Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1893-08-26

Yention.
You have all heard the story of the
two men who were quarreling. Such
.epithets as "scoundrel, villain, knaye,
fool, liar etc had been freely exchanged
between the combatants until they had
both exhausted their vocabulary of mean
things to say. The little son of one OF
them had been an interested listener to
the war of words when an idea suddenly
Occurredto him and he excitedly cried :
"Quick. dad, call him thief before he
calls you one" Judging from an article
in the Salina Republican, of recent date,
we infer that the good people down
there realize the necessity of diverting
attention from themselves and have
hit upon the plan of calling out "stop
thief" TO their neighbors in western
Kansas. In other words, they have
concluded to characterize us as ungodly
and, by inference, as almost semi
heather, so as to get "the lead" al
though we assure them that we were
charitable, and never would have said
one word, publicly, about the southern
methods adopted by the citizens of Sa-
lima, recently, concerning the most
fiendish and brutal outrage ever perpe-
trated, in times of peace, within the
borders of our state. We felt humili-
ated and didn't want to talk about it.
The people of western Kansas have pa
tientIy endured many hardships and
many ISLANDERS, but to be wounded in
the house OF their friend" is, to them, like
adding the last feather to the cancels
already grievous burden. The following,
we think, reaches the climax, and we
would be unfaithful, unloyal, to our
community if we did not deny and re-
sent the implications contained therein:
CDR. J. H. Lockwood is engaged at
present in the worthy effort of furnish
ing Bibles to the people of western
Kansas. He says that there is now in
the western part of the state a territory
about one hundred and twenty-five by
two hundred miles in dimensions which
from an ecclesiastical point of view is
purely missionary territory. DR.. Lock-
wood says that the difficult duty ofplac-
ing the Bible into every home in that
wide expanse of country is now being
undertaken by himself with very salts
factory results"
And 80, on ad nauseum. We don't
know DR.. Lockwood, and he may be en-
tirely honest in his arduous (P) under
taking, but we do know the territory
embraced in his missionary enterprise;
and while many of the settlers are poor
and some of them live in sod shanties,
most of them came from refined, cul-
tured homes in the East and there are
church and school privileges in every
neighborhood. There are many more
churches and school houses in our
county-and we are only about an aver
age county in western Kansas-than
there are in the reverend gentleman's
own county, according to the population.
We would like to have this proposition
disputed so that we might verify it.
The people of western Kansas are the
peers of any community in the state
which is equivalent to embracing the
world-for intelligence and morality.
The citizens are law-abiding and there
never was lynching within the mem
DRY of the oldest inhabitant. We have
missionary societies in connection with
all our churches, and contributions are
taken up regularly to assist in spreading
the gospel in benighted heather lands.
There is scarcely family in western
Kansas that couldn't spare from three
to a half dozen Bibles and would be
glad to do it il anybody was without.
Even our printing offices invariably keep
a copy of the Bible right by the side of
their unabridged dictionaries. We
don't want to believe that it was the
intention to create the impression that
western Kansas is good field for mis-
siopary work, yet Dr.. Lockwood, in his
ll-adyised zeal, says SO, and the Repub-
iican cagelessly assists in circulating the
defamatory statement. DR.. Lockwood
has broad enough field at home and we
would advise him to confne his labors
there, Not that we object to any of
the means of grace but because such
indiscreet and erroneous statements
as he has made, are not calculated to
prepare the mind for the reception of
any spiritual food that he might offer.