen to use all of his ransomed 
 powers to destroy it before it destroys the country, and 
 the preachers who are the head of the church should 
 be in the front ranks in every battle. The church seems 
 to be capitalized, so to speak, to the degree that the 
 love of money has taken the place of the love of God, 
 and the path of duty hid by the love of the criminal 
 pleasures of the world. 
 
 There are preachers, honest of purpose, but faint of 
 heart. They think their whole duty is to preach a gospel 
 of peace, where their Master says He came not to bring 
 peace into the world, but a sword. And why cry, "Peace, 
 peace," when the chains are being forged to bind the 
 church and the world in abject slavery to corporate greed 
 and the whisky trust, as the vampire who fans his vic- 
 tims to sleep and sucks the life blood from his veins. 
 Only those are free whom Christ makes free. 
 
 17 
 
258 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Some years ago I heard a preacher tell an incident 
 which is illustrative. He said some of his young 
 lady members were discussing a dance to which they 
 intended to go. He remarked that he believed he would 
 go, too. They were of course, astounded, and said, 
 **Why, Bro. Heron, you go to a dance." 
 
 "Why not," said he, "am I any better than you? You 
 say you're going." 
 
 Of course, that put them in high dudgeon, and brought 
 the response, "We're just as good as anybody." The 
 preacher explained that every obligation was on them 
 that he had taken, except that he had agreed to preach, 
 and that anything that was right for them was right 
 for him, and vice versa. 
 
 Now let us reverse the proposition. If it is right and 
 the duty of a layman who is a citizen to do a certain 
 thing, it follows that it is right and the duty of a preacher 
 who is also a citizen, to do that also, according to our 
 governmental system. 
 
 With the corruption existing in the political fields, 
 flaunting defiance in the face of all that is good, pure 
 and holy, whoever fights it, must fight it where it is 
 entrenched. 
 
 These timid preachers ofttimes lose the fight because 
 of their timidity, and also lose their prestige and up- 
 lifting power and become but an aid and comfort to the 
 enemy, for wrong can not stand long in the path of 
 right showing a soHd front. 
 
 At one time a preacher in a neighboring state took 
 charge of a congregation where almost the entire mem- 
 bership was engaged in the liquor traffic. He was 
 warned by a leading member that if he interfered with 
 them he would ruin the church. Did he heed the warn- 
 ing? Not much, but told them that they must quit the 
 
AND Pool of Blood ^59 
 
 business or quit the church ; that it had better be destroyed 
 than to stand on such a foundation. They quit the busi- 
 ness and that church became a moral upHfter, instead 
 of a detriment to good government. 
 
 THE MODEL PREACHER 
 
 '•AH honor to the godly man whose instincts, true and 
 
 bold, 
 Tell him, when he speaks at all the whole truth must 
 
 be told; 
 He fears not man or devil and is not prone to shirk 
 The duties that are his to do — his grand and noble work ! 
 He does not tire his hearers with dissertations long 
 On the origin of man, or theology that's wrong. 
 But leaving all the old things, he battles with the new, 
 The evils that confront him with a gospel straight and 
 
 true. 
 
 "He doesn't temporize with crime in apologetic way, 
 But tells the people plainly they must act the way they 
 
 pray. 
 He goes where duty prompts him without a word to say, 
 Nor tries to clear his conscience and go some other way. 
 Doesn't cater to society or fashion's stern decree, 
 Points out their sins and follies so plain that all may see ; 
 Be the evil in the church, in man, or in the world, 
 The pure and simple truth, right straight at it is hurled. 
 
 **He pours heaven's condemnation on Satan's wily plots ; 
 Tells his liquor-voting deacon he's responsible for sots; 
 To goody-goody sermons he is not at all inclined, 
 While sinners in the church bv the dozen he can find; 
 
260 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 He says he works for God and is certain of his pay, 
 E'en though his honest preaching drives half his flock 
 
 away. 
 His words, though plainly spoken, are tempered with the 
 
 love 
 That dwells in each disciple of the Master that's above." 
 
 — Selected. 
 
 HYPOCRISY, SECRECY, AND PERSONAL 
 FRIENDSHIP DETRIMENTAL TO THE 
 MAINTENANCE OF GOOD GOV- 
 ERNMENT, AS ALSO THE 
 PRIMARY. 
 
 In the discussion of this subject I am well aware that 
 I shall antagonize the general opinion in a large measure, 
 but as I don't happen to be seeking or expecting public 
 approval, I can only present the truth as I see it, accord- 
 ing the right to others to differ with me if they must. 
 
 None will scarcely dare champion the cause of hypoc- 
 risy, since it merits and generally suffers condemnation 
 at the hands of all men, even the hypocrites themselves, 
 being, 'as it is, a powerful obstruction in the pathway 
 of all truth, the mortal foe of sincerity and the twin 
 brother of secrecy. 
 
 But how does hypocrisy affect the realms of govern- 
 ment? We answer, in ^very way. The hypocrite is a 
 veritable wolf in sheep's clothing; the one who without 
 is beautiful to behold, but within is full of "dead men's 
 bones"; the man who makes use of the secret ballot to 
 cover a multitude of falsehoods; the man who loudly 
 professes to be what he is not; the man who pretends 
 
AND Pool of Blood 261 
 
 to believe what he does not; the man wlio in public 
 pledges his suffrage and influence to the cause of good 
 civil government and in secret gives it in the way to 
 promote all manner of crime and immorality. 
 
 This man is a traitor to his country and his God, and 
 unworthy of every trust; willing to sell his birthright 
 for a mess of pottage, and to be a traveler on any road 
 that ends at the fleshpots of Egypt; and, by the con- 
 venient aid of the secret ballot, to betray his country 
 into the hands of the Philistines. Such a man cannot 
 be other than a detriment to every good thing with which 
 he is brought in contact. There was no w^orse char- 
 acter depicted by the Saviour of the World than that 
 of the hypocrite. 
 
 He also said that ''in secret have I said nothing." It 
 is becoming a commonly accepted theory that publicity 
 is the best antidote for crime, and we know that all 
 treasonable plots are hatched behind closed doors. We 
 know that the most corrupt political schemes are con- 
 cocted behind closed doors. We know that the corrup- 
 tion funds of political parties are contributed in secret. 
 The man who sells his suffrage does it in secret. The 
 assassin stabs his victim in the back, having secretly 
 approached him. The man who poses as a saint and 
 votes as a devil does it with a secret ballot. 
 
 This phase of the subject necessarily embodies secret 
 societies, some of which bind their members with an 
 ironclad oath to stand by a brother in every case, mur- 
 der and treason not excepted. As a matter of fact, the 
 members of those societies are just ordinary individuals 
 and gifted with like passion as other people, and only 
 become members in the hope of obtaining personal bene- 
 fits, while claiming to be votaries of charity, and, as the 
 church is full of bad material, so are the secret societies. 
 
262 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 As hypocrites fill the pews of churches, so* do they the 
 chairs of the secret societies. 
 
 Now, one of these members conceives the idea that 
 the salvation of the country depends on his election to 
 the office of constable or some other important position 
 of trust. He announces that fact at the first meeting 
 of his lodge and claims the support of its membership 
 on fraternal grounds, and the chances are that it is ac- 
 corded him unanimously, without a single glance at his 
 qualifications. They neither know nor care if he be pos- 
 sessed of capability or integrity, which should be the sole 
 and only requisites for the consideration of the voter 
 who desires to promote with his ballot the principles of 
 good government, but "he belongs to my lodge and I 
 must vote for him anyway." 
 
 This manner of voting is more noticeable in the Cath- 
 olic societies th^n any other denomination. Take the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Knights of Columbus, 
 who have only to know that the candidate is a Catholic 
 and they vote for him to a man, and it would be per- 
 fectly safe to say that those are always on the immoral 
 side of an issue. 
 
 The right of suffrage is given to men to promote the 
 principles of free government of the people, for the peo- 
 ple and by the people, and a free government is neces- 
 sarily good government based on an intelligent and con- 
 scientious suffrage of the people, and cannot exist as 
 long as men consider in its exercise aught save honor 
 and capability in the man on whom they bestow it. 
 
 The latter-day candidate is probably the most pro- 
 nounced hypocrite of all when from the rostrum he an- 
 nounces eternal fidelity to the principles of right and 
 justice, while in secret he has given his pledge to be 
 the champion and best friend of outlaws and criminals, 
 
AND Pool of Blood 263 
 
 as in the case of the election of the present mayor of 
 Nashville, when in 1909 he was elected to his first term. 
 If the papers quoted him correctly, he promised faith- 
 fully to enforce the prohibition law. Although opposed 
 to the law in principle, he said he recognized it as his 
 duty to enforce it. Now, it would require a very unso- 
 phisticated and credulous mind to believe that he could 
 have received the undivided vote of the lawless element 
 had they not been in possession of secret assurances that 
 these promises would not be fulfilled. 
 
 As a further illustration of the menace of hypocritical 
 secrecy to the maintenance of good civil government, let 
 us for a moment glance at the attempt to fasten on the 
 city what is known as the Howse Charter Bill, which 
 was framed in secret council, endorsed by the city council 
 with as little publicity as was possible, who failed to 
 submit it to the people. While absolute secrecy was im- 
 possible in this case, it was aimed at and so conducted 
 as far as possible. All readers of the papers are familiar 
 with the facts in this case and how the bill was rushed 
 at every stage to prevent the people from having a chance 
 to defeat it. How it was unanimously approved by the 
 Davidson county delegation, who stood ready to do the 
 bidding of Howse, no matter what he asked or how it 
 might affect the public weal. They also refused to allow 
 the people to vote on it, and got it through by pleading 
 the old worn-out song — legislative courtesy — by votes of 
 men who neither knew nor cared anything about it. 
 
 Another serious menace to the perpetuity of good civil 
 government is personal friendship. Since good govern- 
 ment can only be promoted by good men, and most voters 
 have both good and bad men on their list of friends, and 
 since more bad men are chosen in Nashville for office 
 than good ones, it follows that voters must have consid- 
 
264 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 ered friendship in lieu of qualification. Suffrage is given 
 to men to exercise for the general good and not discharge 
 obligations to personal friends. It should not be held as 
 an objection to a man that he is the personal friend of 
 the voter, and the voter has the right to rejoice when he 
 can conscientiously give his suffrage to a friend, but he 
 has no right to take it into consideration in determining 
 his vote, for it is rightfully public property which no man 
 has the right to use for private purposes. There isn't a 
 reasonable doubt but that numbers of unworthy incum- 
 bents of offices today owe their tenure to the suffrage of 
 friends who knew they were unfit for the position. 
 Neither do ties of consanguinity justify such use of the 
 franchise, for the majority of bad men doubtless have 
 some relatives. It is the province of the majority vote to 
 determine the character of the government they will have, 
 and if they want good government they must elect con- 
 scientious and capable men to positions of public trust, 
 be they friends or foes, and regardless of any other 
 considerations. 
 
 The next thing now is the primary — a most fitting cap 
 for the stack ; in fact, the only thing with which we are 
 acquainted broad enough in its scope to cover the ground, 
 since hypocrisy, secrecy, villainy, bribery, thefts, with all 
 the cardinal vices, enter into its makeup. Instituted to 
 eliminate fraud and corruption, it has proven the mother 
 of fraud, corruption and hypocrisy, the motive power of 
 machine politics, the lever by which political demagogues 
 are hoisted into power, the nesting place of chicanery 
 and treachery, a temptation for men to forswear prin- 
 ciple for the sake of political preferment, an automatic 
 concern fully equipped with a patent appliance so ad- 
 justed as to work both forward and backward and vote 
 or count men in or out at the pleasure of the "chauffeur." 
 
AND Pool of Blood 265 
 
 It is also a good indicator of the standing of political 
 parties. Observe the complexion of the crowd who are 
 promoting primaries and you may safely conclude that 
 the fields have been gleaned of all their tares, and none 
 remain for the other party. 
 
 The owners and controllers of these primaries, the 
 grand moguls and high cockolorums, have been educated 
 in the schools of political duplicity and selected as the 
 men best versed in the science of demagogery. Their 
 duties are multitudinous and somewhat onerous, the first 
 and most important of which is to prepare bait to catch 
 suckers and induce them to enter the slaughter pen pre- 
 pared for all those who dare lift a voice in opposition to 
 the imperial will of King Booze, who holds the primary 
 in the hollow of his hands. Next comes the making of 
 the slate, which must be accomplished in the secret re- 
 cesses of the temple of Judas, and where no eye can see 
 or ear hear, save those in possession of the countersign 
 and password and familiar with the grip. Having formu- 
 lated the plan and lubricated the wheels of this powerful 
 machine, the word is given "all aboard," the throttle 
 thrown open and the thing starts on its villainous mis- 
 sion. And, as it sometimes happens, the plan proves to 
 be imperfectly constructed, it is only necessary to reverse 
 the lever, run the engine back to the roundhouse, where 
 the grand mogul will make the needed repairs, which may 
 be done at any time they may seem wise and expedient. 
 Then comes the selection of the henchmen in the differ- 
 ent wards and districts, some of which are instructed to 
 hold back the election returns until directed from head- 
 quarters as to just what is needed of them. If the right 
 sort of votes is scarce, they are ordered to send to the 
 vacant houses and lots and get them. And if the oppo- 
 sition to the slate have too many, they are expected to 
 
266 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 swallow them. By this and other methods of manipula- 
 tion they claim to have perfectly fair expression of the 
 will of the party, and if any participant has the temerity 
 to question the absolute fairness of this primary, he is 
 subjected to forty stripes from the party lash, or bull 
 whip, as it is sometimes called. 
 
 It were worse than useless to attempt to place any 
 legal restraint on this mighty machine, for its promoters 
 would only have to give a little "twist of the wrist," 
 say "presto change!" and the way would be cleared. 
 
 Here in Tennessee all men who are Democrats, that 
 never were contrabands, are eligible to enter this primary 
 as candidates who have got the price, which, for impor- 
 tant offices, ranges from one to five hundred dollars, 
 usually. Now, if he hasn't got it and is unable to stack 
 the cards so that he can get it, he is proven incompetent, 
 though he be the best man in the state and possessed of 
 the integrity of Job with the wisdom of Socrates. 
 
 But what's the use of talking as long as erstwhile good 
 citizens permit political shysters to pull the wool over 
 their eyes, dictate their suffrage, or bull whip them into 
 line. Conditions will grow Avorse and worse and finally 
 result in anarchistic revolution. 
 
 The primary booster puts great stress on his willing- 
 ness to get everything fresh from the people ; boasts that 
 he is not afraid of them, and that all who oppose pri- 
 maries are. Well, why should he be afraid of the people? 
 We don't usually stand with dread and trembling in a 
 menagerie when the beasts are all chained, the cage is 
 locked and the key thrown away. 
 
 Hypocrisy, secrecy and stick-together-ativeness are all 
 that is required to constitute a perfect primary and dam 
 every avenue to good civil government. . 
 
AND Pool of Blood 267 
 
 THE HIGH DIVE A GREATER MENACE TO 
 
 GOOD GOVERNMENT THAN THE 
 
 LOW DIVE. 
 
 I am fully aware that in the discussion of this subject 
 I shall antagonize many of the so-called ''upper ten." 
 But this book is not written to toady to the upper ten 
 any more than the lower million. I was taught from 
 early childhood to estimate people by character, without 
 regard to the size of their bank accounts or the length 
 of their pedigrees. 
 
 It is by no means a pleasure to say disagreeable things, 
 but duty demands that I speak the truth, which it is my 
 purpose to do, indulging the hope that it may not fall 
 altogether "as seed sown in stony places." I hold that 
 good government cannot result from wrong conceptions, 
 and that bad government can neither result from the 
 suffrage of good citizens ; and that good citizens cannot 
 be made of bad moral characters, and that education 
 without morality as a basis is a greater menace to free 
 government than ignorance based on morality. 
 
 High dives must be classified in general terms as all 
 places, whether public or private, that are outwardly 
 clothed with an air of respectability, and low dives those 
 that make no such pretentions, both being the nesting 
 places where the seeds of all manner of temptations are 
 sown and hatched. And of the two, the high dive is the 
 more corrupting. 
 
 The wolf garbed in sheep's clothing can catch his victmi 
 unawares, as the saloon or gambling hell catch theirs, 
 
268 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 when clothed with an air of respectability. Granting the 
 honorable exceptions, the court officers go there, the 
 church leaders go there, and the more respected element 
 generally — who indulge in the ^'social glass" — go there. 
 They are never seen under the influence of liquor and 
 invariably assume the manners of a gentleman. 
 
 I am not characterizing them as the contrary, or in 
 this chapter dealing with the habits of individuals except 
 for the purpose of illustration, and, in classifying the 
 frequenters of these places, do so to show what gives 
 them the air of respectability and the increased power 
 for harm. We are all more or less influenced by the 
 conduct of others, and we always look up — never down 
 —for examples safe to emulate: to the gentleman who 
 occupies a high position in society, and not the vagabond 
 wallowing in the gutter. The young man of respectable 
 parentage, on whose shoulders will soon rest the respon- 
 sibility for the weal or woe of his country, sees these 
 respectable gentlemen enter these resorts, and he sees 
 them come out perfectly sober; sees them filling the 
 highest positions of honor and trust, both in church and 
 state, and, though he has never in his life been in such 
 a place, he concludes that he has been unnecessarily 
 warned by his parents and tutors against it — that they 
 cannot be such bad places after all. 
 
 Finally, he is invited in by some friend, accepts the 
 invitation, enters the door and the ruin is wrought. If 
 he had been asked to enter a low dive he would have 
 indignantly resented it. His innate pride would have 
 been his shield and protector. 
 
 But I see this young man a few years later staggering 
 into the low dive, that no earthly power could have in- 
 duced him to enter at the start, divested of all semblance 
 of pride. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 269 
 
 He found that he was lacking in the power of resist- 
 ance which his exemplars had been a score or more of 
 years in acquiring. And this insidious foe to purity and 
 respectability had dragged him, as it had thousands of 
 others, to the lowest depths of degradation and into the 
 very jaws of hell. 
 
 This is only a faint, but nevertheless true, picture of 
 the work of the high dive. It was said by one of our 
 greatest statesmen that the "saloon had sinned away its 
 day of grace and must be destroyed." There is only one 
 way to destroy it. The people, who are the source of all 
 power, must do it; and they must do it by their suffrage 
 in placing representatives in the General Assembly who 
 will enact laws to that effect, with such other laws as 
 will make them possible of enforcement. 
 
 Law is properly defined as the crystallization of public 
 sentiment, which must first be created. Now, reader, 
 let me ask what created that sentiment which resulted 
 in the enactment of the liquor laws? Was it the "re- 
 spectable,^' most orderly and high-class saloon? or was 
 it the disorderly dive ? Certainly the latter, and, as anom- 
 alous as the assertion may seem, we actually owe a debt 
 of gratitude to the low dive for creating and keeping 
 alive the sentiment that will ultimately destroy the most 
 vicious and abominable nuisance with which our fair 
 land is accursed. 
 
 Yet another reason in favor of the low dive is that, 
 while its influence is dangerous to society, of course, it 
 has but little influence and none over anything of much 
 value, while those started on the downward road by the 
 high dive are those who otherwise would be bright and 
 shining lights in the community, an honor to their calling 
 in life and the pride and joy of their best earthly friend 
 — a fond mother. 
 
270 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Again, this high dive is more dangerous to good gov- 
 ernment because of the power of money (which the low 
 dives have not), which is freely used to carry elections 
 and bribe legislators and public officials, and in many 
 ways build bulwarks to protect the powers of evil and 
 save the criminals from the just penalty of the law. 
 
 The high dives, being located in the best sections where 
 they will be tolerated, detract from both the rental and 
 selling value of all the property located near them. On 
 the other hand, the low dive can exist only in low-priced 
 localities, and the damage from them is nominal in that 
 respect. 
 
 It also does more harm because of greater opportunity. 
 Being prominently located, it has a much heavier patron- 
 age and deals out largely more destruction to both life 
 and character. While the low dive may deal out its 
 measure of death, it cannot touch character, because char- 
 acter does not enter there. 
 
 Shakespeare says that ''he who steals my purse steals 
 trash, but he that robs me of my good name takes that 
 which enricheth him not, but makes me poor indeed." 
 
 Again, the high dive, with its powerful prestige, bids 
 defiance to the minions of the law, which it tramples 
 under foot with impunity, under the very nose of offi- 
 cials whom it has paid to be moon-eyed, as occasion de- 
 mands. This the low dive is powerless to do and must 
 suffer the consequences, where, again, it necessarily as- 
 sumes the nature of a benefactor, because of the fees the 
 officers get, to say nothing of the practice it gives them 
 in the discharge of their duty. 
 
 And when election comes, and the issue is law, order 
 and decency against immorality and crime, the high dive 
 comes to the front with its hundreds of hirelings to vote 
 
AND Pool of Blood 271 
 
 with "American pride" as their employers direct, while 
 the low dive can only muster its tens. 
 
 The most dangerous of all of these dives are those 
 behind the screens of a grocery store, cafe or clubhouse. 
 
 There the man who fears to enter an out-and-out den 
 of vice, may find a ready excuse for being there if he 
 chance to be a public official, an elder in the church, or 
 a young man employed where the fashionable vices are 
 not tolerated in employes. There his sins will not find 
 him out for a while. But, sooner or later, he will be 
 robbed of his timidity and will unblushingly enter the 
 high dive on his road to final destruction in the low dive, 
 which would never have found him only that the pathway 
 was blazed by the high dive. 
 
 Among this latter class there are none more pernicious 
 in their influence than the club, because it is composed 
 of the most respectable classes. Men affiliate in clubs 
 that keep aloof from the vicious features and are total 
 abstainers from all forms of intoxicants. They go there 
 to enjoy the innocent social features, and often to discuss 
 business affairs. Everything is fitted up in good style. 
 They can enjoy privacy, if they so desire, and be gen- 
 erally comfortable. These facts give popularity to the 
 clubs, but all who go there are not that way. There are 
 those who, with the vicious features eliminated, would 
 not be there, and, while the novice is drawn in by the 
 most respectable element, he is tempted and falls through 
 the example of the other. 
 
 Let our position be kept in mind that the more respec- 
 tability possessed by things vicious in character the greater 
 their power for harm, and that they corrupt things of 
 more value than disreputable dives «an possibly do. 
 
 But we cannot even stop here. We must go a degree 
 higher to the parlor gambler and tippler who assembles 
 
372 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 at the invitation of the upper ten, the occupants of marble 
 palaces, where wine sparkles as it flows from silver de- 
 canters and cards are dealt to determine the ownership 
 of punch bowls, loving cups and other articles of like 
 value. Who could resist such temptations? These peo- 
 ple are strictly high-class leaders in society, and, per- 
 chance, leaders in the church. 
 
 "There can be no harm in a glass of wine taken from 
 the hand of a beautiful and attractive lady, or a social 
 game where the prize is only used to give zest to the 
 game and make it more interesting. Surely there is no 
 harm in such little amusements." Thus he reasons, but 
 the devilish work is done. The appetite has been cre- 
 ated. It has grown until the social game for prizes or 
 the mellow wine no longer satisfies, and he starts down 
 the road, stopping at the club where stronger liquor is on 
 tap and the rattle of bones and the jingle of silver give 
 zest to the drooping spirits; next step, the high dive on 
 the public thoroughfare, where he obtains a through 
 ticket via the low dive into the jaws of hell at the end 
 of the road. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 273 
 
 THE GAMBLER— HOW DOES HE START AND 
 HOW DOES HE CONTRIBUTE? 
 
 ■ ■ ^//..-*y 
 
 As my object is to expose the crimes prevalent in our 
 fair land, more especially our own state and city, and the 
 causes and accessories, I would be recreant to the trust 
 were I to omit this, one of the most potent causes. 
 
 The gambler most commonly starts in the fashionable 
 parlor, where the social game is indulged by both sexes. 
 There, basking in the smiles of beautiful and accom- 
 plished belles, the young man of talent, education and 
 wealth is installed as an "entered apprentice." 
 
 While in itself there is no real harm in a social game, 
 aside from the fact that it is a very alluring sport and 
 creates an appetite not easily appeased, and which soon 
 demands that a small prize be staked to give zest to the 
 game. This suffices for a while, but finally becomes too 
 dull to interest sufficiently, and a small cash "ante" be- 
 comes a veritable necessity, and so on" until it requires 
 a game without a "limit" to satisfy. While in the start 
 the game was only for amusement, it has become a means 
 of money getting, which is a very doubtful means when 
 a fair game is adhered to. The gambler soon learns that, 
 to make money, he must acquire a knowledge of trickery 
 and put it into practice. It is then he becomes a thief, 
 and if he chance to be brought into contact with smarter 
 thieves, instead of robbing some other person he gets 
 robbed himself. He often becomes involved to the extent 
 that, to hide his shame, he becomes an embezzler. 
 
 The above is, in part, the actual experience of a man 
 
 18 
 
274 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 who had traveled the road, but fortunately got checked 
 in his mad career before becoming an embezzler. 
 
 A gambler is, with but few exceptions, a liar. This 
 man was married while still addicted to the habit, and 
 kept it up quite a while thereafter, his good wife in the 
 meantime using what influence she could to induce him 
 to abandon the practice. She, being a preacher's daugh- 
 ter, knew nothing of cards. Among other things she 
 declined to use turkeys obtained by chance methods. 
 Then he would lie to her. When he had won a turkey 
 he would positively affirm that he had bought it. An- 
 other plan she tried with him was that she proposed that, 
 if he would give up gambling, she would waive her ob- 
 jection to card playing at home, and even learn the game 
 and play with him herself. The result was more lying, 
 but, as stated, he was checked before becoming an em- 
 bezzler. 
 
 The gambler is necessarily a greater hindrance to the 
 maintenance of good government than any other class, 
 because of the nature of his calling, and for many rea- 
 sons, one of the principal ones being that "'once a gam- 
 bler always a gambler" is true of him until his life has 
 been wrecked, or possibly destroyed, by his own hand. 
 
 The fascinations of the game are such that fewer gam- 
 blers, perhaps, reform than those addicted to any other 
 vice. Supposing him to be an expert, it is "easy money." 
 As it comes easy, it goes in the same manner, and, always 
 being full-handed, he never considers the consequences 
 to those he has robbed. He is not troubled with any 
 conscientious scruples. He has the means to procure all 
 the pleasures of life, and is satisfied to be a lawbreaker. 
 He is in sympathy with all other forms of lawlessness 
 and gives his suflfrage to such men for office as will give 
 him the most protection. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 275 
 
 Nashville is loaded with that class, and if they are not 
 personally interested in other forms of lawlessness, such 
 as the liquor business, they are most generally in close 
 association with those who are. They control a large 
 portion of the voters by a lavish use of money, and, with 
 their twin brothers, hold the balance of power. 
 
 It would be safe to say that one-third of the votes 
 polled at the city elections in Nashville are dominated 
 and controlled by the gamblers and their convenient 
 allies. But we have referred as yet only to the profes- 
 sional gamblers, who do nothing else. 
 
 There are others, such as in Wall Street are termed 
 "stock gamblers," those who buy and sell thousands of 
 bushels of corn and wheat that has never been grown, 
 hundreds of bales of cotton, the seed for which has never 
 been planted. By dishonest manipulation, they form com- 
 binations to control the market and manufacture mil- 
 lionaires and paupers, and hundreds of other cases, all 
 being of the same character, such as race horse gam- 
 bling, where any horse may win that the gamblers want 
 to win ; boosting property by false statements ; also stocks 
 and bonds, all of which is gambling and likewise stealing. 
 
 Numbers of our leading citizens, and often church 
 members, engage in these forms of gambling and steal- 
 ing, while crying loudly against all kinds of lawlessness. 
 These, by their influence, weaken the cause of law and 
 justice proportionately more than the professional gam- 
 blers, because of their prominence. 
 
 I heard an incident some years ago of a very promi- 
 nent preacher, who was well known and, because of his 
 wealth and social position, was possessed of vast influ- 
 ence and prestige. He gambled a little sometimes — 
 ^'thought it was just speculation," I presume. He had 
 got hold of some stock that had proved worthless, by 
 
276 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 accident, but he was not the man to lose on stocks if 
 they were valueless, so he placed this stock in the hands 
 of a broker and, we suppose, as he was a big preacher, 
 asked the Lord's advice, but the devil must have given 
 it, from the manner in which he disposed of it. A young 
 man, having saved some money that he wanted to invest 
 safely, and knowing this man as a very wise financier, 
 and having the utmost faith in his integrity, being an 
 influential minister in his denomination, applied to him 
 for advice as to a safe manner of investing it, and what 
 did this old hypocrite do? He recommended that old 
 worthless stock of his and sent the trusting young man 
 to his broker, in, the meantime posting the broker by 
 telephone before he got there, and through him robbed 
 the boy of his money, and a few years later went shout- 
 ing into either Glory or torment. Further than this, this 
 deponent saith not. 
 
 Of course, this is a safe way of gambling, or robbing 
 - — either word will express it. That is, it's safe in Nash- 
 ville at this time. We have no court here to convict 
 high-class robbers. The object seems to be to acquit 
 them. It would never do to disturb the big fellows. 
 They might not like it. They might even go so far as 
 to give their vote and influence to some honest fool and 
 take our court away from us. And then, doesn't the 
 Bible say, let the tares alone until the Lord sends His 
 angels to root them out? It certainly could not be ex- 
 pected of us to do it. Indeed, thrice blessed is the man 
 who does not expect much of us; he shall not be disap- 
 pointed. 
 
 The gambling hells in Nashville — tolerated, protected, 
 and in many cases patronized by "our" chosen officials — 
 would not be tolerated in a respectable community of 
 monkeys. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 377 
 
 These games of chance are so garbed outwardly that 
 they present irresistible attractions to the uninitiated. He 
 is led by the booster to believe that the gambling hell is 
 a veritable gold mine, vv^here he has only to walk in and 
 gather up the nuggets, which he has about one chance to 
 do where he has a hundred to be blown away by a cyclone. 
 
 Again, there is a world of gambling for church chari- 
 ties. An entertainment is gotten up, various devices are 
 planned to make money to get cushioned pews, or to 
 supply a new pulpit for the church. The grab-bag, the 
 lottery, all considered innocent and perfectly justifiable 
 because of their object. Brother and sister in the church, 
 did you ever stop to think that you are sowing the seeds 
 of the miost dangerous character of tares.; that you are 
 creating a desire for one of the most damnable curses 
 that ever afflicted a human being — a habit, when once 
 formed, as hard to extricate himself from as from the 
 tentacles of an octopus? Do you realize that you are 
 robbing your church of its spiritual power and planting 
 the seeds of commercialism in its stead to get new and 
 elegant pews for its occupants ? Did it ever occur to you 
 that you are starting hundreds on the downward road 
 to degradation and ruin, on which are found thieves, 
 murderers, desperadoes, and all sorts of human brutes, 
 maniacs, misanthropists and oft, at the end, suicides? 
 Think but a moment and you will agree with me that all 
 manner of games of chance, for amusement or for phil- 
 anthropic reasons, are but wicket-gates to the sorrows of 
 this life and the tortures of the damned in the world to 
 come. '^ -"^ 
 
 Gambling, being based on a principle of wrong, be- 
 comes the motive power which destroys every noble as- 
 piration, vitiates every honorable aim, dragging every 
 lofty purpose in slime and corruption, inflaming every 
 
278 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 evil passion and seating vice on the pedestal of Virtue, 
 creates a corrupt taste in its devotees and robs them of 
 all desire for rational pleasures, uncivilizes men and in- 
 stills within them a spirit of barbarism; it deadens every 
 religious sentiment and stifles the voice of conscience. 
 
 In finance and character he is a bankrupt, and, divested 
 of moral principle and self-respect, he becomes a debased 
 and friendless vagabond. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 279 
 
 COMMERCIALISM— A MENACE TO GOOD 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Among the classes of so-called good people who stand 
 in the way of the promotion of good civil government, 
 there are none perhaps more prominent than the promi- 
 nent business man, granting the honorable exceptions. 
 The prominent business man is an all-around policy man 
 when it comes to politics ; as the old German saloonkeeper 
 said, he votes "vor hees beesness." To get the business 
 man's vote, mix business with politics. The poor fellow 
 doesn't know that he is only bartering his suffrage for 
 so much business, instead of money or whiskey, as does 
 the thug or negro. He would prefer that the other side 
 should win, but he cannot afford to consider principles 
 involved. He must first consider the possible effect on 
 his business. We have in mind Mr. T. F. Bonner, who 
 has been quite prominent as a leader in the various move- 
 ments for the promotion of the principles of morality in 
 civil government and the advancement of civic righteous- 
 ness, who, in 1909, supported Hillary E. Howse for 
 mayor, notwithstanding the fact that Howse was re- 
 garded as an immoral roue, whose character alone was 
 sufficient to disqualify him for mayor of a great city by 
 robbing the office of its proper prestige, giving as hi'^ 
 reason that Howse was a heavy patron of his business, 
 a cash man and a good business man, while knowing, as 
 everybody else knew, that all of his former political ven- 
 tures had succeeded in consequence of the individual 
 support of the lawless element and that they were stand- 
 
280 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 ing solidly for him at that time, and Mr. Bonner, being 
 a very intelligent gentleman, also must have known that 
 the said lawless element make no mistakes. They are 
 the smartest voters we have and instructed by the shrewd- 
 est politicians we have, always unite on a man who will 
 take care of their interests. 
 
 There is no better way to determine the character of 
 a candidate than to watch how the said element votes. 
 Well, when Mr. Howse made the second race, Mr. Bon- 
 ner opposed him in the race against Dr. Gillespie. 
 Whether Mr. Howse had withdrawn his patronage or 
 not, we are not advised, but we do know that his moral 
 character was as good in 191 1 as it was in 1909, and, to 
 thinking people, the prospect was just as good for him 
 to faithfully discharge his duty. Well, we had thrown 
 the mantle of charity over Mr. Bonner and were indulg- 
 ing the hope that he had been convinced of his error and 
 would make no more mistakes in the future, when, in 
 the recent city primary, we find him, for reasons of con- 
 sanguinity, supporting Longhurst for sheriff, whom 
 Howse claims to have elected and who was opposing a 
 sheriff (whatever may have been his motive) who was 
 making it warm for the violators of the law which Mr. 
 Bonner so earnestly advocates. Now, would Mr. Howse 
 back a man for sheriff unless he was reasonably sure 
 that he would not antagonize his policies? 
 
 It is no part of my purpose to assail the character of 
 any individual, only as it may enter into his public acts 
 or be necessary to establish the reason for the deplorable 
 conditions existing, and possibly emphasize the need of 
 a drastic remedy, and it shall be our aim to deal in the 
 truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Now, 
 if this character of men of intelligence allow such con- 
 ditions to determine their suffrage, what shall we expect 
 
AND Pool of Blood 281 
 
 of the plebeian hosts who look to them for an example? 
 When all men get to consider the candidates' compe- 
 tency and principles and these only, then and not until 
 then will we have the principles of morality, virtue and 
 justice paramount in civil government, and any vote con- 
 trary to that is and must be detrimental to the attainment 
 of that end, and cause angels to shed tears of sorrow and 
 shame. 
 
 We will venture the statement that three- fourths of 
 the wholesale merchants in Nashville are influenced in 
 casting their votes by motives of policy, and that they 
 have the influence, if rightly directed with their votes, to 
 elect whomsoever they choose to office. As evidence, they 
 did elect a very weak member to the office of mayor in 
 the person of T. O. Morris, and if they could do that, 
 why couldn't they elect a mayor who would give dignity 
 to the office and remove at least that much of the stigma 
 from Nashville and Tennessee? There isn't a doubt but 
 they could, and it is equally plain that they will not as 
 long as policy and commercialism stand in their estima- 
 tion paramount to patriotism. 
 
 During the campaign for mayor in 1909, a majority of 
 the wholesale merchants were arrayed in solid phalanx 
 for Howse and incessantly besieged Major Stahlman to 
 keep the Banner oiit of the fight, he being determinedly 
 opposed to him, and they convinced him that it would be 
 a losing fight, and for that reason alone the Banner 
 took no part. In the meantime, some merchants who had 
 the courage and backbone to stand for principle and bid 
 the dollar god of commercialism to "get behind them," 
 constituted a committee of five to solicit the aid of the 
 Banner. This committee was headed by Joel O. Cheek, 
 who, on consultation with his colleagues, thought that a 
 prominent minister on the committee would add mate- 
 
283 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 rially to its influence. Accordingly, Dr. Anderson, then 
 pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, was chosen and 
 the matter laid before him. He gave the assurance of 
 his full sympathy, but declined to accept on the grounds 
 that his congregation was divided and he couldn't take 
 any part lest he jeopardize the harmony and possibly cre- 
 ate a division in his church. Shades of Moses! One 
 part of the church for right and the other for wrong, 
 and the preacher afraid to stand out boldly, openly and 
 'fearlessly for the right; but that is a rich church and I 
 suppose he thought it was easier for a camel to go 
 through the eye of a needle than for those rich members 
 to enter the kingdom of heaven — anyway he didn't want 
 to make the matter any worse for them. The church pays 
 a big salary and, as our information goes, is practically 
 run as Mr. "Mannie" Shwab would run it, because Mr. 
 Shwab (a wholesale whiskey dealer) holds the jobs of 
 some of the leading members in his pocket. If that is 
 not true, what is that church doing that Mr. Shwab could 
 reasonably object to? Hammer sin and iniquity all you 
 like, so you don't say or do anything that will really hurt 
 the liquor business. The most prominent leader, whom it 
 is in the power of Mr. Shwab to depose, is Mr. Leland 
 Hume, since Mr. Shwab owns a large interest in the 
 Cumberland Telephone Company. Does Mr. Hume know 
 that and govern himself accordingly? Let us see if 
 he is conducting himself as becomes a high official in 
 a church that should occupy the highest plane of influ- 
 ence in the cause of civic righteousness, but is shorn of 
 its strength because of the unworthiness of a number of 
 its leading members, or is he merely a milksop and tool 
 for his brainy boss? 
 
 In the Fifty-sixth General Assembly, when the amend- 
 ment to the four-mile law, otherwise known as the State- 
 
AND Pool of Blood 283 
 
 wide bill, was pending, with both sides contending for 
 every inch of ground and every other interest made sub- 
 servient to that — in other words, where God and the 
 devil were fighting for supremacy in the state — the two 
 committees, desiring as far as possible to obtain a knowl- 
 edge of public sentiment touching the bill, invited a dis- 
 cussion of its merits and demerits before a joint session 
 and in pubHc. Speakers were selected on both sides, 
 Bishop Hoss leading the fight in favor of the bill. Promi- 
 nent speakers were on hand from every section of the 
 state ; especially did they come thick and fast from Mem- 
 phis, Nashville and Chattanooga. Not with a view of 
 getting the representatives of these cities to vote right — 
 for that they have never done and never will. This joint 
 committee assembled in the House of Representatives at 
 night. The public, having been invited, was there and 
 packed the House almost to the point of suffocation. On 
 this auspicious occasion, when the fate of the bill seemed 
 to hang in the balance, depending on the action of the 
 committee ; when Tennessee was to go on record as fa- 
 voring or opposing the domination of the state by the 
 liquor and corporation bosses— at this crucial moment 
 where is Mr. Leland Hume found? Following the in- 
 structions of his pastor or following the instructions of 
 Mr. Shwab — the chief promoter of the liquor interests 
 and maker and dispenser of Old Cascade Whiskey? 
 
 The wTiter was present on this occasion, with thousands 
 of others, and witnessed the spectacle of a leading officer 
 in the First Presbyterian Church, as well as a leading 
 officer in the Cumberland Telephone Company— which 
 company is largely dominated and controlled by Mr. 
 Shwab— Mr. Leland Hume, standing on his feet as a 
 speaker, no one knowing what side he represented until 
 he spoke. At this moment there seemed to be a hush of 
 
284 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 expectation, with all eyes turned on Mr. Hume, who 
 seemed choking and trembling as if making a desperate 
 effort to begin. His words, quoted verbatim et literatim, 
 were as follows: 
 
 "Ladies and gentlemen, and gentlemen of the commit- 
 tee, there are worse things in Nashville than the liquor 
 business." *'Yes," said Bishop Hoss, "the Cumberland 
 Telephone Company." The audience took it up and 
 shouted until he was forced to sit down, all seeming to 
 realize that if there was anything worse than the liquor 
 business, it was that old incubus, the Cumberland Tele- 
 phone Company. As he took his seat, Bishop Hoss pro- 
 pounded the question : "Mr. Hume, isn't it true that the 
 Cumberland Telephone Company will not employ men 
 that drink or smoke cigarettes?" Keeping his seat he 
 answered that the bishop was correct. Mr. Hume is not 
 the only member of this big church, composed of big men 
 and operated on business principles which are not con- 
 ducive to the promotion of the principles of civic right- 
 eousness, i ■'^<. 
 
 There is Mr. Joseph Thompson, who is a very influen- 
 tial leader and also president of the Nashville Trust Com- 
 pany ; Mr. Will Nelson, the owner of the Greenbrier Dis- 
 tillery, noted for its famous brand Old Robertson County 
 Whiskey, being associated with him in the capacity of 
 vice president. The writer knows that institution col- 
 lectively is a very liberal contributor to all campaigns in 
 the interest of the liquor traffic, which of course means 
 the perpetuation of lawlessness. The liberal element find 
 great solace in the fact that this institution can always 
 be relied upon for both boodle and votes. The church 
 also finds comfort in the knowledge that they receive from 
 t-he same source liberal contributions, even though it may 
 be stained to some extent by contact with the other fund. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 285 
 
 it is still able to hide a multitude of sins. So the church 
 and saloon are both satisfied, inasmuch as both drink milk 
 from the same old cow and then "praise God from whom 
 all blessings flow." 
 
 THERE IS ANOTHER AND A BROTHER. 
 
 There is another Christian brother who serves his God 
 as well as the other. This particular brother is so power- 
 ful in the Christian, commercial and financial world, that 
 the writer pauses to ask himself, dare I to give the facts 
 relative to this powerful man? Yes, I dare to tell the 
 truth, even about the L. & N. Railroad, Pierpont Morgan, 
 or President Taft, if necessary. The man of whom I 
 speak is Mr. Percy Warner, president of the Nashville 
 Railway and Light Company, principal owner of the Tu- 
 lane Hotel, including the palatial bar, which, under his 
 able management was moved from the former secluded 
 position to a most conspicuous position in front, where it 
 stands as a monument to the business sagacity and enter- 
 prise of this wonderful man. This Tulane Hotel bar — 
 or Warner bar — is none the less a flagrant violator of 
 statute law than any other bar, and it must be borne in 
 mind that these things could not exist only for the suf- 
 frage of the people that license them, and that if property 
 owners refused to rent their property to be used for such 
 unlawful purposes, a large number would be compelled 
 to close anyway, and that leads us to wonder how many 
 men who own such places and let them out for such im- 
 moral purposes, consider the moral side and give their 
 votes to cut off their revenue. However, Mr. Warner 
 may think that as this particular saloon, with its elegant 
 equipments, is in such close proximity to the magnificent 
 
286 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 Warner Auditorium, which is a part of the splendid new 
 Young Woman's Christian Association Building, clothes 
 this particular bar with the elements of respectability. 
 The writer begs to differ and classifies this dive with all 
 others, purely and simply an emissary of the devil (with 
 more power for evil than the low dive because of its 
 falsely termed character of respectability), a disgrace to 
 the city and a reflection on the Young Woman's Chris- 
 tian Association, that the same owner — or part owner of 
 the Tulane saloon — should be allowed to have a part of 
 their beautiful and exemplary building set aside and dedi- 
 cated as the Warner Auditorium. Even though Mr. 
 Warner did contribute very largely to its construction 
 and occupies the high position as president of the Street 
 Railway and Light Company, and is a most conspicuous 
 and active member of the most aristocratic church con- 
 gregation perhaps in the city, of which the distinguished 
 divine, James L Vance, is pastor. It must also be remem- 
 bered, for it is a matter of record, that Mr. Warner is 
 also owner, and that means controller, of certain other 
 property here that is not being used to the glory of God 
 or good government, by a long shot. 
 
 Mr. Warner also owns, on Broadway, adjacent to the 
 Terminal Station on the corner of Tenth avenue, some 
 property in which is located the notorious and filthy Royal 
 Cafe, operated by a Greek by the name of Tom Valeska. 
 This dive is a menace to any community; in fact, this 
 entire block, barring a few barber shops, possibly, is a 
 seething mass of vice and corruption and, by way of 
 sticking to my title, I might add, is a veritable Pond of 
 Liquor and Pool of Blood, a portion of which yields our 
 distinguished citizen — Mr. Warner — a handsome revenue. 
 We are again wondering if Mr. Warner would be will- 
 ing to take a stranger, who might be visiting in the city, 
 
AND Pool of Blood SS'V 
 
 in his auto and show him through his various possessions. 
 
 And now, Dr. Vance, a word with you, since I have 
 been so plain spoken about some of your members. Why 
 have I written these things? Not for maUce, spite or 
 pique, but because milder language and soothing sermons 
 on glittering generalities have failed to minimize the evils 
 that are on the increase in this fair city. They are as 
 water poured on a duck's back, merely a ''casting of 
 pearls before swine." Neither has denunciation nor im- 
 position of penalties on low-grade criminals accomplished 
 anything, nor can it as long as the "upper ten,'' who 
 occupy the uppermost seats in the synagogues, are tem- 
 porized with and toadied to. The Lord is no respecter 
 of persons, and neither should we be. The city is fast 
 becoming a seething den of iniquity, and, since those in 
 position and authority decline the work, our purpose is to 
 try to apply the best remedy for crime — which is public- 
 ity — and place the responsibility where it rightly belongs, 
 on the man who hides behind the altar on Sunday to do 
 penance for the sins of the week. Believing that one 
 such man will do more harm — because of his prominence 
 — than a dozen keepers of low dives, neither will high 
 sounding resolutions by prominent committees avail as 
 long as prominent citizens and church officials either 
 stand idly by or rent their property for immoral pur- 
 poses or give their votes and influence or contribute cam- 
 paign funds to the immoral side, thereby becoming "par- 
 ticeps criminis" to the crimes due to the dominance of 
 that element, for it cannot be denied that these men, by 
 their vote and influence, could change the whole com- 
 plexion of our city government if they had the will. 
 
 You may be curious to know why I have selected out 
 your members when like conditions probably exist in all 
 big aristocratic churches. First, because all former shots 
 
288 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 have missed the mark because they were aimed too low ; 
 also because the information concerning the men referred 
 to was conveniently accessible and available ; also because 
 your church and yourself, its pastor, have reached the 
 acme of prominence and influence. Further, because my 
 information is that you w^ere made cognizant of some of 
 those conditions at a meeting over which you presided, 
 for the purpose of electing a deacon in your church. 
 The purpose of this book is to expose the deplorable con- 
 ditions existing here and the impotence of those in au- 
 thority to deal with them, and if one book is not suflicient 
 to do that we will try to produce another. For, until 
 men come to regard principle and duty paramount to 
 personal .gain and ambition, anarchy must occupy the 
 throne and dominate the control of this land of the 
 "brave" and home of the free. Now, doctor, what will 
 you do about it? Of you and your church, because of 
 the prominent position and intellectual prestige which 
 you have, God and the lovers of good government have 
 the right to expect much. They desire to credit you with 
 the belief that a princely salary largely composed of dirty 
 dollars is not sufficient to sway you from the path of duty 
 when your attention is called to the matter, and we cer- 
 tainly claim that it is the duty of all ministers to disci- 
 pline their members for such glaring offences against 
 law, order and morality, even to using the "lash of small 
 cords to drive these iniquitous money changers from the 
 Temple," who on due admonition refuse to repent, realiz- 
 ing that God is both able and willing to take care of all 
 of his faithful servants, though his entire congregation 
 leave him. Thus religion will not be a mere show bubble, 
 with pride as her handmaid and selfishness as her leader. 
 
AND Pool of Blood 289 
 
 "No matter, sir, what you profess, 
 We care not for your preaching 
 If you see toiling ones oppressed 
 By constant over-reaching: 
 
 "However loud you sing and pray. 
 Or shout your word of warning. 
 The honest poor you grind each day 
 Will meet your call with scorning. 
 
 ''Although you read your bible well. 
 
 And teach a class on Sunday, 
 Your worth a man can only tell 
 By dealing with you Monday. 
 
 "Then sing and shout and teach; 
 'Tis vain your pious labor. 
 So long as you shall overreach 
 In dealing with your neighbor. 
 
 "The golden rule of which you speak 
 Upon the Sabbath day, sir. 
 Just please to practice through the week ; 
 Then you may preach and pray, sir. 
 
 "And we will listen — gladly, too — 
 
 To each kind invitation. 
 And possibly accept from you 
 A prayer for our salvation." 
 
 — Selected. 
 
 19 
 
290 Tennessee's Pond of Liquor 
 
 VALEDICTORY. 
 
 At the beginning of my book, I told something of the 
 contents. It is my purpose now to briefly sum up. The 
 majority of our people here — and many of them good 
 people, too — seem to be firmly imbued with the idea that 
 the greatest crime that can be committed is to lack the 
 ability to conceal crime ; that the old aphorism — that the 
 concealer is as bad as the thief — is but a rdic of barbarism 
 as practiced in the dark ages, and that ability to conceal 
 is an accomplishment of a high order and the surest pass- 
 port to favor in good society. 
 
 As evidence, take our Industrial Bureau, who are un- 
 questionably good people, as well as very high authority 
 on moral ethics. They can tell more good things about 
 Nashville than the minds of ordinary mortals can con- 
 ceive of or comprehend, yet you never hear them say a 
 word about the crimes daily enacted here, or read any- 
 thing in print authorized by them. They know how to 
 conceal, and, under the new regime, are very properly 
 immune from criticism. Well, I must confess that, even 
 though not fully sustained by logic, it is one very adroit 
 way of reasoning, for if you can keep crime well con- 
 cealed it becomes unnecessary to eradicate it, and it is 
 only in certain cases that it is even necessary to conceal it. 
 To illustrate, if those premeditating murder will only ally 
 themselves with the regulars and be regular in all things, 
 and be sure they don't kill a regular, they will find "the 
 strong arm of the law" ready to be thrown around them 
 and they are as safe as though they had taken the trouble 
 
AND Pool of Blood 291 
 
 to conceal it. There are many material benefits to be 
 derived by concealing crime, among them the spirit of im- 
 migration to our city would be dampened and its growth 
 retarded if it were not concealed. Our people would be 
 timid about being out late at night and the theaters and 
 churches would suffer in consequence; our business in- 
 terests would almost suffer paralysis, because people 
 would fear to come to town and take the chance of catch- 
 ing a stray bullet, or being buncoed. Then our courts 
 and their affairs would be embarrassed, because they 
 would be forced to violate their oaths or cause the crim- 
 inals some trouble, and, strange as it may seem, with all 
 these advantages and many more too numerous to men- 
 tion, derived from the concealment of crime, the news- 
 papers will sometimes get hold of it and publish it to 
 the world, which clearly proves they are lacking in tact 
 and the ability to judge of what is best for the city. 
 
 Further, if crime is not concealed, people will hesitate 
 to send their children to school and that would indeed be 
 a damper. By all means keep crime under cover. But I 
 hear some one say, ''Why, Mr. Johns, you are publishing 
 the things to the world yourself." I answer that I had 
 to do it or abandon my subject. The good about Nash- 
 ville has all been published, and so often, if I were to 
 publish it again, I would have to risk being denounced 
 everywhere as a plagiarist, and there is no danger of that 
 on the other hand. You see, I was between the devil and 
 two deep seas: either be a plagiarist, abandon my subject, 
 or confine myself mainly to the bad. 
 
 Thus, kind reader, I bid vou mv *'adios." 
 
* 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
OCT 7 1812 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 649 618