Tillman, South Carolina's senator

              TILLMAN
SOUTH CAROLINA'S SENATOR^
UNDER MANAGEMENT OF
CHICAGO LYCEUM BUREAU        ....     Chicago.
CO-OPERATIVE LYCEUM BUREAU       -        -        -    Omaha.
COIT LYCEUM BUREAU.....       Cleveland.
COLUMBIAN LYCEUM BUREAU                              -    St. Paul.
LABADIE LECTURE BUREAU    -                                  New York and Philadelphia.
"PITCHFORK" TILLMAN
*.    *   *   *
INTRODUCTION
Tribute by Senator Hoar of Massachusetts:   *'He is an  honesty  manly and able Statesman."

WHEN TILLMAN first came into view as a public man the impression spread abroad was that there was an uneducated, un¬couth, brawling Southern farmer, who aspired to rule his State. This was one of the earliest misinterpretations of the man that was circulated over the land. Benjamin R. Tillman came of one of the most intelligent, and it might be said aristocratic, of the old South Carolina families. When he was a boy before the war he had for a governess and tutor the sister of Chester A. Arthur, who afterwards became President of the United States. The Tillman family lived in lux¬ury until the war swept away its property in slaves and left it nothing but depreciated land. The present Senator, on that account, did not go to college, as nearly all the rich Southern youth did before the secession, nor did he study law. He became a farmer on the ancestral estate, and there he stayed, literally a tiller of the soil, until the great political uprising of the farmers of the West and South took place in 1890. Mr. Till¬man, however, during the twenty-five years of his steady farm life was an eager student of books and affairs, such as became the brother of a prominent fcurteen-year congessman, the cousin of perhaps the leading lawyer of the Ala¬bama bar, and a near relative of other Tillmans who became lespectively a professor at West Point, a district attorney in Tennessee and a United States minister in the diplomatic service.
The South Carolinian  collected  in   those  yeani one of the largest private libraries in the S< >uth and all who knew him appreciated his intellect-1 ual accomplishments and his unusual strongmen-tal capacity.
In the heat and bitterness of the campaign of 1896 Henry Watterson said: "In Gover: >: Alt-geld behold Robespierre; in Tillman, Danton." The intended effect was alarmist to the last de¬gree, since Robespierre and Dai;ton were identi¬fied with the darkest hours of the French R lution. The comparison of Tillman with Dan-ton, absurd as it was, did possess, however, one merit. Danton was a natual leader of men through sheer strength of mind and body, Till¬man, also, is a leader of men for the same reason. His powers were first called into play in the re¬markable contest he waged for supremacy in South Carolina against the old aristocracy. It was a political revolution whic1! h? led, and he was finally overwhelmingly si ecessful against the combined forces of coinuur: , Lie bar, the church and the press. Tillman conducted four of the fiercest fights ever known in the South— so fierce that only a man of his perfect physical courage could have stood the ordeal—and the last two of them planted him in the State Capi¬tol as governor and opened his way to the United States Senate. He has served one term as sena¬tor, and has recently been designated by his party as his own successor.
We are pleased to announce to our patrons that we have the control of SENATOR TILLMAN for the platform, including both summer and winter work, and assure our friends that the}^ will have the pleasure of hearing a sincere man discuss great Ameri¬can problems.
SOME PRESS ECHOES.                    I
It was a great day for Senator Tillman. He simply took the galleries by storm. It was cruel indeed for the presiding officer to check the applause occasioned by the speaker, who aimed his bitter shafts of invective full in the faces of those who sat in the galleries. Senator Till¬man declared that he did not intend to read an essay, but that he would depart from the custom of the "fossils" of the Senate and give the country a speech that would go sounding down the ages. He did it, too.—Albany Journal.
The speech of Senator Tillman in the Senate last week was one of the most remarkable deliverances heard in the historic chambers for many years. In several ways it is the most remarkable. It is not only origins but decidedly unique. Senator Tillman aimed his attack at the democratic administration. He represented, he said, the common people, and he had broken down the barriers of the patrician Senate to tell its members "how the common people feel, what they think and what they want."—Pittsburg Labor Journal.
The speech of Senator Tillman, of South Carolina,
The intellectual vigor and unexampled frankness
s great as any speech that has been delivered since      displayed by Senator Tillman, of South  Carolina, in his
BRAVE BEN. TILLMAN
(BY A COLORADO YANK.)
All hail ! brave Benjamin Tillman, Ben. Tillman, son of the South !
Senator governor, gentleman— Your head's in the "Icon's" mouth.
ime.    It was harsh, it was out of taste, it was
I       J. cniie in some respects, but it was virile with truth, pt over the Senate like a Texas norther, destroying ...   jt purified, bringing health while it seemed to blast. I    atorial traditions  crumbled  under the fierce invect-of the South Carolinian.    Urged by the consciousness l   t he represented a State ; knowing that he had gone, his people's   demand,   from   the  plow  hadles to the governorship, from the governor-I  shin to the senatorship of the United States    he  stood   squarely by the )  people as against those who would ct tribute from them.— Trenton \  Jhrald.
The   Senator  announced at
the outset that he was "on his good
I   behavior," but that did not prevent
I   him from acting up to his reputa-
tion  as a speaker who  does   not
'   '• mince matters," and some of his
I   points were as virile as they were
glittering.    He is nothing if he is
I not original, but behind the rugged
fcpeech there is no room to question
I his sincerity.
From first to last Mr. Till-I man swayed his audience, and at times he carried his auditors to a high pitch of enthusiasm. While his address was thoroughly char¬acteristic of the man, it dealt in a practical way with the present issues, and met the present situa¬tion squarely and fairly.—Rich¬mond Dispatch.
You've braved the birds and the beasts, Ben The lion and the dirty "cuckoo;"
Here's a health to you, Ben. Tillman, X,et's shake ; say "How do you do?"
remarkable speech in the Senate on Wednesday, created a sensation that will not die out in a day. It is not too much to say that nothing of the kind ever occurred be¬fore in the upper house of Congress. A Washington dispatch says that at one time during the delivery of the philippic against President Cleveland, Senators, both Repuclicans and Democrats, shuddered. There will be those, of course, who will criticise Governor Tillman for the severe and even virulent lan¬guage which he used when speak -ing of the President. But, unless we greatly misunderstand the pres¬ent temper of the American people, the average citizen, irrespective of party, will find satisfaction m the shaking up of the senatorial dry bones by the speech of Tillman.— San Francisco Chronicle.
Carolina, proud child of the .South !
The mother of noble sons, When our country calls for men ;
But now the greatest comes.
We've quarreled oft with you, dear child, And with your great Calhoun,
But all this is past, for they may've Been born an age too soon.
We thought that the war was over, Ben., But here's the hand of a Yank.,
Who'll follow you now as his capiain, And take his place in the rank.
"We thought we'd fought our last, brave Ben.,
But we've only started to fight, Freedom has struck the black man ;
We'll not try freeing the white.
At last the new Senator from South Carolina has begun the work he was sent to the capital to do. There really was no opportunity for him to begin before. He has been a silent man at Washington for weeks, awaiting his occasion. It has come, and he has made the post of it.
For "liberty—union—forever !" Is something more than a name
With such as you'uns to lead us, Somehow I'm glad 'at you came.
A big crowd gathered in the banquet hall of the Ellicott Club last evening to listen to Senator Tillman's talk before the members and guests of the Independent Club. Those present enjoyed a most interesting discourse. Senator Tillman may not be a great orator, but he has a humorous gift of ex-pressiou that lends interest to his most commonplace utterances, and all who heard him last night had to recognize that, whatever they might think of his politics or his State dispensary idea, he was sin¬cere in believing it the best attempt at solving the liquor question that has yet been made, and had the courage to say so at all times.— Buffalo Courier.
We've got it bad in our hair, brave Ben., Since we fought with I,ee and Grant,
But it gathers quite slow in our pockets— The "silver" the people want.
J. B. WHITHAM.
Senator Tillman will be the political power of this 'Untry in time. The speech he made in the upper house st week is the best evidence of this Already the capi-listic element perceive this, and they have begun *ir campaign of abuse and misrepresentation- The utocratic organs reprint his remarks in a garbled form, id proclaim them an indecent attack upon the Prestdent. tod. That shows how well Senator Tillman has done swork. He has pierced the hide of the rhinocerous, [d made the creature bellow.— The 20th Century.
When Senator Tillman arose the audience cheered for several minutes. He showed by his man¬ner of delivery and use of language the characteristics which hava made him famous. He was unlike any orator ever seen on a Lexington platform. He would talk in a conversational way with his auditors then he would declaim in passionate terms. His in¬vective was more bitter than anything heard in Lexing¬ton since the day of Thomas F. Marshall. His gestures are of the Talmagean order, r*d his acting of the most vigorous character. He was a revelation to his audiences. —Louisville,
Senator Tillman has a commanding appearance. He is a typical Southern gentleman, has a matchless voice and power of withering invective.—Daily Verdict.
Benjamin Ryan Tillman — Senator from South Carolina—sometimes known as the one-eyed Cromwell of the Palmetto State. A farm.r by occupation, though in some respects a professional po itician. When he was Governor of this State his enemies called him a revolu¬tionist.    This was  not a misnomer, for he did  revolu-
tionize politics in South Caroli¬na. Nothing had transpired in that common A ealth since the day Fort Sumter was fired upon in 1861, that so stirred up affairs as did Senator Tillman during his admin¬istration, while he was the execu¬tive. He is not a theorist. He sees things as they actually exist. His honesty has never been questioned. He calls things by their proper names. He is as brave as a lion, and as gentle as a woman. He is far more popular in the Senate to-day than when he entered that body. He was then regarded as a fire-eater of the most pronounced type. He has grown more con¬servative, and many of his best friends in the Senate to-day are those who did not want to speak to him five years ago. An enemy of shams, a ventilator of fraud, a friend of reform, and a defender of honesty. Cares nothing for society, and is not sociable. Modest to a degree, assumes to be nothing that he is not. He is not hand¬some, and he knows it. He is cordially disliked by those who want to perpetuate fraud upon the Government. South Carolina has sent abler men to Senate than he, but none who was a greater friend
of the plain People. He is never afraid to express his opinion in a forceful manner upon all public questions. Whatever may be said for him or against him, he is in no sense a t immer. There is no mistaking where he stands. He is either for a measure or against it, and if it is an iniquitous o::e, he can always be counted upon as oppos¬ing it with all the power at his command.
Senator Tillman's faults spring from the ->ert intensity of his virtues. Bold as a lion, he assaults th object of his aversion, whether it be a policy or a ma with fury, amounting sometimes, it would seem t hatred. Absolutely candid in the exposure of his fc , ings and opinions,  his strength of  conviction and pk turesque vigor of language often betray him into lengths of express. ion which impress others as harsh and homstimes brutal. His shock-ing references to the colored race in politics are a case in point. While absolutely honest, a hater of wrong, and devoted, according to his lights, to the public welfare, he seems to be lacking in charitable-ness and sympathy towards weaker people. Possessed of a bright, an¬alytical mind, which enables him to detect hypocrisy, he loves noth¬ing better than to expose shams in their nakedness ; yet he lacks mer¬cy.—Cincinnati Commercial.
Tillman cannot be whistled down the wind. Nobody under¬takes to answer him. There was abundant scholarship in his speech. Now and then he lapsed into home¬ly phrase, especially when inter¬rupted. But throughout it all he was masterful, defiant, confident. His speech was that of a man charg¬ed with a mission from those who put him in high place. He fulfill¬ed it bravely, magnificently.— Trifh ton (Tenn.) Herald-Democrat
Hon. Benjamin R„ Tillman United States Senator from South
United States Senator from boutn Carolina, one of the most eloquent orators in the country, addressed an immense audience at the Academy of Music to-day. The forceful and interesting manner in which Senator Tillman presented his arguments won for him hearty applause. He is a speaker of force, and the man¬ner in which he presents his arguments has gained hill? the appellation of " Pitchfork " Tillman.
BENJAMIN TILLMAN.
(REV. J. D. COLEMAN, in Sound Money.)
God be praised for men that dare
To speak the truth in season ; Who dare to pull the mask from off
The face of lurking treason.
That fear not gilded enthroned wrong
But facing all its power, Do speak the good of God abroad,
And smite it in its hour.
Of greatest trinmph, glut with gold, And flushed with lust and greed,
When fastened on the people's vitals It doth gorge and feed.
Fear not, brave Tillman, though the scorn
Of plutocrat and vassal, May pause a moment thee to curse
In midst of their wild wassail.
'Tis not the slave and cringing cur,
The sycophant and servile, That's written in the book on high,
But those who're truly noble ;
Those who fear not face of man, Though crowned and robed in sable,
Who Senate, state and church alike Despise and hold ignoble.
When truth .nd right are held in check, And vice enshrined in cannon ;
But hold the greater crime to be To yield to gold and mammon.
Hail ! then, ye " heaven-born band,"
For freedom fight as ever, Nor death, nor gold, nor fear, nor hell,
The truth and right shall sever.
SUBJECTS.
/.     The Race Problem—-from Southern Point of View.
2.     A Plea for the People.
3.     The Dispensary—Treatment of the Temperance Question.