The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-07-16
ELOAT WANTS 10 DAYS
TO Decide whether He Viii Ac-
cept the Nomination
SOMETHING ABOUT The NAN
whom the PopulIsts Have Put in the
Field Against Col Geo. w VeaIe-

Whom the POpulIsts Have Put in the
Field Against Col Geo. W Veale-
At the meeting Of the Populist conven-
ton in the Thirty-sixth district, Satur-
day afternoon, R. E. Heller, who pre-
scented the name of r. J. Sloat az can
didate for the legislature. predicted that
6loat would receive 500 majority.
After Sloat had been nominated by ac-
clamation, as announced in Saturday 8
JOURNAL. the convention proceeded to
select a candidate for county commits
sioner.
John Armstrong, one of the six men
who came to Topeka with Col c. X
Holiday in a wagon in 1887, was noml-
mated BY a delegate who said Armstrong
had been converted to Populism since
the state convention J. l. Scott and F.
H. Stevens were also nominated.
Mr.. Stevens was made the candidate
on the second ballot after which the con-
vention adjourned.
The legislative convention in the 35th
district was held at the fire station n
North Topeka after the county conven-
ton adjourned, and John Schenck was
nominated for the legislature to make
the race against A G. Sherman.
Schenck received all but one vote on
the informal ballot, and was then de-
clared the unanimous nominee.
ID. NJ Howard, who made the race two
years ago, explained that he was com
PEELED to take a seat in the Populist
house or be marked az a coward, and
that was the only explanation he had to
offer for his action.
sIoat Wants Ten Days.
When the committee from the Populist
convention waited on R. J. Sloat Satur-
day afternoon and informed him of his
unanimous nomination to the office Of
representative of the Thirty sixth district
in the state legislature he did not accept
it. Neither did he decline it. Instead
Of either, he asked ten days in which to
consider the case before he took action.
His friends, however, say he will accept
it.
r. j. Sloat was. until his refusal to
handle train with Pullman cars at the
beginning of the recent strike, Santa
Fe conductor He has lived in Topeka
not quite five years and has been a rail-
road man during all of the latter seven
teen Of his thirty four years
Mr.. SlOat was born in the city of Bos-
ton, Mass, on the Goth day Of May, 1860.
His father was a millwright and soon
after r. Us birth moved to Michigan.
where he subsequently operated a mill.
Young Sloat was able to obtain only q
common school education and only
left home at tie age Of thirteen
received part of his education, work
ing during the vacations as a engineer
in a sash and door factory. At the age
Of seventeen he went to Bay City in the
same state where he became a clerk in
the Office of the superintendent of the
Michigan Central railway. He staid
there only a short time and soon went to
braking on the same road.
From there he went to Oakland, Cali
fornia, where he was a brake
man on the Central Pacific
for short time and then
became assistant yard master on the
same road at Port Costa. From there he
went to the Needles in the same state,
where he took charge of a freight train
on the Atlantic q Pacific, under G. It.
Mcclellan, then superintendent there
now superintendent of the Santa Fe's
eastern division here.
Mr.. Sloat returned east in 1887 to In
diana, where he was conductor on the
Clover Leaf line, and came to Kansas in
1890 and began here as a freight brake
man on this division Of the Santa Fe.
About two years ago he was given
train.
Dit. Sloat il an unmarried man. He is
OF medium size and dresses neatly He
has been accused of wearing a silk hat
but his friends say the accusation is IN
just and without foundation. He is
slightly bald and to some extent a bit
eccentric. He has spent good deal of
the spare time of his life in reading and
is well posted He is in full
sympathy with organized labor even
though it has cost him a good job occa-
sionally. He believes in having things
nice about him and has two we'll fur
nished rooms in the Office block in which
he sleeps and which. since the strike,
have been used as A. r. u. headquarters
About three weeks ago he was elected
president of the local lodge Of the union.