The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-07-17
WISE STILL A ROARING,

True to his hypocritical instincts,
Wise renews his wall over the loca-
tion of the public building, and in
stead of making an effort to reason
away the logic of the FREE PRESS on
that question, he contents himself
with an accumulation of green mat
ter; which he hurls at the editor of
this paper, with an appearance Of
venom which out-Wises Wise.
Now, to Shy one knowing Wise's in
born tendency to curry favor with GER
tain elements, regardless of honest
purposes or common consistency, this
season of mental agony because of the
location of the public building is no
surprise, but to those of the public
who are not so well versed in this fea-
ture of his ponderous soul, his rawlings
may carry the semblance ofsincerity.
The Revieao was an allyof the element
who desired to see the building estab-
lished on the Irving corner, until the
inconsistent lubber who yields the
wormwood end of that establishment
learned that the Commission, in their
wisdom, had decided that the Front
street site was not the most desirable
location, and that "our crowd" were
largely united on the sites below jack
son street, when he instantly dons his
hypocritical mask and processes I'M
dying allegiance to the Hall corner
all for the capital he could afterward
make out of abusing the honorable
Commission, and insulting such gen.
tlemen as Congressman Lind and Sen
atOr Davis. Poor idiot. This species
of puerility may be accepted from him
as honesty of full weight and fine
ness by those unacquainted with his
style of Topping and hedging, but to
the people of Mankato who know that
Wise never has but two motives in
his editorial utterances, which are to
get onto the popular side, if he can,
but exercise his hatred of the FREE
PRESS at all events, his columns of
crocodile misery only hold him up
to rldicule. If the HOlbrook corner
is 50 grossly out of center, will the
Wise man please tell us how much
nearer the Commission would have
come to gratifying the wishes of ''the
large majority of citizens" by locating
it on the Irving corner? Here is the
way Wise figures it out:
The census of 1890 shows that the
poplation north of Hickory street is
1880. while south of that point it is
3,927-a difference of S25. The build
ing has been placed one block still
south of that dividing line: and as
the ward in which it is located con-
tainS 1925 inhabitants, and the tier
Of blocks is one Of three in the ward
and contains at least one-third the
the inhabitants, to deduct that sum
rom one and add it to the other
makes the relative figures on the
north 5,241, and on the south 1884,
difference of 1,707.
The Irving corner and the Holbrook
corner 1.-THE one selected) are both on
Jackson street. Figuring up and
down the city, how much nearer the
center would the building have been,
if placed on the site which Wise adj
mits he worked and prayed for? Was
he wrong? Would he have considered
that difference of 1,707 population
on the north "a1, injustice to the business
Interests" if the Irving corner had been
selected? Had it been would he not
have been clapping his chubby hands
in approbative glee, instead of charg-
ing honorable men with corruption?
By his flexible style of reasoning he
would, probably, have figured that ex-
ira l, 707 on the other side of the line.
How different when his own OK is
gored. What untarnished hypocrisy!
This is not all. From north to south,
Wise's site, the Irving corner, and the
site selected are on an exact line.
The Holbrook corner is on Second
street, zone block nearer the center
of the city, from east to west, than
the Irving property. How then can
Wise ucondemn the former location
when he labored with heart and head
and purse to have the Irving property
| taken?
The Hall corner was decided upon
as compromise, says Wise. BY
whom, pray? To assert that this was
done by business men, after making
such alarming arguments (?) against
the site chosen, is to accuse them of
performing the act of imbeciles. The
compromise was the fruit of the Re-
vieao editors circumscribed mental Ca
pacity. If the Holbrook site is as