The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-05-26
INGALLS, FIRST TOPEKA VISIT
Saw a Nan Hanging by His Neck in That
Lawiess Town.


Lawiess Town.
Topeka, Kan, May 25.-Arthur Car
penter today issued the quarter-centen-
One of the most Interesting stories in
the paper is from John ]. ingalls, about
his first visit TO Topeka He says:
"As all my diaries, journals. note book
and personal meoranda were destroyed
when my house was burned a few years
ago, 1 am unable to definitely fix the
date of my first visit TO Topeka. 1 re-
member the event distinctly, the appear
ance of the town. the route thither from
Atchinson and the comrades OF that
early time, but the day, the month and
the year cannot now recall from times
dark backward and abyss Doubtless
the lost archives, could they be recon-
structed from the embers and ashes and
cinders of the conflagraGon, would be
found to contain some record or an
event important and interesting, but in
their absence 1T must be left to sur
mise, conjecture and inference. My
impression is that it was in the spring
Of 1861.
Il had followed the political cavern
from Lecompton to Lawrence the pre-
ceding year, and as secretary OF the
coucil participated in the tumuitous
ceremonies that attended the death or
the territory and the birth Of the state;
and extemporized. hilarious and exces-
sively yociferous demonstration or JOY
that was unconfined; midnight dark
ness rendered luminous by blazing tum-
uli of Democratic statute books, pro-
slavery constitutions and border ruff
an legislative literature and furniture;
silence made sonorous by vocal and in
Strumental harmonieS without prece-
dent since the morning stars first sang
together that would have aroused the
envy of Wagner or driven him to dis
pair and the grave. But this was in
Lawrence, and the long extinct bonfire
on Massachusetts avenue only sheds
an indirect and inferentiai ray upon
the time OF my first visit to the capital.
my territorial occupation being gone,
I was ambitious to become secretary
of the state senate. and had received
assurances that my desire might be
gratified. In the Wyandotte convention
I had favored the selection of Topeka
as the capital of the state TO be, but
there had been no occasion hitherto for
pilgrimage in that direction. Copeland
county had not been organized. Courts
elsewhere. The greatness of Topeka
was potential rather than actual So
that while my first visit may have been
earlier than the spring of 1861. there
was no reason why 1t should have been,
and many why it would have been post
pOned to that period. But whether then
or sooner or later / know that l sat at
the hospftable board of my excellent
friend Judge f. G.. Adams the eminent
secretary of the state Historical society
who knows so many things that most
of his contemporaries would like to have
forgotten, and If he kept books Of &C
count. he could enlighten me as 10 the
date Of my first visit, though L tremble
at the suggestion that some forgotten
balance of Indebtedness might arise TO
confront me acros the intervening years
with its demand for liquidation.
"The mansion of the judge, for some
occult reason, remotely connected, per-
haps, with the habits of his guests,
was situated near the Jail, a small, com
pact, quadrangular, one-story structure
severely simple in architecture, chaste
in design, and frugal IN decoration. At
ter my first breakfast at the judges
table, I went out for a stroll. to get my
bearings and take in the town. My
attention was attra cted by a small
group of old settlers about the prison,
and. directing my steps that way. 1 dis
cerned a gentleman hanging by the
neck from the iron window grating,
with his fettered feet few inches from
the ground. He had evidently been sus-
pended some time, for he was dead. I
inquired his name OF a bystander, and
was told that IL was Isaac Edwards.
He was not an inviting object in aP-
pearance. His habilaments. originally
questionable in cut and texture, had
passed Far beyond maturity. His head
hung over 20 one side Till his ear rested
on his shoulder. His complexion was
duSky purple. His half open eyes ieer-
ed at the spectators, and his tongue.
protruding from his swollen Eps, SEEM
ed thrust out derisiveiy at destiny. Is
aac had no friends in the concourse that
surrounded him. He was a victim OF
the prejudices arising from open disre-
gard q some OF the commandments and
suspected implicitly in the hahftuai neg
iect of the remainder. Several % the
assembly appeared 70 be interested in
disseminating the belief thar he comni,-
.ed suicide. and, though the fact 90 his
hands being tied behind him seemed
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