Today -100: July 15, 1912: He’s got mixed blood in him, and I can’t get him to admit it

South Carolina Gov. Coleman Blease calls the committee of the Legislature which is investigating him “gutter snipes,” adding, “If they will come to me, I will call them something that will make any man in South Carolina fight.” He offers to “shoot it out” with any member of the committee who says they believe the charges against him. He says of former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ira Jones, now running against him (after, according to Blease, “shaving the feathers off his legs,” whatever that means), “He’s got mixed blood in him, and I can’t get him to admit it.” And, just because he’s on a roll, Blease adds that the governor of Georgia doesn’t have the sense to raise a watermelon.

The NYT notes that Blease recently vetoed a bill for the medical inspection of school children, on the grounds that it was an infringement of personal liberty. Don’t ever change, South Carolina. Oh, right, you never do.