The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-09-23
NaAGnoEs IT MEaN2

| There is something in the air. Ii Is
felt from Maine to Oregon. II is firing
men with convictions, strong. manly,
earnest convictions. It is making the
discussion on the street corner hotter
and fercer and longer than it has teen
n many year. 1t is making politics
cordial subject of conversation in the
business Office, and topic in the parlor,
and vital, throbbing, issue every
where.
The other night in Wellington, in
| Sumner county, coiored man mounted
dry goods box on the main street OF
that city. He began to talk politics.
The crowd listened. The crowd wanted
to hear politics. The negro talked at
length. He was glib. He had the air
of a Iogician. He said among other
Thugs that the Republican party de-
served no credit for freeing the slaves.
| Quick as flash, a man rushed from the
crowd, mounted that dry goods box and
| jumped into that negro. He slashed
him. He showed his contemplate i'll
gratitude, and held his lying statements
up before the citizens assembled, and
drove the black man from the scene.
That is not happening in Sumner
county alone. 1t is happening all over
this country. There is something in the
air.
IL no town in Kansas can a Democrat
stand upon the street and declare that
his party legislated properly and de-
Gently during the last congress without
give him the lie, and give it to him, not
in epithet, but by arguments and facts.
There is something in the air.
In no Kansas town can a Populist
stand upon the street and declare in ia
vor of all sorts of idiotic schemes and
hint darkly that if they cannot be Sc
cured through fair means they will be
secured through foul; that if legislation
will not do it, anarchy and revolution
can, that that Populist will not find az
his elbow a man who will face him
down and give him to understand fatty
and seriously that he is an outlaw and
when his anarchy begins he will find
two playing at the game. There is
something in the air.
Politics were not so warm two years ago.
They were not so warm six years ago.
But politics are hot now-red hot. 1t
means something. 1t means that the
old Republican spirit has come back.
The Republican spirit had been waning.
1t had not met the charges of the enemy
with Its oldtime ferocity. 1t had by no
means accepted those charges. But it
had not disputed them. 1t was that
apathy and Indifference that elected
Grover Cleveland the last time. 1t was
that which let an incompetent. corrupt
man become governor of Kansas. 1t
was indifference that permitted Kansas
to become joke by sending mediocre
old simpleton like PETER to the United
States senate.
But the old fighting spirit of the Re-
publicans has come back. 1t has been
forced back by the perilous idiocies OF
the Populist party and sinister, traitor
Gus iniquities of the Democratic party.
The Republican party is in the front this
year. 1t is ready to fight. Republicans
are ready to fight. They have received
impetus from wrongs inflicted; they are
invIgorated by dangers threatened; they
are armed with a just and an honest
cause, and they are pushing the enemy,
and they will push the enemy till it is
scattered to the winds. They are no
longer apathetic; they are no longer in
different. The issue before them is
vital. 1t is bread and butter in question
when they regard the Democrats; it is
Anarchy when they look at the Populists.
That is why the Democrat can no
longer stand upon the street and drool
his arguments with impunity, and that
is why the Populist is curbing his
tongue. He has an opponent. 1t is an
opponent who has saved the nation
once, who has given the nation all the
prosperity and good government it has
had in the last half century. And the
Populists and the Democrats quail be-
fore that opponent. The Populist has
ceased his revolutionary talk and sneaks
away shame-faced, and the Democrat
picks out crowd where only Demo
Gratis are present.
There is something in the air. 1t is
the true old Republican spirit. Its ire
is aroused and it Graves battle.
The Republicans are going to win.
They always have won when they set
in to win. They always will.