The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-09-14
ROSE IN DETROIT,

FREEDOM, Sept. 12-MesSrs. Editors:
know advice is generally an impertinence
but you can stand 1t when 1t costs nothing
For many years the FREE TRADER hat
been something like household words tC
me. 1t has been clean. dignitied and ir
its political discussions able. Isn't II low
ering the standard In getting down to 9
-splattering contest with creature like
Lester A. Rose9 Can decent man ever
expect to hold his own in a word duel with
thorough bred Backyard Drop Rose
don't soil your clean shirt with his name
He can't hurt you. A.
We can understand the feelings of oul
kind hearted friend A, and appreciate his
advice. He quite comprehends the mast
mess of the work referred to and would
save us from the pollution. As Heinrich
Heine says
ia, das Schrecklichste auf Erde
LIST der Kampf NIT Ungeziefer,
Dem Gestank ais Waite dient;
Das Duell nit elmer Wanze!
Which freely rendered into English about
means, that nothing in the world is more
dreadful than to be obliged to fight vermin
armed with stencil for weapon: skunks
and bedbugs, for example.
Yet the good housewife. finding her beds
infested with the Ctmer lectularius (high
toned for b. b. sickening and disgusting as
the job is, proceeds without thought of
hesitation, TO use every effective means
within her reach to get rid of the filthy
pest. So the prudent farmer, finding the
air about him insufferably polluted, and
his chicken coop nightly robbed, by the
sinking, sneaking, prowling mephttis, feels
In duty bound TO make prompt fight to
rid his premises of the nuisance, though
he may be obliged, after the contest, to
bury his clothes In dunghill to escape the
stencil. Can we be excused, then, when
we find the whole moral and business at
mosphere of Ottawa polluted by vile ooze
of the gambling hell and brothel, for not
making an effort to rid the community OF
the nuisance?
Until now, the FREE TRADER has
refrained from discussing this man,
preferring to let the people of Ottawa
Judge his character by his conduct and
his sayings in his own journal. But
since he invites an inspection of his
public record, particularly that made
in Detroit, the FREE TRADER will un.
dertake to show what he has been,
from which the public may judge what
he is. "Can the leopard change his
spots?"
The FREE TRADER does not imagine
recital of Roses record will cause
any feeling of shame to come to Rose
Rose is too hardened for any sentiment
of that kind. Indeed, he himself says
he ''revels" in that sort of thing-en
joys it as an epicure does toOthsomt
morsel. The FREE TRADER believes
that to be true-he tells the truth
there.
But it is fair to say that the FREE
| TRADER believes the knowledge o.
Roses career may open the eyes Of The
self-respecting people Of Ottawa, wht
have permitted, through ignorance
this man to become the public censor
charging public officials and private
citizens with dereliction of duty anC
private wrong. until Ottawa without
| Is getting to be bye-word, as if del
of rascals, while within lneighbor Il
being angered against neighbor anC
friend against friend. And yet in NJ
instance has he ever attacked a man
no matter what his shortcomings, wh'
has not been a better man than Rose
record indicates him ever to hay'
tbeen.