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s~ iAn Interview t a urc; d lvir\/IM ;? H Columbia, S. C., April 12.?"Well," i said Governor Blease, looking me straight in the eye, and smiling just a little quizically, "Now, what do you thi? "Governor," I replied, as I arose to say goodbye, "you remind me of Bill Xye's definition of classical munrv+ -nnotItt erv ViOrl oo Vflll 1 vtl Ci 1 UV/U XJ ov wv*v* Ui^ j " v, sometimes sound!" Then Coleman Livingston-e Blease, } , chief magistrate of South Carolina, ' laughed a big, booming laugh, and said, "All right?that's all right! The one and only thing I ask is that people speak the truth of me, when they speak of me at all." It is no easy matter to get to Governor Blease?at least, it was no easy matter for me. His secretary?a fine young chap?swore by the great horn spoon at first that I shouldn't. T expostulated and explained?he said there was nothing doing. He told me frankly why, moreover. He said, quite engagingly, that the f governor had so frequently "been lied r about, up one side and down the other "by various enterprising newspaper 1 men here and there, that h>? was getting heartily tired of it!" I expressed a large measure of sympathy for that point of view, but I assured the secretary that T was not (a liar I insisted, indeed, that George "Washington had little, if anything, on me in the matter of veracity! k * The Secretary Relents. p*? "Oh, I guess you would see him and talk to him, whether you did or not," said the secretary, menacingly. T wa? very much pained that the secretary should have said anything so unkind?and I am reasonably sure T looked the part, too. For presently the secretary said. "Well you come back here at 1 o'clock, and I will arrange for an audience with the governor." I was back at one?a quarter before. Almost immediately I was ushered into'the executive's presence, i Tt xcfls ^vnlained tr> me then that (the governor had not quite understood thta it was one of Mr. .Hearst's newspapers that wished to communicate with him. He had sent his felicitations to the Sunday American, upon the occasion of its first appearance, and he was quite ready to see its representative. * Once I "got the governor going," it was all conversationally with me. Every now and then I edged in a word or two, but most of the time the J 4-V? /\ loll'irj o* guvt-l uur UIU clic: lamia^. For an hour and a half h-e unbosomed himself, and he might bp talking yet had it not been that a - very black negro?the governor's |r famous chauffeur?stuck his head in ft* 1*he door eventually and informed his R- excellency that "Miss Fannie" was V waiting. ft ? When this happened, I was served Jft with polite notice that I had reached the end of my rope. "Miss Fannie," I learned, is Mrs. Blease. The remainder of the day I spent In walking about the streets of Columbia, asking questions about Blease ?the most talked about governor in 4.-u? t rpallv believe. liir ovu (/xx wuuj) A w? Reeks With Personality. ^ ' Coleman Livingstone- Blease simply reeks with personality and all but "bursts with individuality. I have met and talked with many (public men?I never before met a' more interesting one than Blease. | He is as unique as Theodore Roos-e- j v^lt or Tom "Watson. There is ab-j f^olutely nothing of the commonplace) about him. x I Apparently, he doesn't giveadamski for anythingovitch. As a matter of ;fact. he do?s?very much. He stands fire manfully, but he has no <rreat likins: for it. He hurls back evcjrv a'legation, and defies cvery all:gator but h3 feels the cut and lasn ;?f yiverse criticism keenly, nevertheless. Talk with him ten minutes. U \v?Il I c ' suffice +o prove the truth of these m assertions. p]-?asf is a perfe?tly natural, and not at all unwhol-vm?, product cf South Carolina as it s today. One gentleman in ColumMi asked ma if T d;d not think it a "far crv downward from Wade Homplon to C<>:e l Blease?" I told him I should not say P- ' it was. T should not say tt w*s a B cry either up or down?rather would I call it "a cry across." For it is a 1 cry across?across a chasm that like^^^lyfnever will be bridged, albeit those Hr>n one side of it by and by come to be nothing more than a memory and S a song. Blease is South Carolina up to the minute. He is far, far removed from fill the old aristocratic order of things. He has no ancestors that cut any Bv particular scallops, socially or other! I rith Gov. BWse. I earst's Sunday American. wise, in the Palmetto State. In the past few years, there have come into South Carolina thousands of cotton factory votes?they are for Bleas-e, to a man! Looked On As Disturber. Th-s ancient oligarchy?somebody handed and it hath handed me that sonorous term in Columbia, and it hath a "smug ring"? hates Blease. It looks upon him as q tonTr intrndpr nn rmtsidpr. a dis turber of the peace?in short, a most unwelcome "buttinski." It doesn't distress Blease in the least, however, that such is the case. "A man's a man for a' that," and Blease believes that the vote of an intelligent, honest, and well-informed cotton factory hand named Brown is quite as well worth having as the vote of Reginald Montmorency, Reginald and his ancient and honorable ancestors to the contrary notwith sianamg: And right here, let me say that the trouble with Blease?such xuuble as | there is with him at all?in so far as the things he says are concerned is j not in the substance of his utterances ' so much as in the occasional form thereof. His most famous promulgation, i perhaps was delivered a few months [ ago in Richmond, at the gov-ernor's conference. Here is exactly what he said: I would never order out the militia and ask the home boys of South Carolina to shoot down their friends and their neighbors to protect a black brute who had assaulted a white woman o our State, and I will never do so. If the constitution of my State causes my State to blush and allows her women to be forsaken, thrfifl say, to hell with the constitution. Now, be fair to Blease. There was a pretty rough way of saying what he had in mind, to be sure?still, haven't you heard thousands and thousands of good men and true say in substance exactly the same thing? in politer and more chaste language, perhaps, and without references to hell or any other unpleasant place? but he same thing, for all that? That "to hell with the constitution" j was seized upon, and used to Blease's I J- ~ J ; J- V, I>nrlnin(r in mnnv Inp.ali- I U.I?>UI cuit anu uxiuviu^ , ties?and yet when you come to judge j the substance and not the form of ! what he said, and how he said it, and i the circumstances of it, why?well, j just be fair to Blease, anyway in \ reachiJTsT tUSTlusions. The things that Blease says he said; in Richmond are sworn to by the official stenographer of the Richmond gathering, and he produces the signed statement of that stenographer to show precisely what he did say. Scores Prevailing Costumes. ? tn an IjrUlLlg UU JLI Ulll LlllO vw other, the governor said this: "It is not so much the black brute in life that makes the fearful and the ! fate of the women in the South, we will handle the black brute as they deserve?but it is the sinister, persuasive, ingratiating evil influence of fashion that causes me to tremble for them. When I pass along the streets today and see the costumes, fashioned in Paris and in effete Europe, that our woman wear?costumes that are destructive of that sweet modesty i - ? i r? i I we love so in our women?iueu ia; I when I fear for them. We can, and ! we will, protect our women against tnose d-eadly foes we can put our hands upon, but our women themselves must protect themselves' against themselves." : Anything revoli tiomrv -in] nr. or rambunctious in th;:-? Mnyho r-o? and yet thousands and tl^ou^mils of people are saying tho sain thing every day. j When the governor of South Carolina looks out one window of the cap-: ital he s^es a statue of Gonzales, th? j man killed by the famous "Jim" Till-, i man. Bl-ease helped defend Tillman, ! and the shadow of that tragedy hangs over South Carolina still?even as, i the slaying of Carmaek hangs over; Tennessee. I The governor looks out another win-' dow, and there s-ees a bronze statue of Wade Hampton, in which is represented all the glory of the ancient order of things. And that order has no use for Blease, and only tolerat-es him because it has to. nnnprs. and in tie lUUivS U> all South Carolina, only some half dozen or so have a good word for the governor. He drives down the streets of Columbia?sullen ac-quisesence in a distasteful situation is his greeting from the citizens. And yet he sits in the capital ! ] of proud old South Carolina,?as duly accredited governor by the abso- i 1 I Into and undisputed will of a sov-1 ereign electorate, at orce both the Lest beloved and the most hat d man ! within the commonwealth! There's \o Middle Ground. His 'friends idolize him,?his enemies detest him. Th-?re is no such thing as getting an impartial view of him in South Carolina. There he j wears either hoofs and horns or a ; halo. In order to get at the truth ; about iiiease, on-e musi nave no ni-i rect or personal interest in South Carolina politics. "I am this way," he said to me. "I am for my friends and against my enemies. No man who isn't for me j need ask anything of me?h-e won't I eet it. T make onlv one exception to that rule?in the matter of pardons, I cast aside absolutely the question of factional alignments." I reminded him that he had been criticised severely for issuing so many pardons. "Yes," he said, "I have issued many ?the one, I issued today runs my grand total up to 607. By the end of my term, I hope to make it an -even 1,000." "I love the pardoning power. It fur| nishesmie a chance to give many poor j J deviJs another chance. "I parole, however, more than I pardon and some?many?of my total j of 607 really are paroles operating as j pardons as long as they are not vio-| lated. "A man commits a crime under the, influence of drink. After he has served a time, and I am persuaded that the man really came to grief, I not through natural inclination so much as through the misfortune of unwise drinking, I say to him, ?Go, drink no more! So long as you keep ! free of liquor, all right?I'm your friend?get drunk, and back you come to prison, and my hand is against you hereafter. Am I wrong in that? I like to get petitions for clemency. Whenever the good people of a community ask clemency of me, they get it. I am their servant?if they knowing the immediate circumstances of the crime, ask pardon or parole, I give heed. "If we had in South Carolina such a system as they hove in Colorado, I would not have to issue so many par-! dons and paroles?but we haven't. 11 go to the p-enitentiaries in person. I j investigate the cases seemingly de- J serving of clemency, in person, and I make up my own mind what ought to be done. "I do not think the theory of imprisonment for crime demands pun-1 ishment so much as reformation. 1j believe in giving a fallen human being another chance, wherever it can be j done. I may have made mistakes in! the exercise of the power of clem- < ency?if so, I have erred on the side 1 of mercy, anyway, and that is what; I prefer to do, if I must err ever." ftnnnceri to "Divorce. vrt-v^^~ "You say, governor that you believe in giving a man another chance and yet you oppose divorce." I ventured. "Oh, well, that's another matter," laughed the governor. "And seriously, I do oppose divorce?it isn't right! i "On the question of divorce, South | Carolina stands alone. She is supe- j rior to all the other States in the American union, because, written in her fundamental law are the solemn words. 'No divorce from the bonds of~ matrimony shall ever be granted.' | "It may work a hardship here and there, still I sayUhat the only correct rule to follow is that sanctioned by both Biblical and human injunction,?what God hath joined together, let no man put asunaer. "The sanctity and safety of society j depends upon the home. And in this; State no home ever is broken up by j esal m-ans." Gov rnor T le?..ce will, T think, be nrmed iv the primaries next j year to succeed E. D. Smith, the pres-. ent junior s'^tor from South Caro-1 lina. He will be named. I beli-eve,; simply because- he has the votes. There will be a mighty fight made; upon him. He will be in the linve-: light constantly and will say many i shocking things. He's a shocker from ; away back, when in action! A lot of things will be twisted to; i his discredit?and he will say a lot j of things he ought not to say, no doubt. He's pretty much of a demagogue at times u ^Questionably what i ever that is. i- But he will be named senator, be1 cause he represents the majority ; opinion of South Carolina politics to' 1 - J1 ...U /si-U/vM V\ r\ Ail f \ ! oav. Kegaruress ui wucmci uc vu?"*. to, he does! Senator Tillman hates him vigor| ously, and will undertake to defeat j him. Tillman was looked upon in ; South Carolina very much as Blease ; nowadays is looked upon. He said ! quite as many offensive things. Tillman knocked the ancient, order ?that "oligarchy" business somebody) 4 Get Book About Interior Finish?It's Free If you're thinktng of redecorating any rooms, it tells a lot of things you'll be glad to know. It tells what colors to use in dark rooms, what colors in bright rooms, what colors make rooms look larger and what smaller. It shows a number of color arrangements by expert decorators. Altogether it's a mighty interesting book. 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" <}'( A?k'?rr ;';.?-W*K>.TF.i{f4 J v K::iv> riL:>,Vryj \ /r7 s^A'.>a?s 'M/ I AY ?Tt!^ ryRr^r^ handed me in Columbia?into a cocked hat, and ail the king's horses and all the king's men cannot put that oligarchy together again! There is much sound and iury anoui Go\ernor blease at times, but the always painting of the dark side of thf picture has not been square. He might be better, he might be worse ?he is governor of South Carolina by the honest voice of the people, twice emphatically expressed! Is he a statesman, real or near? Opinions differ?even as tastes. Certain it is that he is the most talked -i?..i. in nivio fnrfav and the (iUUUL man, iu lyi-viv, t ? last not yet has been heard of him. In Columbia they undertake to ostracise him socially and will have nothing to do with him. Af;er talking with him freely and personally, I incline to think that, perhaps, the Columbianites must miss quite as much by reason of that as Governor Blease does." I Has Made Its W< It's M HEN we began > SVVf national Comi , *2Hor ago the one id sell a useful c ? " ? ^ car for count safely carry a reasonable 1 and back, and last long profitable. Some of those first c< ' honest day's work ever paid for themselves. Nc I efficient as the car we se sss time to buy an International Cc For the merchant eng requiring much light haul eries; for the business extend his territory; for t cut down delivery exper time be progressive and I I national commercial car : Simple, sure, powerful through mud-holes and s where a team can travel to 18 miles an hour. Ti and direct. Brakes axe are strong. A single lev sa Write for catalogues a desired. I International Harvester (Incorpon Columbia nMnapNaMMfWMWHaai VNp f tms must oi The Atlanl when mixe wood. A1 Make sure he uses Dut Drop in Points" cor IThe value goes volume. We're cars better as v of them?that's 1 nsn't keen Dace wi* (Insure yourself ; pointment by gett: today. 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