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Retired Attorney Recalls How a Convict'sFiddle Touched a Governor's Heartt,.And Brought Holiday PeaceBy Vivian McCulloughThis is a story out of the hills of Tennessee, as told by Judge Baxter Taylor,1137 NW 31. Judge Taylor, a retired Oklahoma City attorney and onetime secretary to Gov. Bill Murray, had two unclesboth of whom became governor of Tennessee. One was a Democrat and the othera Republican. They ran against eachother in 1885, in a campaign the like ofwhich this country has never seen.These two boys, Alfred “Alf Taylorand Robert Love “Bob” Taylor, grew upon a farm in eastern Tennessee. Theywere in apposite political camps becauseof a difference of opinion in the familyover Civil war issues. Their father, Nathaniel Green Taylor, one of the mostprominent men in the county, was a Republican. and bad served two terms inthe V. S. Congress. Alf followed in hisfootsteps.On the other hand, their mother, Emma,was a sister of Landon C. Haynes, senator from Tennessee to the ConfederateCongress in Richmond. Senator Haynes,a gifted orator and a Democrat, wasBob’s idol, so Bob took after him.There was a youth movement in Tennessee that year, too. Bob was 38 whileAlf was a couple of years older. Theycampaigned together, using a rented hack,to cut down expenses. Consequently, thestate Democratic and Republican committees jointly worked out their speaking schedule, which covered the entirestate.The irrepressible Bob had remarkedthat he and Alf were “two roses from thesame garden.” This caught the publicfancy and, reminiscent of England’s conflict with brother against brother, thecampaign was dubbed the “Battle of theRoses”. Alf took the red rose, and Bobthe white. While these candidates remainedfriendly and devoted to each other asbrothers, they abhorred each other’s politics.Judge Taylor s3ys, “At every point there was a procession waiting to be headed by each candidate. Bob’s carriage wasalways bedecked with white roses andwhite bunting, and drawn by from sixto eight white horses, with white plumes,while the band wagons and every vehiclein line behind, and every horseman, werealso decorated with white sashes, whiteplumes, ribbon and bunting. This whiteline of yelling marchers would extendsometimes to the length of a mile, andsometimes two miles, according to thesize of the town.Meanwhile, Alf’s procession was muchthe same, substituting red roses, red ribbons and bunting, instead of the white.There was no building in the state thatcould accommodate the crowds when thatime arrived for the speaking to begin.12 SUNDAY. DECEMBER 21. I95»There were never at any point in thesmallest counties less than 6,000 peopleAt Memphis there were 15,000 people, atJackson, 10,000. and at Knoxville. 25,000.The two processions followed the sameroute, for the candidates stayed at thesame hotel, shared the same room andslept in the same bed.An inevitable feature of each gatheringwas their fiddles. They were not greatmusicians, particularly Bob, who wasself-taught and played by car. But hecould swing off such old favorites as“Chicken in the Dough Tray,” “Sour WoodMountain” and “Old Granny Rattletrap”to the delight of his mountaineer audience. Whatever Bob lacked in musicianship, he made up in irresistible wit andcharm. Nobody could tell a “yarn” likeBob. He was the Will Rogers of Tennessee.As a sample of Bob’s folksy type of humor, when the Democratic conventionnominated him, and wired for his acceptance, his classic reply was, “Onetime a seedy-looking character appearedat our back door and said to my mother, ‘Emmaline, effan you don’t think I can carry a ham home, just you try me.’ ” Bob won, as might be expected in Democratic Tennessee. However, JudgeTaylor says it might have been a different story if their father, Nat Taylor,had run on the Prohibition Party’s ticket,as he was strongly urged to do. But Natthought two candidates in the family wasenough. Even so, Emma, the boys’ mothJudge Baxter Taylor, ratired OklahomaCity attorney, remembers the “Battle of the Rose*.»•THE DAILY OKLAHOMANGov. Robert Love Taylor . . . He was moved by a present.stoodyard, waving a handkerchief and shouting, “Hurrah for Taylor, as she didCity in 1913 to practice law.Oklahomawhen Alf’s and Bob’s processionsThe Baxter Taylors have 3 sons, Jamespassed by.Bob served three terms as governor.of San Antonio, Baxter jr., Dallas, andRobert Love Taylor, 1723 Huntington. TheAlf finally occupied the chief executive’slatter has a son, too, a senior at Hardingchair, too, but he had to wait 35 years.highschool this year, by the same name.until he came in with the Harding sweepof 1920.Both brothers went on to Congress, andGovernor Bob had a great love for humanity and sympathy for anyone in wretched circumstances. This is illustrat-this is thought to be the only instance ined by a story which he told in one of hiswhich a father and his two sons reprelectures, entitled, “The Convict and Hissented the same district in that body.Fiddle,” as follows:After leaving the governor’s mansion, Bob launched out on another career as a“One bright morning, just before Christ-stoodplatform lecturer, and made a tremen-tive chamber in my presence as Gover-dous success of it, for he was a bornnor of Tennessee, and said, ‘Governor,orator. Alf joined him later in a program with which they enthralled audiences allI have been implored by a poor miserable -fellow in the penitentiary to bringover the country. What they couldn’t havedone on TV!The Taylor brothers were well known to many Oklahomans, as they visited and lectured here. Rev, and Mrs. Williamyou this rude fiddle. It was made by his own hands with a penknife during the hours alloted to him for rest. It is absolutely worthless, it is true, but it is hispetition to you for mercy. He begged meJ. Stewart, parents of The Daily .Oklato say that he has neither attorneys norhoman’s Roy P. Stewart, who were theninfluential friends to plead for hirn, he isliving in Tennessee, heard both Alf andpoor and all that he asks is that whenBob speak in political campaigns, andthe Governor shall sit at his own happyJudge Edgar S. Vaught, also from thefireside on Christmas Eve, with his ownVolunteer state, says he knew these menhappy children around him, he will playwell. Earl Keys, 1115 NW 23, says he heard Bob’s famous “Fiddle and the Bow” lec-one tune on this rough fiddle and thinkof a cabin far away in the mountainsture at the First Presbyterian church at Guthrie about 1904, and that it was the most magnificent thing he ever heard. Jim Battenberg remembers that he got Alf over to Alva to speak to his studentswhose hearthstone is cold and desolate.when he was president of NorthwesternState Teachers college, and Alf also gaveand surrounded by a family of poor little wretched, ragged children, crying forbread, and waiting and watching for thefootsteps of their convict father.* Who would not have been touched by such an appeal?the commencement address at the col“The record was examined. Christmaslege in Edmond about 30 years ago.Eve came; the Governor sat that nigh!He came on to Oklahoma City to visitat his own happy fireside, surroundecthe Baxter Taylors, and Mrs. Taylor saysthere wasn’t even standing room in theirby his happy children, and he played onlt;tune to them on that rough fiddle.house, and the yard was full of people, too.Baxter Taylor was his Uncle Bob’s fa-“The hearthstone in the cabin in thlt;vorite nephew and accompanied him onmountains was bright and warm, toohis lecture tours as secretary for about aa pardoned prisoner sat with his bab:year. In fact, it was Bob who broughtyoung Baxter, then 19, to Oklahoma, and got him a job as editor of the Indian Citizen at Atoka in 1906. Baxter wason his knee, surrounded by HIS rejoiein* children and in the presence of HI!happy wife, and although there was nothhimelected county judge and county attorneysang, ‘Be it ever so humble, there’s nplace like home.’ ”
Newspaper Details
Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, US
Sun, Dec 21, 1958
Page 46
Full Page
Clipped by
Misty C.
NA, 16 Feb 2022
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