Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-09-08
The Cloven Hoof.

Under the above caption the Denver
T.aes-Sun thus describes the wrangling
and turbulent scenes incident tc a
populist county convention, held at
Denver last Saturday, where mad and
frenzied desire for office prevailed. and
principle, upon which that party harps
so much, was clearly relegated to the
rear:
The Peoples party claims to be the
party of reform principles. 1t is in fact
the party OF false pretenses turbulence
and riot. The county convention of the
Peoples party held in this city Saturday
WAS disgrace to the community. The
only good thing about it was that it dis
closed to the people the true inwardness
of the party. In the session lasting
| from 10 a. IN. till midnight all that the
convention accomplished was its organ
ization. All the rest of the time was
spent in wrangling and disturbance.
Only an adjournment and the presence
of ladies prevented the morning session
| from being turned into a riot. The con-
| fusion and wrangling we're indescrib
able. The afternoon session was to
! have begun o'clock, but it was after
p. N. before the chairman had the
courage- to call the. Gapyentiap- To- pGdets
found it necessary for their peace of
mind to visit the reporters tables and
apologize for the disgraceful scenes that
had occurred, but they could promise
nothing better for the afternoon Their
fears were well founded. The stroke of
the chairman's gavel was the signal for
! a renewal Of the wild disorder. Men
and women stood on chairs and shouted
and screamed. One man declared that
| he had been intimidated by armed men
from the city hail. Another said that
the women were being driven out of the
party. A woman marched from one
end of the hall to another trying to
make the more turbulent men sit down.
Cat calls, Kisses and yells drowned the
words of all except those with boiler
! iron lungs. The chairman was power
| less 10 keep order. And so it went all
/ the afternoon. Many of the women
delegates got up and left the hall. Fin
| ally at p. m. a temporary organization
was effected. At midnight the business
of the convention had progressed no
further and an adjournment was taken
until this morning.
What was at the bottom of all this?
Here was comparatively new party,
claimed to be founded on principle and
to be actuated solely by reform motives
1t had no old feuds to carry to conclu-
sion, no factional debts to pay. With
the principles it assumed to have, it was
| fair to presume that there were no
knives sharpened. Ostensibly all were
there solely in the interests of the peo-
ple's party. with harmony to throw
away. Yet, some of the most disgrace
ful scenes that ever marfed a political
gathering occurred, the above account
of which is not in the least exaggerated.
TO repeat, what was the cause? There
were two factions struggling for the
supremacy, the Waites and anti-Waites
No intelligent man or woman could wit
ness the scenes in the convention Satur-
day and believe that principle dominat-
ed those factions. 1t was simply a
scramble to see which side should get
the Offices.
There is no greater humbug extant
than the claim of the populist party that
it is founded OH principle. Made up of
visionaries. cranks. disappointed Office
seekers from the old parties. together
with a sprinkling of honest men and
women who have been deluded by the
false pretenses Of the party leaders, il
is inevitable that the peoples party will
disclose its cloven hoof whenever it il
subjected to the test.