Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-03-25
A CASE OF YOUR OK.
Mr.. WATSON RAISES THE CUR
TAIN OF THE PAST.
And Makes Comparison Which Also
Answers the Purposes of a Lecture
$1,000 to an Opera singer-S21 900
for a Funeral


Peoples Party Paper: Do you re-
member how mad congress became
with me because of the Campaign book
In which the drunkenness Of members
was shown up?
Do you recall how the Atlanta Jour-
nal and other democratic newspapers
assailed me as liar and slanderer?
II you do, you will read with special
interest the following paragraph from
the Atlanta Journal:
washington. D. c., Feb. 1.-THE
death of Representative Grain. of Texas
the first member to die since the
opening of the recent session of con-
gress-was as sad as it was unexpected,
and has thrown a temporary pail of
gloom over the house.
when Bill Grain first came to con-
gress-the forty-ninth-he was only 81,
rich, handsome and talented beyond the
majority OF his fellows. He came brim-
ful OF ambition, hope and health, en-
joying the perfect confidence of his
Texas constituency and possessing the
elements of successful and honorable
public service.
1T Is far from my purpose to distress
those who loved him or to say aught
but good Of him-for after all, his faults
-whsther right or wrong-are those
that most men are quick to condone.
Suffice 1t to say that in the heydey
Of his youth he fell into the hands of
tho Oildnd Dhi1iCffroo nP Ia iEol
His talents were soon lying dormant
and his money went so fast that he
hardly realized that he had nothing left
but the confidence of his own people
and his congressional salary to live
upon.
'Tne moral of 1t all is that Washing
ton is bad place for young men with
money and talent coupled with con-
vivial habits"
You may remember that congress ap-
)ointed prosecuting committee to try
me for slander, and that the evidence
introduced before this committee was
so damaging to the prosecution that
neither the report of the committee nor
the evidence taken by 1t were ever pub
iishd and circulated.
In that record the testimony of the
Hon. John G. Otis, of Kansas, is to be
found.
Among other incidents, he spoke OF
| seeing a certain congressman attempt
to rise from his seat and ask a uues-
lion of member who was making q
| speech. Mr.. Otis testified that the
questloner was so drunk that he fell
back into his seat while attempting to
ask the question.
He is dead now-poor fellow-killed
in his prime by the bar-room which
runs night and day. Sunday and Mon.
day, just below the hall in which our
| congressman meet.
Cover him with flowers and burn In
cense around his bier-you who mur.
dered him!
Chant the requiem and bless the
grave-you whose cowardly silence lei
che assassin strike him down!
Praise his generous nature. eulogize
his talent, pour forth regrets that his
brilliant prospects were SO cruelty
shrouded in the eternal night-you
whose base panderings to party flung
the weeds OF widowhood around his
wife!
II that bar-room were driven out OF
the building the temptation to weak
congressman would not be so great.
Facility leads to crime.
The very fact that the tempting drink
IS so close by, so convenient, melts the
resistance Of many a member who
would never walk into the city for a
| drink.
The very fact that the bar is run as a
part OF the congressional restaurant, Is
screened from public view, is easy OF
access. and offers choice companionship
as we'll as conceaIment, makes the pit
tall the more periious.
Mr.. Preacher-yoN who lecture your
congregation so often on the sacred
duties of going to church and paying
your salary-how much have you done
to arouse public indignation against
this national disgrace Of the congress
sional bar-room?
How many times have your brethren
In Washington preached against It?
How many times has the chaplain OF
the house, or the chaplain of the senate
prayed to the Most High Gcd to blast
with His divine wrath the abomina-