The Press., 1889-10-03


 be the editor of the Topeka Daily Demo croJ, Ca paper which is not of sufficient importance to be named in any of the standard directories, 80 far as we can find) has appeared in Connecticut, posing as "a temperance man in theory and practice, " who has come east to give warning of the "farce Of prohibition" by citing what he calls facts from Kansas. He has written letter to the New York Sun, and had him. self interviewed by the New Haven ReoSs. ter (the stanohest rum organ in Connecti- cuO and as other dailies readily take the Registers cue, he is making something of stir in this staid old state.
 Editor TOmlinson has appeared in a similar role in every recent amendment contest, with regularity and sameness of utterance that is surprising if not sus- picious, until now one is led to wonder, either at the astonishing self-sacrifice, or at the amount of money 1t costs the saloon ists to keep him going. We cordially well come him to Connecticut, for his now familiar lies posses positively helpful value to prohibition, in that ultimately they invariably serve to emphasize the very truths he attempts to conceal. Hampshire last spring, Tomlinson made this statement about the city of Topeka:
 The liquor cases have completely ohoked up the courts. We have been obliged to es- tablish the grand jury. Within the past 30 days Topeka has been obliged to establish the metropolitan police system to enforce the liquor law, and still it is not enforced. Dives and joints flourish, and all the iniquities of secret ceiling are added to the lesser evils of the open trafac."
 1t so happened that this statement was 'telegraphed to Topeka. County Attorney Welch (says the Topeka correspondent of the New York Voice) had, in common with other persons, been for months look ing in vain for saloons in Topeka. The law of Kansas authorizes and instructs every county attorney to take the testi- mony, under oath,, of all persons who are known or alleged to possess information of infractions of the prohibitory law. County attorney Welch decided to show this pro- vision of the law to Tomlinson upon his arrival, and to persuade him to locate some of the 'dives and joints" that flourish" there ''..-
 After a time Tomlinson came. flushed with the great rum victories gained in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In his gripsack were many copies of eastern news papers containing interviews wifh him. But the Interviewing business did not stop with his departure from Boston and New York. County Attorney Welch promptly called upon him, took him up to the court house, and put him under oath, and there had an interview with him which has since been spread upon the official records of Shawnee county and rivals in interest and piquancy anything printed upon his au- thority by the Boston Globe or Transcript Orf fho ,Ss S,@k { is true, would not yield Tomlinson very large returns at "space" rates. It is short. It reads as follows:
 County Attorney Welch.-State your name, age and residence.
 Tomlnson. William F. Tomlinson; 50 !: Topeka, Kan.
 W.-Do you know of the existence of an open saloon in Shawnee county at the present time?
 TT do not.
 W.-Do you know of any open saloon in Shawnee county within the past two years?
 T.-No, do not.
 W.-Do you know of any secret place in Shawnee county where liquor can be bought by the drink?
 TT do not.
 W.-Do you know of any drug store where intoxicating liquors are sold contrary to law T.-Of my own personal knowledge do not. wish to say that being practical temperance man and teetotaler from princi- pie, have never been patron or frequenter of drinking places in this or any other city, and therefore do not know of any violations of the prohibitory laws in Topeka" At the end of this interview, standing out boldly upon the official page, is the name civilian F. Tomlinson," and in the gentleman's own hand writing. All of the answers to the county attorneys ques- tions are also in Tomlinson's hand writ ing:
 Tue Capital, speaking of this affidavit, says: ~ knew he CTomlinson1 was liar, and this morning we prove him as such by his own words. What must be said of man who will thus deliberately islander his city and the people with whom he lives for the sole and only purpose of aiding the damnable liquor traffic? It will be in order now for this man to go to Pennsylvania in the interest of the brewers and saloon keepers with the above record staring him in the face" But MT. Tomlinson nevertheless had the 'cheek" to go to Pennsylvania, and now here he is in Connecticut. He was con- fronted few days ago with this fatal re- cord a few days ago in New Haven, by MT. s. P. Thrasher of that city, and in com munication to The Register he attempts to explain it away by the claim that he is "a teetotaler in principle" he 'knew mo- thing personally of the violation of the prohibitory law, depending for informa- tion upon the records of courts, statements of the press, etc." But here again he squarely contradicts himself, for the Sin terview" in The Register of last Sunday abounds in alleged accounts from "ny o6- sesOatSosa," and what "I saao" in this place and that place-in other words, bas- ing his whole claim to credence upon his knowledge" And yet how strangely this observation, and "knowledge," and what he ''saw" failed him when question ed by County Attorney Welchl