Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-05-07

The article entitled, "a Confidence
Game" that appeared in last week
issue Of the Madison County Democrat
purporting to give the facts about thu
Arcadia Valley Wooden Mill, illustrate
how ..use doth breed a habit in ,
man." likewise, it presents case Q
mental degeneracy calculated TO enlis
the sympathies of every man who loves
his kind. Ever since its editor at
tempted to convince himself and the
public that Fredericktown had guar
anteed fund of twenty-five thousand
dollars, s.as well worth that sum al
one dollar is worth another, to secure
the location of the Marvin Collegiate
Institute at that point--although nc
such fund ever bad an existence-his
| mental perceptions have been growing
as unsteady as the feet of an intoxica-
ted man. When he would do good, he
finds evil present with him. He has
become so afflicted that his honest at
tempts to state facts become dismal
failures, for he finds himself helpless
| in the hands of the habit he has formed.
Would there were a Kelley cure for
his disease! We would gladly donate
to have him treated. His intimatiOn
that the REGISTER gave no note OF
warning to this people of the true ma
ture of the wooden mill enterprise, is
as wide of the mark as his statement
that the waters of Arcadia Valley flow
into Black river. The REGISTER did
warn its readers in regard to the pro-
posed enterprise, and was as roundly
denounced for it as the Democrat
would have been had it stated the facts
about the guaranteed fund before the
site for the Conference school was Sc
cured and paid for. The result of this
warning was that the citizens of Iron
ton, as a rule, refused to advance any
money until the terms of the contract
were complied with by the Company:
an example the next annual Confer
ence is likely to follow. When the
promoters of the scheme found that
they could not bleed our people to any
considerable extent, they quit little
ahead on their board bills, but out on
their hardware. However, no one can
accuse the people of Arcadia Valley of
attempting to transfer their loss to the
shoulders of others, nor OF having an
enterprise established in their town
at the expense of the rest of the State.
The Wooden Mill had no lottery attach
ment to it. Our people did not 60 in
to the show business in its behalf. No
chain, or other device, was originated
fn do hn rfh Of OF in
terests. No Conference or other body
was deluded into the belief that we
had money which we did not pos
sess. Agents were not sent over the
State to secure from its people money
that we declared we had on hand.
There are no unfinished barracks on
our hands under the non. de plume of
College or Wooden Mill, whose bare
walls shrink abashed from the gaze of
the public, and implore the spiders to
come and with their webs make good
our promise to hide their nakedness.
Our highways and byways are not in
tested by men with subscription books,
until the traveller regards every hedge
row with suspicion, and every fence
corner as a snare. The editor of the
Democrat would give his town lot in
the new addition to Fredericktown if
he could now occupy the same position
in connection with the Marvin Collegi-
ate Institute that the REGISTER does in
regard to the Arcadia Valley Wooden
Mill. Had this been the case there
would have been no occasion for anoth-
err paper to give the facts. The whole
matter would have been SO thoroughly
that the man who now APP
proaches that institution would not be
compelled to hold his hose. The leo-
pie of that community would have
either put up the money they agreed
to put up, or have quit. Certainly
they would not be imploring Confer
ence to make good a contract they had
long since forfeited, for fear of a church
scandal.