People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1894-09-28
KANSAS ALLIANCE.
From the Topeka ADVOCATED
7 hose Horrible Mutilations.

1nC hO puhllN Ill Ndll pdlBu managers
have been shedding alligator tears
over the horrible mutilation of the in
mates Of the imbecile asylum at Win
field. Notwithstanding three good
Republican physicians were consulted
in every case in the institution and
assisted in all the operations per-
formed, yet, for political purposes.
the operations are condemned as
"POpulist barbarism.n and the news
papers (?) have been filled with the
sickly details for weeks. A supple
ment has been issued pOrtraying the
horrors of these mutilations, which
has been furnished to Republican
newspapers throughout the state and
used by the greater part of them.
Charley Curtis has furnished the Re-
publican state campaign committee
his franked envelopes in which to
enclose this dirty stuff for distribution
through the mails without postage,
and in open violation of law.
But these are not the things we wish
TO talk about just now. After all the
howl that has been made against DR..
Pitchers brutality, investigation of the
books of the Topeka insane asylum
shows that the same practice has been
pursued in that institution under the
good Republican management of DR..
Eastman. We do not mention this TO
bring reproach upon his administra-
ton. In fact, it is to his credit that
he has permitted the operation in GER
tain cases, because all reputable ply
sicians recognize it as the proper
thing to do. But to the facts.
On account of the friends of the
parties operated upon We shall with
hold the names although we have them
in the office. The cases are sent out to
a regular hospital for the operation,
after which they are returned to the
institution if the operation does not
effect an immediate cure. In 1889,
Mrs. -- was sent to Kansas City and
was operated upon by DR.. Cordier. In
1890, Mrs. - was sent to COncOrdia
for the operation. On June /, 1892,
Mrs. - was operated upon in a pri-
vate hospital of this city. If these
cases are not enough We will get more
from the records of the asylum, and if
this dirty campaign is continued We
will give names and dates, too.
But this is not all. The Marion
Times is authority for the statement
that this practice has been pursued at
the poor farm of Marion county under
the administration of a Republican
board OF commissioners and by their
sanction, and the Times says that the
Marion Record did not use the Winfield
supplement because it was aware of
the practice in Marion county.
But this is not all. The Kansas
Medical Journal, which cannot be ac-
cused of Populist predictions has an
article upon the subject in which the
statement of the DR.. (?) c. F. WILDER,
which has been used as campaign au-
thority, that the operation is uniustif-
able and the physician who performs
it should be put in the penitentiary
without delay, isquoted and comment
ed upon. The Medical journal says:
1--WE are not acquainted with DR..
Pitcher, hence know only his news
paper reputation as given by his
friends (0. We know nothing about
his management of the asylum or his
qualifications as a practitioner of med
icine. We have no AK to grind, no
friends to punish, no enemies to re-
ward (?, but from a disinterested
standpoint will make few remarks"
The Journal then proceeds to emu
merate the class Of cases in which this
operation is not only justifable but
the humanitarian spirit of the age de-
mands it. The Journal uses plain
language upon the subject which we
refrain from reproducing because it is
better suited to the medical reader
than to the family circle. The fact is
none of this stuff should ever have
found place in the public press, and it
never would but for the depravitv of
Republican political managers who
stop at nothing by which they can
hope to play upon the prejudices of
people who are not informed upon
subjects OF this character.
HE idea of a man declining to ac-
cept nomination from the people
who elected him to the Office he now
fills is too much for the Republican
editors of Kansas. They never heard
OF one of their hangers-on doing the
like, and they viewed the action of T.
j. Hudson with bewildering astonish-
ment before they recovered enough to
say that he was forced out of the race.
~
10 RETURN the Republican party of
Kansas to power would be saying to
the neOnle of the TTnitad C+a+as.