" Here he paused again,
and stood silent for a moment. Then, lifting his voice to a clarion pitch,
he added:
"Fellow-citizens, I wrote that speech, intending to deliver it here to-day.
I was called to Canton on business early in the week, and during my absence
Tom Bannister went to my house and got my manuscript and learned it by
heart. To prove to you what I say is true, I will now read."
At this point the Colonel, after deliberately wiping his glasses, drew from
his capacious coat-pocket the manuscript of his address, and proceeded to
read it word for word, just as Bannister had declaimed it. The audience
listened in silence, quite unable to comprehend the situation. There was no
applause. Evidently sentiment was dormant, or it was still with Tom.
Colonel Sommerton, feeling the desperation of the moment, reached forth at
random, and seeing Barnaby's old black face, it amused him, and he chanced
to grab a thought as if out of the expression he saw there.
"Fellow-citizens," he added, "there is one thing I desired to say upon this
important occasion. Whatever you do, be sure not to nominate to-day a man
who would, if elected, ally himself with the niggers.
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