The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-09-25
NEWT BRIDGMAN.


or the potentiality winnowed from great
deeds or great prominence In the con-
duct of the government or its affairs.
Its annals are not emblazoned on his
torical pages or the right of Its nobility
chronicled any where except IN the
steady progress ard improvement of the
great nation of which it is part.
Bat there is a nobility in this country
Ia nobility of honest men, honest
fathers and husbands and sons. And the
| greatest palaces ever reared by men are
the homes which are made happy by
these noblemen, these heroes who have
| neither the boast of lineage or the re-
source of money or the power of promi-
neIce.
The man who has his little home,
built by himself after hard struggle to
accumulate sufficient for. that purpose;
who strives TO improve that home and
render his family happy and does it, is
the foremost with the best of an add
vanced civilization. He is above sian
! der, for tie envious tongue is silenced
from very shame He is above criticism
| because the man who has built home
and reared family and protected it can
| do no more on this earth. He is the
| hope of the nation because the nation
must be founded on honesty, aud the
be honest.
In this county in November there is to
be an election of county officers. The
whole country has been struggling for
some time in sorrow. Prosperity has
shrunk to adversely and at times almost
reached disaster. There is among the
whole American people quickened inn
pulse to put strong men and honest men
at the head of affairs.
The political trickster must step aside;
the brilliant statesman who has only
brilliancy must bide his while; the
young aspirant must make way for older
and cooler heads.
Honesty the people must have, and
above all, it must be the honesty which
has vigor; the honesty which will fight
fraud with untiring ferocity; and purge
corruption and scourge corruption with |
out hesitancy and without mercy. This |
the people will have. They are not |
looking for statesmen or for politicians
or for geniuses. They want honesty. |
They know where to find it. They |
know where it is found. 1t is not found |
in the adventurer, it is not found in the |
Croesus, it is not found infalllbly in the |
reformers. But it is and it ever has |
been found in the man with a home and |
"a family and taxes to pay.
In S. n. Bridgm2n, the candidate for !
clerk of the district court. the |
Republicans have found such a man. |
His life has been struggle; it has been |
nights and days of hard work. He has |
known toll and trouble, and through it |
all he has come out triumphant, home
maker and one of the noblemen of this
country.
For years he struggled. In the winter
he worked with the little children in a
country school patiently and earnestly, !
and far recon- pense, which did not |
reach far, for, when the summer months |
came, he turned his energy to the farm
and followed the pillow ard plunged into
the wearing tasks of the field, only |
when winter came again to GO back to
his little school house and keep on tire
lessly.
He was born in Morgan county,
Illinois, February l, 1858. His early |
life was spent almost wholly upon the
farm. Later his parents moved TO
Lincoln, Illinois, for the sake of Civ
ing their children better educational
advantages. Newt became student
of the Lincoln university. He was
an ambitious boy, honest to the core and
independent as the sun. He buckled in
to the full collegiate course which re-
Quires four years. lie went through it
all with untiagging energy, and with
commencement day" but two weeks
away met with his first stumble. Newt
had a mind of his own and so had the
professor of languages. Newt was not
defeated He knew he was right. The
honor of graduating was tempting to
his mind. 1t was what he had been liv-
ing for for months. The professor and
Newt had quarrel. The professor de-
manded an apology which the young
man was too honest to give. He did not
graduate. But he was vindicated later
when he was elected secretary of the
board Of trustees of his Alma Mater,
which position he held several years.
Newt had a good business education
and began work after leaving college
with . lumber company as bookkeeper.
He was pursuing this line when he met
with severe accident in the yards, one
day, and came very near losing his right
arm. He did not fully recover for a
year. Then he went back to farming.
In 1871 he married Miss Emma b. Hoff-
man of Wsverly O.
1t was Nevis ambition to have a
home. He worked hard. He taught
school in winter and farmed in the sum-
mer. 1t was not smooth sailing. His
father who had always been an invalid.
became worse. His physician told him
he must try the Kansas climate. HIS
faithful son packed up and brought his
father west and landed with the whole
family on the pretty farm he now has
III Minneha township
There is not in this story the roar of
cannon or the applause OF vast audi
ence. 1t is the story of a common mans
life. 1t is the story that is told around |
thousands of hearths on winter eve
nings. There Is nothing remarkable