The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-02-14
WEB WILDER.
From the Kansas CITY Star.

From the Kansas City Star.
1t has been decided not to continue
Daniel W. Wilder in the Office of state
superintend- mt OF insurance. Governor
Humphrey has been careful to say that
Mr.. Wilder was not removed from Office;
he was only, as it were, discontinued.
This Is nice and proper distinction,
although the consequences to NJ. Wilder
are the same. The general effect is to
remove from the public service a very
nervy and efficient officer; and in that
connection permission IS requested to
say a few words respecting a career
which has reflected honor on Kansas
and been an example and IN some sense
an education to the state.
The name as originally conferred on
''the subject of this SKETCH" was Daniel
Webster Wilder, but for many, many
years in Kansas it has been Web"
Wilder, doing away with the Daniel
entirely and saving little OF the Web
ster. But the full name tells a good
deal of the story: Daniel Webster
Wilder means born of an old family in
Massachusetts: educated at the Boston
Latin school and at Harvard. and studied
one of the profession-in this case law.
For the rest his youth was passed in a
time and place when men talked much
about freedom for all men, preparatory
to working and suffering and dying for
IT. 1t was when Garrison, and Theodore
Parker and Wendell Phillips were tax
ing in Boston that Wilder was living
there and hearing them every day. The
law course finished, he should have
minded the main chance and settled
down to practice somewhere in Massa-
chusetts, or at least in New England. but
he didn't; he came 10 Kansas and went
in with the Free State ''boys," there be-
ing no old men then. | believe there was
a law shingle hung out at Wathena once.
but it must have been taken down and
slowed away in short order for it was
in very brief space that Wilder began
TO edit a freedom newspaper in s..
Joseph, No He might as well have I'M
furled the flag of the free in Charleston.
5. c. 1t was no 60, that freedom paper
in slave state, and so it ended III It
moVal to Leavenworth and years
of newspaper work III the
bravest and brightest and most
famous years of Leavenworth history.
After that there were more years of
work at Fort Scott, and at St.
Joseph again, and at Hiawatha. We
viii lump all the editorial work together,
all the years of it, and call that the first
benefit conferred on Kansas. There
we're columns, pages, great volumes OF
i, if collected in book form; all good
English; all bright, pungent, clear, in
-eresting; all for the old doctrine of
freedom, learned within sight of Bunker
Hill when a boy. There was no sleeping
1n picket; no sleeping at any time; 1t
was war. winter and summer alike, on
frauds, shams, humbugs, abuses; and
praise for bravery and honesty, and COM
'Ort for the wounded in the good fight
md eulogy for those who fell.
Then there was work of more solid
character; done at the intervals of offic-
al and other laborS; the compilation Of
he ANNALS of Kansas" work of tire
ess application; of immense search and
nothing approaching 1t in
Ill the bookmaking ever done in Kansas; /
wo great volumes; a history of Kansas
" years and DAYS, and the material for
/ hundred histories TO come. Nothing for
yotten; everything set down; the family
ecord" of Kansas; taken as evidence in /.
III our courts of Justice. This, with /.
essays and addresses delivered /
usually with the purpose of clarifying /
he good IN Kansas and encouraging the |
loung folks at the State University and /
elsewhere to believe in the dawn; the |
of the sky betokenlng the /
.oming of the free world. We will put !
III this together as service No. 2.
Then there has been public service in /
he way most valued and regarded in /
Kansas. There was service as surveyor /
General of Kansas and Nebraska, but il /
nded very shortly. To revolt against /
i'm Lane in those days meant loss of |
'ffice: loss of place and power; but the /
evolt was made and the expected re- /
ult followed. Then in after years /
Wilder was elected auditor (the Republi- /
an press of the state was credited with /
citing the ball rolling) and then we had |
new. Before that time the /
tate auditors reports had consisted of, /
i have the honor TO submit the follow
ne report" followed by the multiplied
ion table, the rule of three. and so on:
nut with Auditor Wilder there came
lew style of official document. Old I.
buses were exposed. all sorts of frauds.
mOng others the insurance frauds. were
Xposed; the state treasury sore cautcr-
zed. There was a great cutlery, several
old maids said they never
ad been so insulted III all their lives,
nd there was the usual sneaking obscr-
alton: He saws he is the only honest
nan in the state" But it did good. The
eforms suggested were adopted. But,
f course. an end had to come to this
lyle of ripping up official feelings. In
he Republican state convention of 1875
hree good and true men were beaten for
Fraser, 4. VI. r.
and ID. w. Wilder. Perhaps
was intended to show the appreciation
,ansas had for 1.-The scholar in politics.
ingularlv another chance came
1r Wilder and he improved
. Appointed superintendent of
Insurance. he resumed the
ght he had begun as state auditor on
navlsh insurance companies. How
lltry he made 1t for them everybody
smembers. How the wildcats fought
also remembered. Who has not re-
eived a copy of the Dairymaid or of the
lnoce~t Husbandman, insurance papers
ressed up with rural names, like pirates
women's clothes, But up to date the
.ildcats have been held at bay. and all 4
lis faithful work in behalf of the people
' an officer mindful OF his duty. MS
Onor and his oath, we viii call service
o. 3.
Long-toiling and scholarly editor,
ithfullest historian Of the state, fear !
-. honest and capable public servant;
ow thankful we should be that he was
pt removed NOBLE l. PRENTIS.
SOMETHING ABOUT KANSAS.