Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-10-08
An Eastern Opinion.
How Mr.. Brents is Regarded where He
is Best Known.
Dayton News, Sept. 16.

As announced last week in our
columns the Republican Territorial
Convention nominated T. H. Brents
for Delegate to Congress, and in our
opinion could not have made weak
! er nominal ton. Mr.. Brents' record
in Congress clearly shows him to be
q weak man, and there is no deny
ing it. As he has done SO little of
real benefit to his constituents, dur
ing bis Congressional career, his
friends are trying to excuse him on
the score that be had no show with
the Rebel Brigadiers in the House.
1t Isl hOnsense to talk this way; sem
sible men will no longer believe such
bosh As 10 Brents' opponent in
the Vancouver Convention, we know
little or ngthing. but would be un.
derstood as saying If he ever dis
played the least trait to statesman
ship then he should have been NOM
inatsd over Mr.. Brents, who has
shown no mark Of Legislative ability
Whatever. Two years ago, when
Brents, msde tho race for Congress,
he was then untried but Il was at
tleast sexpeoted fhAt he would loom
kp with TIL Siaee Delegates in
Congress, but hundreds who then
voted for him have since found out
that they "voted in the air."
We hope the Kalama Convention
will act wisely, Gs nominating a man
acceptable to the people of the Ter
ritory; with such man we think
Brents can be beaten. Taking
everything into consideration we do
not regard it as great feat of agili-
ty to leap over Brents majority Of
two years ago. Brents is weak
man and there is no use to try to
disguise the fact any longer. His
record for good is almost as bare as
the Plains of Sahara. 1t is not what
he might have done, but what he
did, that will go before the people
this fall. We trust every voter in
the Territory will read his StaIwart
speech" made in Congress; and by
the way, we would suggest that the
Territorial Democratic Committee
procure q few thousand copies of
that speech for distribution. We le.
gard it as an excellent campaign
document for the Democrats. A
Delegate to Congress can do but
little unless he can gain the favor OF
influential members Brents admit
ted in q speech at Walla-walla short
ly after his return home, that he was
largely indebted to Oregon members
for what little he had done in Con-
gress, yet he persisted in making an
uncalled for +" stalwart speech" :"
thereby lessening his chances to Sc
cure needed legislation.
CAuGHr FISH By CANDLE LIGHT.-A
young man of the city did start out
fishing once with lantern and the
boys chuckIe over it to this day, but
the following did not happen III
Walla- walla, but way back East:
The conductor and engineer of the
night train north on the Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western Railroad,
Saturday night, were the victims Of
rather questionable joke. Half a
mile rhis side of New Hartford the
engineer suddenly saw red lantern
the signal of danger) ahead and
brought the train to sudden stop.
The chap with the lantern seemed to
be taking things rather leisurely for
man with bad news. Conductor
Kincaid called out: Hello, there!
hurry up! what's the mat:er?" The
unconscious fellow replied: =" Vas IS
das?" Thoroughly angered the en-
gineer chimed in: What the devil
did you come from?' The aston
ished Teuton looked up smi!ingly
and held aloft generous string OF
suckers, exclaiming: "Ich habe
tisch gefangen!' l was fshin.) The
old man was allowed to tramp along,
and to this day does not know that
the train stopped on account of the
red light which he carried on his
fishing excursions.
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