Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-10-31
A BEAUTIFUL GOVERNOR.

Gov. Click recently made speech at Fort
Scott, to which he undertook to explain and
defend his eighteen pardons Of liquor selling.
ing convicts. If all his explanations" are
like the one in reference to the Marion coun-
tv case land we have good reason to believe
several of them, at least, are), they are will
full and deliberate misrepresentation of the
facts, as everybody in this county knows
We copy from the Junction City Union. a
strong Click paper, the following part of this
remarkable defense" relating to the Mar
ion county case:
Young woman had husband
die, and her little child died. To keep her
self out of the poorhouse she set up little
restaurant and went to selling pies and
cakes. One day three Englishmen came in
and asked her for dinner, and they produced
bottles of beer. They sat down and drank
their beer. A rival restaurant keeper went
in and saw what was going on. One day he
went in and ordered his dinner and asked if
he could drink beer there. The young wo-
man, ignorant of the law, and not thinking
she was doing anything wrong, told him he
could. He sat down and drank his beer.
Under the ruling of the court she was sent
to jail for thirty days. Every township in
the county sent me a long petition, asking
sent Mr.. Reed, prosecuting attorney. who
begged and pleaded with me to let that wo-
man be turned out and nurse her sick boy.
This, as our Marion county readers will
observe; is the same old perversion of the
facts in this case INDUCED in by Mr.. Click a
year ago in a letter TO some one in a remote
part of the state, which found its way into
papers at the time and was at once thor
oughly refuted in the Topeka papers by the
county attorney, a democrat who voted for
the governor. Mr.. Click was also PERSONAL
ly informed of the real facts by the Demo-
cratic sheriff of the county, and had ample
other means Of learning the truth in this
matter, and cannot be innocent or ignorant
in regard to it. He knows that the woman
was not widow when he pardoned her, but
that her husband was in Jail at the
same time for similar offense. The Eng
lishmen story is pure fabrication, and so.
also, the rival restaurant keeper yarn. Mr..
Reed, whose bowels of mercy were so terri
bly, moved, was not the prosecuting attor-
ncv, but counsel for defense. The woman
was twice convicted for the same offense, be-
fore juries: once in a Justices court, and
once on appeal in the district court. The
juries were largely made up of strong anti
prohibitionists. In short, there is not a SEN
ttlitc III tiiis Nhoic eApihIatIoH tnat Is not
false, vet in the face of the facts, Mr.. Click
goes away down to Fl. Scott. where he sup
poses the circumstances are not known, or
forgotten, and peddles his same old falsifica-
ton. Why didn't he make this "defense"
in Florence, where the offense was commit
ted, when he spoke there few weeks ago?
Why didn't he make this explanation in
Peabody? The reason is obvious.
Now, is man who tries to deceive the
people in this way worthy of trust in any
manner? If Mr.. Click would defend this |
pardon simply on the ground OF the Offend
ers sex, one might overlook it as a mere tri- |
umph of sentiment over sense, but when he |
undertakes to justify the act of lot of pure |
he proves himself unworthy of |
eredence, on general principles. In view of
this explanation" what reliance can be |
placed in the governors explanation of that |
one hundred and eighty-nine thousand acres |
of land he turned over to the railroad COM
pany Immediately after tie nomination of
the railroad king, Holiday, for lieutenant |
governor ON the Democratic ticket? What |
in short, can be placed iu any |
statement such a man may make, where his |
political interests are involved! We say
none, absolutely none.-Marion Record.