Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-11-23
A FREE DRUNK AT TOPEKA.
An Assistant Attorney General Needed
and a Change Of Police Commits
sioners Demanded.

1t is surprise and a source of deep re-
greet that the Capital is called upon to
chronicle the humiliating spectacle of a
Topeka firm setting up free saloon with
unlim. ted quantities Of whisky. beer and
ale for the entertainment of county Off
Gals called together in convention in this
city. These men
will go away from Topeka and say, "You
can get all the whisky and beer in Topeka
you want"
Very likely they will go away saying
that very thing, if they have any regard
for the truth. There has not been a
political convention or legislature COLI
vened in Topeka for years from which
the members could not have gone away
saying the same thing From the dome
of the capital down through its CORR
doris, and down every business street to
the Kaw bridge. and across the
river, and back up again through
the alleys, combinations Of the
declaration can be found numerously
abundant. The only surprise about the
whole matter is the ''surprise'' of the
Capital. If an EAGLE correspondent
had given publicity to such thing the
Capital and Journal and all the state
officials and the members of the supreme
court, with all the politicians who might
have been in Topeka. teaing up, to-
gether with the police commission,
would have united in denouncing it as
SANDER, unworthy the notice of right
thinking people.
What's the matter with appointing an
assistant attorney general for Topeka?
The Capital ought to realize that every
body is looking to the seat of govern
ment. There the laws are not only made
but there they are finally passed upon,
and there they should be respected
and enforced beyond question or even
chance of criticism. Now, Wichita
with her streets daily crowded with men
from vast area of country, all bent
on business through the day, and
demanding the relaxation |. afforded
by hotel life during the evenings,
beside generally being animated
with the spirit and life which charac-
terize business center, it is not to be
wondered at that in enforcing the law it
has been found necessary to Jail fifty or
sixty men at time for dabbling with
the prohibited ardent. But none of the
excuses apply to Topeka. The men who
assemble there are representative men:
senators, congressman, county officials
of every kind, and statesmen of philan-
trophic degrees, all swearing that prohibit
ton is startling success, in their respec-
tive localities, and they haven't seen any
for SO long that really they
have forgotten whether beer is solid or
a fluid. These men, too, have all been
placed in their positions of power
through their bounding advocacy and
strict adherence to the prohibi-
ton laws of Kansas, as dictated
by the Prohibition central COM
mittee enacted by Republican
legislature. That Topeka should
set EN- up" to this superior element this
exalted class, is humiliation that seems
little short of public scandal. And To-
peka is entirely to blame for these ever
calamities. If it wasn't
10 he had they couldn't get it, if
they couldn't get it, then double-gear-
ed supreme court, with commission
annex, would not be found necessary to
interpret the meaning of so many of the
statutes which found their inspiration at
the bottom of bottle at a very late hour
in the morning.
Will our esteemed cotemporary, the
Capital. give all this matter its prayerful
and in the mean time give
''bums and slums and whisky
yalOots" rest: