The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-07-16
TEWKSBURY.
The Hearing is Finished---But
Speech Commented on by the
Boston Advertiser

CHICAGO, July 14-The Tribune has the
following special from Boston:
The arguments in the Tewksbury aims house
investigation attracted great crowd to the
state-house The speeches of Mr. Brown
for the defense and Gov. Butler
for the prosecution occupied six hours,
The speech of Mr.. Brown was for the most
part rapid summary of the several points
raised by the governor and disposed of by his
own witnesses The governors method was
somewhat different, for, although he too de
voted himself largely to an examination of
the evidence, he paid special attention to
those points which the defense had left ex
posed. There was in his speech much of the
defamation of the practiced advocate before
juries and an apparent effort to say some
thing which could be quoted
The Advertiser comments on the proceed
ings as follows:
The keynote of his excellency's speech,
and the move behind all that he has said and
done in the Tewksbury cases, can be found in
his opening sentences He begged the audi
ence to reserve the applause they had to give
to anything he had to say until a time about
four months hence and in the conclusion of
his argument he again half admitted the po-
litical purpose of all he had been saying and
doing during the months of this investiga
ton. If the grand outcome of the inquiry be
sought for in his own speech it will be
discovered to be of very little conse-
quence. Were it all proved, it amounts
to little more than peculation on the
most petty scale. All that the governor al
legeS that the Marshes stole would not amount
to the interest on the balance of the soldiers
home for six months, and the governor
knows what that was, for it seems to have
gone into his own bank account. 1t would
be hard to conceive of anything more pitiable
than the argument to which his excellency
was reduced to make point in favor of the
testimony of Eva Bowen 1t would be wholly
impossible to conceive of anything more eS-
sentially vulgar and at the same time more
characteristic of the governors mind than his
shocking talk about the skins of TewksbIfry
paupers said to have been tanned into
leather.
Now that the hearing is closed there will
be an opportunity to ascertain something Of
the effect which it has produced upon the
public mind. We have frequently expressed
the opinion that it has developed nothing
which justified either OF the charges made by
the governor for in spite of his denial he did
bring charges against the management, or
the evident excitement over the almshouse,
which surely existed at one time in the pub
lie mind That there have been abuses at
Tewksbury is no doubt true; but it
may be questioned if there is an
other institution in the country of equal
size which could be placed under fire in the
same way for so long a time without devel-
oping state of things quite as bad as that
at Tewksbury, and in all probability, there
are few which would not make a much
worse showing To say all has not been right
there is to admit that men are not perfect.
There has certainly been nothing which called
for the scandal which the governor, for
purpose purely political and personal, has
created But whether that fact has yet pen
etrated the minds of people generally is still
In doubt