Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-09-12
MODERN LIGHT ON THE REUNION

/ va -
the only newspaper among all our ex-
changes that has had an unkind word
for our late reunion. Nearly every
paper in this section of the country
has acknowledged that it was the most
successful gathering of old soldiers
ever held IN the west, and we have yet
to hear the first individual claim that
it was a partisan affair or that II was
under the control of any political or
sectional party. We give below few
quotations from an editorial in last
weeks Modern Light:
"Such reunion leaves behind it on
the minds and actions of our children
influences and impressions for evil and
vice that will grow and tester until
the child, the soldiers and parents
hope, is blighted and goes down the
dark roadway of ruin into fe!on's
cell or a dcbauchcr's grave"
Hundreds of soldiers who no long.
or train with the Republican party,
are insulted and abused and forced TO
leave tho speakers presence and resort
to some quiet corner, or witness the
network of traps TO lead their children
into wrong and wickcdness."
"Mcn who assume to stand high in
lis management will gather around
them Il crowd and dcnounce the farm
crs' movement, bcltilcing and Grimm
ating-ycs lying about and villifying
the soldier and citizen who differs
from them in politics. The speakers
also take up The refrain aud make it Il
political camp meeting under the false
name of q soldiers reunion"
at was success in point of num-
bcrs and financially, but when the
scum, filth aud lying used in politics
is tolerated in Il soldiers camp by the
Republican party TO the injury of all
other political parties cloud shrouds
it that will ultimately destroy its pat
,iotic purposes aud bring it below a
political level"
The two thousand old soldiers and
the twenty or thirty thousand citizens
who were present at Camp Logan
during reunion week will bear us out
in the assertion that the above state
ments are false in every particular.
No man was insulted or abused on ac-
count of his political convictions, but
on the other hand speakers of all
parties were invited and urged to adj
dress the meetings. Furthermore it
was announced and published
throughout the camp that speakers
must refrain from discussion of all
political questions and this rule was
enforced from first 10 last.
Does anyone believe that Hundreds
of old soldiers were insulted and driv-
Ell from the speakers stand?" We
doubt if the Modern Light had a
representative near the speakers stand
during the reunion. A press tent
with ample accommodations was Of
fercd to all newspaper men and re-
porter's table was placed i'll front Of
the speakers stand, but the Modern
Light representative did not choose 10
accept of either, and judging from the
tone Of the editorial mentioned we
think he must have spent most of his
time at the dancing halls on "lsed Hot"
street or over in Harley's SHELLS Half
Acre" The reunion was grand
success, numerically, financially, NOR
ally and periodically, but there were
some things which were not up 10 the
standard of moral GXcellence-such as
the dance halls and gambling devices.
The editor of the Modern Light knows
that the gamblers were all closed out
on the second day of the reunion and
that the officers decided unanimously
that no dancing platforms would be
licensed at any future meeting,
If the Modern Light contains no
more truth or common sense in its
other editorials than it does in the one
in relation to the reunion at Baxter
Springs we should say its supporters
are leaning on poor, weak reed. We
know all who attended our reunion
will denounce the statements made in
that paper as tissue of lies and we
have too much faith in the intelligence
of the Cherokee county farmers to
think for moment that they will put
credence in the vituperative ISLANDERS
on the officers and soldiers who so eff
ficiently aud honestly managed the
a..,el, on,,t,o1 fnfogs- If ~ n