The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-09-13

the times. Where would the Unite
States have been if such men as Wixo
and the other members of our school
board had been at the head of its al
fairs?"
"Well, I'd mind my own business,
was you an let"
''Set me the example, Mr.. Whitford
Mind your own affairs and you WI
not get beyond the depth of you
, understanding"
, With this dignifed rebuke the youn.
. man left the room, and Mrs. WhitforC
} solaced her spouse with the suggestion
that those who played with edged tool
often cut their fingers.
This night school was a sore bone o
contention in Oretown.
A little more than a year ago tbs
bosses ruled like feudal barons, anC
now their sway was threatened by +;
whippersnappcr of boy who had come
among them, nobody knew whence mol
cared, and by this and other such base
means had alienated the allegiance OF
their vaSsels, who were actually be.
ginning to dare to think for them
selves.
And thus it came about.
There was barn-lilke building which
had been used as a saloon and dance
house, but had attained such evil repu-
tation that the by no means fastidious
morals of Orctown were shocked at its
gross orgies, and by popular consent it
had been closed.
| - III 49,,
in accordance with the custom of the
locality. A mob of Infatuated women
and mischievous boys had gathered one
evening and cleaned out" the pro-
prietor, smashing his furniture and
fixtures and pouring his liquid poison
into the gutter.
On this ruin of vice and squalor
Frank Grey built his great work OF So
cial reformation.
With his own hands he tidied M the
place, mended the windows, put in
rough tables and chairs. and boldly an
nounced that he would, without re-
Enumeration, teach adults reading,
writing and arithmetic three evenings
a week
The local journal gave the powerful
aid of the press to the enterprise in
this bright paragraph: The Young
man who sings the ruler at the Ward
schoolhouse is opening a night school
for adults. Guess he'll have his hands
full before he's got through"
The minister refused TO cooperate
with him. the storel1cepcrs laughed at
him 4ba bOeeos +-,atoa H., ,,-;4t, 49,,
ridicule
But the class grew-from fire to FIVE
and-twenty; to forty, to a hundred
till at last he had to close his doors
against the crowd of applicants
1t was n mutual aid association, those
who could read and write little help
ing those who could not. No swear
ing" and mo tobacco" were the only
written rules; while the class kept its
own order, and absolute order, too, as,
for instance, when Mike Donovan, the
rough of the place, made wager that
he would break up the school one even
ing and proceeded TO use insulting Ian
guage to the teacher, n dozen strong
hands sent him crashing through the
window into the street below, and for
ever put stop to his further pursuits
in the fields of literature.
Then another grievance. Out OF the
night school grew a Cuba harmless
affair, where tobacco was allowed. and
coffee and numerous newspapers, and
out of this club sprouted branch
which bore the deadly poison of rank
socialism-at least. so.said Capt. Petit
grub Wixon. This was the Talking
club, as Grey had clristened it, at
whose meetings were discussed simple
questions of social or political interest.
From bad they got to worse, until one
Saturday morning-for the Talking
club held its meetings ON Saturday
evenings-it was whispered abroad
that the delicate questions as to wheth-
er it was right for the miners to pay
the bosses store one dollar for a forty
cent article, whether the capitalists
could lawfully compel them To take
their remuneration in store pay. and
whether they were obliged TO give a
months credit for thcic labor, would De
discussed.
With these revolutionary projects
confronting them, the uppertendOm OF
Oretown united in one common deter
mination to crush the viper they had
nourished in their bosoais, the young
anarchist who had brought this evil
state 10 pass.