Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-01-29
USELESS PREACHING.
Atchison Chanpion.


One OF the old-timers, Jake Stotler,
we believe, wrote an article the other
day, on the vanity and vexetion of
political life in Kansas, how one Kan
sas statesman went crazy and another
blew his brains out, and another fell
through himself, and another sank into
wretched obscurity, the moral being
that the political game in Kansas never
returned an equivalent for the am
munitios.
All this reminds us of the powerful
sermon once preached by Kansas
divine OH the utter uselessness of riches
illustrated by the case of a rich man
who erected a fine house and
surrounded it with shrubbery
and statutory scenery" and yet he
died in the midst of all this
splendor, and stranger married his
widow and slept in his bed. These
discourses while powerfully affect
ing" when delivered, are open to the
objections that has no practical effect
in changing the current of mems
thoughts. desires and ambitions. In
spite ofthe moving story OF the rich
mans successor gaining by marriage
all that his predecessor had accumu-
lated by the use of business talent
and Precipitation, the pursuit of riches
continues. Men will strive for the
big house, and the evergreens and the
marble effigies here and there, and
take their chances of the widow dis
posal of her hand, heart and interest
in the estate. In like manner the
average Kansas man would pursue the
path of political ambition. even though
he saw at the end of il, collapse, OBJ
scriiy, or a flint lock horse pistol
loaded TO the muZzle. The Kansas
| man is built that way. Ii is III the
air: the prairie winds whistle Get
there, Eli" as it wonders among the
sunflowers.
L; must be remembered that the
| prize, after all, is very great. 1t re-
| minds one of the fox who detained
on the intolerable acidity of the grapes
when we here a Kansas editor speak
ing of seat in congress as bauble
to be lightly thrust aside as an unwor-
thy and trifling thing. To the average
citizen who goes to congress, not from
Kansas only, but from any state, the
| transition from home TO Washington
| is as wonderful as tale of the Arabi-
an Nights. From being plain Bill
Jones to being the Hon. William Jones.
NJ. c., is a great step, and from sitting
on broken-backed chair in a dingy
law Office, to the carule chair of law
giver of a great Nation is startling
change. Think of the transition from
the loafer-haunted precincts of dis
trict court room, where LAWYERS
wrangle over the question whether
some hereinbefore mentioned and
aforesaid steer was marked with a
slope in the right ear or an under bit
in the lett. TO the costly hall of repre-
sentatives at Washington! Think of
the great gulf between the fare of the
congressional restaurant. and the tri-
daily beans, served under their pro-
gramme, as masquerading as coffee
at the 'Delmonico" in Gopher
Center.
The mere increase of personal CON-
fort. the accession of luxury. the ac-
cumulation of style TO be secured by
an election to congress is enough TO
make Kansas man feverish and
giddy. and to urge him forward like
Macbeth in pursuit Of the visible, yet
elusive, atmospheric cutlery.
liz the face of such temptation it is
idle for any Kansas oracle to de-
nounce the laurel wreath as mere
jimson or pokeberry. In vain does
the Kansas seer thrust himself IL the
road OF the Kansas Lochiel bound tor
Washington. He will only be met
with,
Down, scothless insulter, trust not the
tala