OCR Text |
Show 1 V CAPT. EVAN P. HOWELL THE DEJVIOCRAT MEMBER OF THE INQUIRY DOARD. nine Hi llnlh of Henry VT. firstly It Has lleen tho Idr or Opinion In lh Now Month llolud (trover tletalanil. MY N selecting Capt i:an 1 Howell at a member of the commlMloii to Investigate In-vestigate the conduct con-duct of the. war de-f-h partmenl d u r I n r V the lato disturb-ftliUCflA disturb-ftliUCflA 'I I nce President Mc-$ Mc-$ ""Oys K'nl'X n" done 5?ajf much to show that "SSir he propose to hate a thorough and honeit Inquiry Ueforc he nrceptrd the placo Captain Howell eald It the commlnlon la to have, unrcetrlctn! towcr In the Investl-gallon Investl-gallon and I am assured that Iti copo Is to he unlimited, I will take the place, and If I serve It will bo with the understanding that 1 will 'hew to tho line, let tho chips fall where they may. The country demands that If thero hna been any ofllclal neglect of duty In any of the branches of tho war department the blame should be fixed so that those who are responsible be held accountable and tho Innocent not suffer from the maladministration of those guilty of nny Incompetency, It I ere on tho commission It will bo aolcly for tho purpose of going to tho bottom of the whole situation" Those who know Captain Howell and there Is nobody In tho south who does not know him will understand cait. iiowiill. that this mean business. As a soldier, editor, lawjer and politician, Captain Howell has ever manifested a strength of character and an unruffled determination determi-nation that has won him success In , . nTiSK?f'' everything he undertook. He Is as ' courageous mentally and morally as he Is physically, and there Is so much about him that Is picturesque In a pergonal per-gonal way that the south Is glad the whole country Is going to get a glimpse of him In his new position. In Washington Wash-ington he Is already well known, and 'the newspaper men of New York and 1 Chicago and other northern cities are his firm friends, but outside of atjsic-raslonal atjsic-raslonal seat In the state legislature ho has consistently refused to accept any public office The captain U not yet S3 years of ago nbd Is ono of tho most perfect type of tho southern manhood which not born to work, was forced by tho devastation of war to earn Its own livelihood and to aid In the support of an Impoverished and disheartened community As a soldier his record Is ono of tho most brilliant In tho annala of tho confederacy and he has been tho recipient of many tributes from thoon who sorted wllh him, Ho was artillery artil-lery commander, recruiting his own company In deorgla and leading It In nearly every engagement that took placo between southern deorgla and northern Virginia Ho served with Stonewall Jackson until that gallant soldier was killed, and there Is a talo about him which says that he did not bellevo the story of 14 surrendering when he heard It and kept on fighting for some days afterward During tho recent Atlanta exposition Captain Howell wax railed upon to make tho speech of welcome to a reunion re-union of federal and confederate soldiers sol-diers on Ohio day Governor McKlnley making the response During tho course of his remarks he said that lie had spent most of tho four years of tho war running. During the first two yrnm ho had chased the Yankees and during the last two tho Yankees had chased him. And, lio added, amid a whirlwind of laughter and applause, that It wasn't until the tall end of tho unpleasantness that he knew what a sprinter ho was. Governor MoKlntey '. reply to this sally was remarkably clever and the blue and the gray had a love feast In Atlanta that day such as they have never had before or since .Tho war over, Captain Howell took j an active and aggressive position In tho dark das of reconstruction. Tho " homes of southern planters, which had been the abode of aristocracy and Independence In-dependence before, were desolate and unproductive, families wore scatterod and cities burned to the earth, women and children bad no on to protect or to provldo for them, and the worst part of the situation seemed to be Uio . almost utter hopolessncss and helplessness helpless-ness for tho moment of tho remnant of Cleorgla' magnificent population that r remained. A fow brave men took hold of tho situation with an earnest effort to make tho most of the wretched circumstance, cir-cumstance, and among them no ono 1 served with more fidelity or with groat- i cr succiss than Captain Howoll. Ho not only was possessed of unlimited brain and brawn, but there, was always sunshine In Ills presence and cheerful- wmmmmmmmmm nets In his every action That Is one reason why the people of Georgia love him so much today He whirled Into the law business at first, but speedily reformed becnuso thero was nobody who bad either any us for law or any money to pay for It It tbey did Then ho became an editor, and with the late Henry W Clrady founded the Atlanta Constitution, Constitu-tion, and made It In a short tlmo a newspoper whose voice was listened to In tho Journalistic councils of tho country It would have been difficult Indeed In that day or In this, for the matter of that to find two men so perfectly equipped for tho work they undertook or better qualified than they to aid In tho upbuilding of tie section which they both loved so well A thousand and one stories could be lold of their long partnership but It would require a book to print them In matters outside the paper, and especially es-pecially In politics, they frequently disagreed, dis-agreed, and at one lime they wero chairmen of executive committees of rival parties seeking the municipal control of Atlanta, but In their editorial editor-ial and business pollcv they wer always al-ways one, and nlwa right A year ago Captain Howell sold a one-fourth Interest In tho Constitution for 1125 000 and retired from the td-llorlal td-llorlal management of tho paper, to which position his son, Clarke Howell, was at once elected He has since devoted de-voted himself to his private enterprise enter-prise and to the eno)ment of the rest which his long years of hard labor la-bor have entitled hlni to At tho time of hla appointment he wna spending a fow weeks In tho north with a portion of hlfl family, and his selection as a member of the Investigating commission commis-sion came to him as a complete surprise sur-prise When he received It ho said to a friend that he felt It tho duty of every ev-ery good cltlien at such time to accept any call that tho chief executive might make on him, and as soon as he could arrango to do so ho went to Washington Washing-ton to seo the president. In politics Captain Howell haa al-wavei al-wavei been a democrat of the old achool, but bolted Cleveland and Clevelandlsm In 1SSI, '88 and ': During the last fifteen or twenty )ears ho hss been a delegate from the state at large to all the national conventions of his party, and during tho lato campaign wna ono of the moat active supporters of Ilryan In tho country In social llfo ha Is ono of tlii most popular men ot the slate, and as a stump speaker h la without an equal Tho lato Charles A. Dana onro said that he could tell a bad atory better than anybody on earth, and that as a teller of good stories he beat the world He baa several tlmea been urged to accept m nomination for governor of deorgla, hut has steadily refused, giving as his reason tho statement that lie already has sufficient troubles and did notwanl more. |