Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-02-07
A wordin Behalf of Senator
r. F. Pettigrew.
EDITOR OF HERALD;

plenty of leisure to inform myself OF
men and things have undertaken the
task of confirming or disproving the
unsavory reports of one ofSouth Dako-
tas Senators, the Hon. r. f. Pettigrew.
AS this is Mr.. Pettigrews home and
has been his home ever since the first
shanty was built on the site where.
the tlourishing city of Sioux Falls
now stands, it would seem em:nently
proper togiye weight and confidence
to testimony obtained here of his char
acter, and antecedents. provided you
are satisfied your correspondent is actu-
ated by no other motive than to give tol
your readers plan L. vanished facts as |
he finds them.
Your correspondent came to Sioux
Falls deeply prejudlced against MIR.
Pettigrew; indeed he came from a
section of Dakota where it seemed to
almost ostracise Il man from good So
ciety to believe IN r. Il. pettigrew, and
this prejudice was so .irm.y fixed and
deeply rooted that the stories deroga-
tory to him We're accepted as facts
Withou: the support OF testimony. I'll
was said Of him that he was a gambler
hbertlne, constituencies, grasping,
over-reachlng politician, an oppressor
OF the unfortunate poor an enemy to
good morals. and man against whom
all COOP society had placed its bans
IN other words one on whose pest1fer-
Gus breath fiends thrive and make
Joyous revel.
Now, am | in error when say that
these were the views, and are still the
views, VITA possibly Slight modifca-
tions. that have been impressed and
burned into the masa; sentiment Of the
voting population q Jerauld county
and elsewhere?
Believing that this atatemen, Will
not be denied, and without stopping
to enquire what influences have been
at work, so demoralizlng to people of
honest connections and good purposes
we will proceed at once TO the object
OF this c<ommunication, which is to re-
move, as far as in us lies, these errone-
Gus, unwarranted and uncharitable
impressions.
First. in regard to the charge Of gam
bling. Well no doubt Mr.. Pettigrew
is responsible to himself for this
charge, and will plead guilty oft in a
modified sense, but to rank him with
the professional gambler who CANDLES
for gain would be to invoke his un-
mittigated displeasure and the displeas-
ure Of his friends as well.
But even in any sense, it is believed
here that he has divorced himself
from the habit.
AS to the other charges, they have
not even as much tostand upon as the
fragile form of the gossamer web.
They are the natural offspring of po-
litlcal hate, and as far from truth as
the millennium is from the birth of Gre
alton. We have never met Mr.. Petit
grew, and possibly never shall, bat
his personality is stamped on every
noble enterprise in Sioux Falls, and
more than this, every man and woman
here who is most active IN the devel-
opElent Of the mental, moral, and
physical energies of society is Petit
CREWS friends.
While he is blest with competence
and the power Of formulating beyond
the most Of men, his personality re-
mains unchanged. He is. it is said,
precisely the same Frank Pettigrew ;is
he trod the humblest walks of life and
gazed undiscouraged upon the giddy
heights of fame. While he acquires
easily he spends freely, and charity
finds In r. f. Pettigrew one who never
turns his bacls upon want, and the
overreaching or driving hard bargains
at the expense of honest poverty has
never been laid to his charge. He
possesses the entire confidence OF this
City.
He has the reputation (and has earn
ed 1t too) Of being as faithful to every
good enterprise. whether public, social,
'r charitable, as the needle is to the
poll. And let us enquire. does his
zeal as a philanthropist end with
Sioux Fails? Surely it does not; his
record shows the con-
rary. 1t shows that it embraces the
entire length aad breadth of South
Dakota, thai her erinterests and her de-
1elopment the chief end OF his life.
1t has been stated that he was un-
sound on the question of Prohibition.
false again. Z. f. Pettigrew is an
lrdent supporter of prohibition, and
las recently contributed $5UU.DU to the
state Enforcement League.
No, we repeat that the charges are
malicious falsehoods gotten up for
political effect and are but the natural
OF political nate, 40 more-no
esS.
Senator r, T. Pettigrew no doubt
T. ,,16 1