Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1893-02-23
admission to any republican members.
This they had perfect right to do.


THE HALL WIDE OPEN.
The doors of the hall were not locked
nor barricaded. There was no hostile
demonstration toward any who ap.
preached, but those who had no busi-
ness in the hall were warned that they
could not enter. This was the undis-
puted situation of affairs at O'Clock
on Wednesday morning. The most
partisan report of the days events does
not represent it in any other light.
Even up to the supreme moment when
Speaker Douglass and his republican
retinue approached the main entrance,
the doors Of the ball we're open, news
paper reporter passed the guards un-
challenged. and the republican mem
bers were Informed that they were at
liberty to enter the hall. but that all
others would be denied that privilege.
THE SECOND OVERT ACT.
When Speaker Douglass demanded,
as speaker of the house, admission to
the hall for himself and bis numerous
followers, including some fifty assistant
sergeants-at-arms sworn in on Tuesday
night for this especial service, and was
Informed that the latter could not pass
the guards, the republicans appear to
have obtained all the excuse they de-
sired for second overt act against the
peace and dignity of the state. One of
their emissaries who had gained unob-
structed access to the entry at the head
of the stairs, gave the signal by wildly
waving his hat and shouting "come
on, men, the coast is clear;" there was
tumultous rush on the part of the re-
publican mob, headed by the speaker,
the guards were swept back, and up the
stairway, with no shot from revolver or
Winchester to stop them, poured the
members of the pretended house and
their minions. Then, and not until
then, were the doors leading into the
hall and cloak room locked.
A DIsGRACEFUL SCENE.
No stronger proof of the design and
desire of the republicans to precipitate
a fight and incite violence could be ad-
duced than the fact that at this critical
moment, which could not possibly have
been foreseen had it not been the re-.
suit of CAREFUL planned conspiracy, a
sledge hammer was placed in the hands
of Speaker Douglass and the rioters
proceeded to force an entrance to the
hall of representatives, the speaker
himself striking the first powerful blow
at the heavy doors smashing in the
panels and the work of demolition be-
ing completed at the hands of Repre-
sentatives Sherman and Swan.
The populists guards who had retired
within the hall and who were prepared
to protect the legislative chamber.
though driven to the last extremity by
the mob, yet did not assert their au-
thority by the use of weapons of any
kind, and the republican house was
called to order and entered upon the
transaction of business after one of the
most remarkable scenes ever witnessed
on Kansas soil, without the shedding of
a drop of blood.
STAND UP FOR KANSAS.
The republicans had now committed
two overt acts by which they hoped to
bring about a serions crisis. They had
arrested the chief clerk of the legal
house on ridiculous charge, and had
threatened to unseat the populist men,
bers arbitrarily. When the latter
sought to defend their rights as law
makers their opponents had resorted to
violence. Yet even now the law-abid-
ing members of the legal house refused
to be a party to disgracing the state by
risking collision with the republicans,
and so left the latter in undisputed pos
session of the hall, and after meeting
in the governors parlor adjourned
until 1:30 p. N. Thursday.
These are the simple facts in the case
as they may be read in the local papers
and in the dispatches in every paper
throughout the length and breadth OF
this land. To the dispassionate and
unerring judgment of the American
people it is left to say who in this in.
stance has stood up for Kansas the
populists, who temporarily laid aside
their legal rights In the interest ol
peace, or the republicans who have re-
sorted, unprovoked, to violence and tt
those measures that are peculiar to the
oriental despot. but wholly foreign tt
American institutions, viz: Intimida.
tion, arbitrary arrest, restraint o.
liberty, and violence.
If, as has been anticipated by conserv
ative men of both parties, blood shoult
flow before this struggle is ended, j
will not stain the hands of the populis
hou Sc, which has nothing to fear whel
its constituents and its country shal
return their verdi It.
THE editor of the Kansas City Mai
| is out in statement in which he ad
mits that the alleged monifesta of Gov
ernor LewelliDg, published it the Mail
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