Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-12-26
A READER OF THE EAGLE IN A BAD
WAY.

generation of prohibition would be bet
ter for state than high license, or free
whisky. We resolved to bury our
worldly cravings and stand by the
amendment. The flesh is weak, the
temptation to be free from debt is strong.
The treasurers Office shows a tax bal
ance for the year 1889 on the debit side
of 1913 against us. We must earn
SIG per month for the year 1889 for tax.
We have not the money. There are
pavements to be paid FOR and we are in
on this, without solicitation, and, by the
way, there is a curb and gutter levy.
We are the abject and Inundated pos
SCISSOR of some empty buildings. We
want some income. We must
pay our debts. We believe that
a generation of prohibition is most
excellent arrangement for an old state,
for state free from debt, but the sewer
tax and the state tax, the county tax,
the railroad bond tax, school tax. "attor-
ney general assistant specific assess
ment tax, and the curbs, gutter and per-
manent tax, and our debit III the treas
urer's office have smothered our high
born resolutions, and we are now IN IA
vor of any measure that will rent build
iHgs, move real estate and boom Kansas
and Wichita.
If we were out of debt we would not
care straw about the law, but we amt
out of debt. If we could sell some prop
erty we would be Indifferent to the law,
but we cannot sell anything.
We called on the county treasurer and
when our interview commenced we
were fairly well satisfied with
the world, the existing state of affairs.
In the course of our conversation we
learned that we were almost pauper.
We obtained probable estimate on the
cost of our Coffin" ere the roses bloom
again, and we became petrified. We
ascertained that Sedgwick county was
the banner county in Kansas on state
taxes and that we never got cent di-
rect benefit from state appropriations.
We became a convert by the instanta-
neous process OF the "capital removal
scheme" and left the treasurer's Office
wondering how on earth we could pay
taxes, interest, and live another year and
contribute anything toward a brass
mounted, bronze-finished Coffin" We
have often INDUCED in the thought as to
the article furnished won't leave any
thing tor the widow and children.
We intend to get out of debt, and intend
to assist in the representation of man
kind after we are out of debt. At pres
ent we are pessimistic, and the general
run of conversation, and the result of
elections, have brought us to the conclu-
sion that resubmission will bring about a
IS
whether it does In morals or not.
We have no time to theorize. We
have to pay 1913 interest taxes this year
pay interest, renew loans, make rates
and mortgages and support our family.
We shall cancel our subscriptions to
all prohibition organs, renew the EAGLE,
and work for anything that will relieve
the pressure on us, and when we get out
of debt we will evangelize the earth. We
are suffering from stagnation, depression.
We don't know whether resubmission
will help us out or not, but the last two
and one-half years have been awful, dia-
boIical, oppressive, burdensome, oner-
Gus, abominable, detestable, criminal,
execrable and Internal, venomously I'M
profitable, and we amt to blame. We
have worked earnestly, lived economi-
cally, and we are worse off than if we
had sunk under the burden on the start.
Can any condition that fate has in
store be worse than the present condition
of affairs?
Who can answer where any plan
leads to?
Who shall be believed that asserts
that we can worst our present condition
all over the entire state: Stagnation per-
meates the entire state. even the closet
of the "holy of holes" at Topeka,
and yet crops are abundant From
whence cometh this universal despairing
cry, that goes from up the lips of strong
men as each day closes on sinking values
and swelling debt.
From the Nebraska line to the wild
"Indian rose" on the south; from the
Missouri border to the snow-capped
mountains of the Silver Queen on the
west there is a moaning cry, an universal
heartfelt sigh. piteous groan: all chant
ing stagnation and business depression.
We realize an effect. We would
fathom the cause. If it is prohibition we
must get rid of it. Ii resubmission is the
remedy, whether taken raw. in aiopathic
doses. as the old way OF taking quinine,
or taken IN OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
capsule SO as to avoid the nasty taste,
we want it. We want TO change our
secular, worldly, financial condition,
from bad TO good; from depression TO a
modicum of prosperity. We are too
closely related TO ''the world the flesh and
the dsvir' to aspire to being reformer in
rags, a philanthrolpst with sheriff for
our general agent to dispose of our
land. We observe that many prohibl-
tionists are I'm fair round belly with
good capon lined" and that their income
paws debts, interest and taxes. If we
were out of debt we would reform the
earth, but we can not patiently give ear
TO any scheme that does not promise
speedy relief from deep-seated. epldemi-
| cal contagious ''hard-up-nesSs. We are
convinced that freedom from debt
is the best specific medicine Kansas can
take, and we care not who Is tha
| doctor
The worthlessness of everything di-
rectly or indirectly produced from land,
the failure to sell farm land at any fig
ure, the quasi insolvent condition OF
railroads and the inability OF men who
have watched large crops and got them
ready for market to pay interest, to say
nothing of principal, the empty homes
and business houses, all taken together
look as though a cancatenation of I'm
| fortunate circumstance had resolved on
pulverizing the 'Kanzap." We asser,
that.
| Go where you may or VIII,
You feel the same depression still.
! The anxious eye, the care-worn faces,
/ TIE haunted look of idle business places.
See the values sinking. daily with the sun
/ Unless relief be furnished our sands OF Life
shall run,