Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-04-06

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Had him hauled off bp tlco stGltrdTt in
fdRtryReT.
The court had finished its labors and
gone. The correspondents had gone,
but presumably only to renewed labors.
The various journals throughout the
northwest that had so confidently pre-
dicted the summary dismissal of the
offending lieutenant Were now in some
what difficult position. They had started
in to prove the officer blackguard and
the private martyr; the result was ex-
actly the opposite, and the problem was
now how to get out of the pickle. To the
average man, soldier or civilian, the con-
sciousness of having publicly wronged a
fellow being would have proved source
of distress so deep that nothing short of
retraction as public and apology as far
reaching as the affront would satisfy
the offender But, in its Jovelike at
titude as censor of the morals and man.
ners of the people, the press has no such
qualms of conscience.
As one eminent jour- alist expressed
1t, ''Of course we are sorry we are mis-
led somewhat, but we can't take back
what has been said; that Injuries the pa
per. And of course as between iniur-
ing the paper and injuring the man it
Is the man who must suffer Another
gifted editor, in whose eyes no benefit
was quite to be compared with free ad-
vertising, expressed himself as consider
ing that That young fellow really
ought to feel very much Obliged to us;
nine-tenths OF the people might never
have heard of him at all if it hadn't been
for this And he spoke in all serious
ness.
Of course the CORES ondents them
selves had long since seen the inevitable
results, and had duly prepared their re-
spective papers for the crash Some Of
these Journals promptly dropped the
matter at once and for all as no longer
worthy of attention; OF lers transferred
their assaults from the array of lieuten-
ants to the array of courts martial,
Others still, too deeply committed to
extricate themselves, threw open their
columns to any damaging story affecting
the army which their correspondents
could fabricate; and those papers which
made any reference to the facts elected
before the court did so in the smallest
type, but head lined the item in sarcastic
or explosive big capitals
The Palladium, or IA her its editorial
head. when explaining matters to knot
of men at the club, quietly justified the
course of his paper by saying; I'VE did
not send Mr.. Abrams there at ALL He
had gone to Central City on some per-
sonal business of his own, to look into
some property, and while there this Mr..
Schonberg, a wealthy prominent. and.
rs we supposed. reputable business man,
told him about the offensive manners of
the officers to the people, and offered to
prove that they would be insulted and
ostracised If they vent ured to visit the
garrison; and Abrams got warmed up
and telegraphed to the managing editor
that he was on to Il good thing, and so
we wired him to go ahead But a
Junior member of the editorial staff
frankly admitted that he, in common
with other journalists, had for sixteen
years been laying" for chance. as he
expressed it, to get in 4 good whack at
the young West Pointe-, and here they
thought they had it.
Meantime the record had gone to de-
partment headquarters for the action Of
the general commanding. and Lawler
went with it to fight the case to the last.
There was not a soul al Ryan that did
not know that, though the lips eff the
court We're sealed. the finding had been
mot guilty on every POSSIBLE specifca-
4 T,rz- Ia !
was to persuade the general to pick the
proceedings to pieces and rasp the court
in his review of the case; but even this
proved futile. The &C neral, it seemed,
would do nothing of the kind: it was
even limited that he r; sped Lawler for
the very one sided investigation that he
made at the outset
For two days follow ing the adjourn
ment'of the court Fort Ryan was fairly
in Etr--t. 1c.oa )arg. terrified by
tho jecrs o. .li5 towns 5opie into the be-
lief thG5 h. WIS to b. prosecuted for
perjury. he'd slid away on night train
-"gone to purchase goods in st. LOFTS"
said his unhappy spouse Welsh, the
martyr. hsd cssayed t. desert the same
night. and. rs q cat phys with mouse,
old Kenyon had let hi n go until the in
tent was maize plain By his boarding the
eastward bound train ] n civilian dress,
and then had had him hauled off by two
stalwart infantrymen md, incidentally,
by the nape of his Eek, and once more
Welsh was remanded to his familiar
haunt-the guard hon 50 at Ryan This
time still more serious charge was