Ottumwa weekly courier., 1878-07-24
WIDOW WEAVER.
A True and Reliable Account o
How Ne Attempted to Clean
Out r. o. Walker, Demo-
cratic Candidate for
oA~eAk0sn
Secretary Of State.
TE EoaE,tn Stonet;tassnx1


(Keokuk Constitufionl
Friday night little circumstance
happened at Bloomfield which will
be of interest to politicians and 9TH
ers.
T. q. Walker, editor of the Demo
crat and candidate for Secretary of
State, and Gen. Weaver, Greenback
nominee for Congress in the 9th dis
trict, both live in Bloomfield. Among
other charges against Weaver which
had come to Walkers ears was one to
the effect that in 1868, when Weaver
was colonel of the I'd Iowa infantry,
member of his regiment had given
him SIS in gold to bring home to his
father, and that the General had paid
the old man in greenbacks. Right on
the heels of this came the Sigourney
Reriear, which Walker picked up, and
in it he read that Weaver had become
a Green hacker between the llth and
18th of August, 1877. T. O. put this
and that together, and between the
two he saw an opportunity not to be
resisted-leastwise not by an editor
during political campaign. so he
whitfield his lead.penciI down to q fine
point and dashed off an article corr
recting the Reviev. 1t was short, and
merely said the Reuieac was mistaken
Weaver had become a greenbacker
in 1868, when he paid off this soldier
boys father in greenbacks instead of
the gold which had been sent him.
Now here was a fact which should
have sent the General up to 12O de-
grees in the greenback thermometer,
and one calculated to quiet the inuen-
does about sudden conversion"
"policy," "office-seeking," ETC., and
tended to show that, even in the dark
est and gloomiest hours of the rebel
lion that he had the utmost confidence
in the money issued by the govern
ment, but somehow the widow didn't
seem to appreciate it, and meeting
Walker on the night mentioned, he
demanded to know who had told him
that. The desired information was
given. Weaver acknowledged that
the informant was good man., and
Walker coincided. "But," says Weav-
er, sits q lie, and you have no right to
publish such things"
Walker intimated that he was run.
ming his paper, and that he was the
best judge of what it should contain.
The General then spoke of the
charge made against him. why
said he, that would be stealing"
Walker said that, while the General
and he might differ on great many
questions, the two were agreed on
this.
Then the General, who is very
muscular and stalwart christian, fell
from grace. He clenched his fists
and smote them together, aud told
Walker, while his face resembled the
whiteness of the paper on which this
is written, and nothing about him
but his neck relieved his paleness
that he felt just like taking hold ol
him and wearing the sidewalk out
with him. He intimated that I. o.
was an uncleanly canine, dirty dog
and declared his ability to clean him
out in minute according to the gos.
pei.
i Walker, who is slight, delicate
slim built man, maintained his com
posure, and in effect repeated hii
former remark--that while they might
differ on other subjects they were
agreed on this. He remembered
that it was said you could conquer q
mad bull by looking it steadily in the
eye, and gazed steadily into Weaver.
optics until the latter quieted down
and went off.
! General Weaver has many manly
traits about him, and one of them il
courage-both physical and moral
and to his credit, be it said, he exer
cised the latter, and went to Walker
next day and told him how heartily
ashamed of himself he was. Thii
was his better second thought, which
should have been his first, as Weaver
counts on Democratic votes in the 6tf
district, and has taken the very bes
course he could possibly have devised
to drive them away from him