Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1894-08-18

the metropolitan police law extends.
I think and candid man must admit
that whether it has been extended to
them out of friendship or not it is
theirs. My conclusion is that it is not
mere benevolence. Artemus Ward
said that when he saw a 'Snaix run
into hole he acted upon the SUPPOSE
ton that the hole belonged to
that 'snaix.' And when 1 see
the prohibitory law rented out
by the month to be violated as it
is in this city, all with the governors
connivance and apparent consent, then
l am convinced that SO valuable con-
cession was not handed down for
charity or for love. During the cam
paign two years ago a prominent poll
tician told me negotiations were on
foot with the gamblers of this city
which would elect the populist ticket.
I dismissed the story then as an idle
tale, but recent events have caused me
to reverse that conclusion. And if any
of you are under the impression that
there was no deal then, l ask you to
account for the phenomenal growth of
the lottery business in this town since
Lewelling became governor.
There never was time in the his
tory of this town when gamblers,
policy-shoppers, booksellers, lottery
in such force or in such clover as now.
''Under the metropolitan police law
the keynote of local government is
struck at Topeka. The governor has
been importuned for the sake of the
party and for common decency to
strike higher note than he is sound
ing. l am reluctantly forced to the
conclusion that he continues in the
double bass because it pays him. On
hot oil,
for his, or any other man permitting
such a damaging appearance of col
fusion if he is not enjoying the reality.
The conditions are such that nine
tenths of our people believe that the
administration is in some way a bene-
fciary of the lawlessness of this town;
and we owe it to ourselves from the
standpoint both of patriots and par
tisans to turn down officials of whom
such charges are true or whose con-
duct is such as to render them pro bable.
MRS. LEASES COMMENT.
Mrs. Lease, who pro badly did more
to create the populist party in Kansas
than any other one person, who was
the original high priestess of its tenn
pie and the most eloquent defender of
its shrine, said in a speech at Leaven-
worth on January 25:
''Never in the history of Kansas has
crime, lust and Doodle stood forth so
boldly as now under the present state
administration"
She told of the threats by the state
house crowd to blacken the characters
of populists who did not follow the
bidding of the ring.
In letter to the Sterling Champion
few days earlier she said:
For this 1 was maligned and perse-
cuted last year. After l had run the
gauntlet of republican and democratic
liars the traitors in our party turned
upon me. And it is this class who are
lighting me nOw-men who were
elected by the liquor vote and fusion
vote who have no higher conception of
reform than getting and holding office,
and appointing all their relatives to
draw fat salary. | have facts in my
possession to prove that this admins
tration is the most dishonest and cor
rupt that has cursed Kansas. They
know that / know these things, hence
they are raising the cry that l am
working in republican pay just as the
republicans raised the cry that 1 was
working in democratic pay when was
building up the peoples party"
In a letter to the Pleasanton Herald,
written from Wichita, under date of
January 10, 1894, she speaks of the pres
ent administration as this crowd
elected by liquor and fusion votes; that
took brides from three companies
Rock Island, Missouri Pacific and Mis-
souri,, Kansas & Texas q have proof;
that are in partnership with saloons
and gambling houses; that are the most
dishonest and corrupt gang that has
ever cursed Kansas"
In an address issued to the refor m
press club in the latter part of January,
she proceeds to touch up the present
reform administration in the following
vigorous style:
Immoral men elected to Office by the
aid of the liquor vote and the fusion
vote will be partners in the iniquity of
both. Your homes are in danger. Your
liberties are in jeopardy, and the party
whose PRINCIPLES you love, for whose
success you sacrificed and labored, is
being merged into democracy, as known
and practiced now, the foe of human
liberty, a wall of granite in the path of
progress. Your party is being used to
keep unworthy men in office, and men
of principle and patriotism and human
decency are ignored or forgotten.