Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-10-01

untrue to anyone, life becomes untrue
to him-I can see that, can't you?-
What are our heads for, doctor? Every
ones world is what he is himself-is it
not? Everyone creates his own sphere.
1t was all honorable enough for Grant
to run againts Placide as a candidate
on the ground of principle and diff
ference of opinion, but it was not right
for him to be treacherous to his old
friend-it was Iscariotism. That's
what I call it-Iscariotism. Better al
ways to drink out Of the old cocoanut
dipper at the we'll on the farm, than
to gain wealth without integrity, or
honors without honor! If a thing is
right it is right, and there need be
nothing more said about it; if thing
is wrong it is wrong, and there need
be nothing more said about that.
can see that-what is my soul for,
doctor?
Nov when a man begins to practise
deception in politics he is morally
gone. 1t takes two lies to cover the
first one, and four the two, and in few
years a ripe politician can hardly speak
the truth at all if he were to try. He
makes for himself a false nature, and
he will go round about ways when a
straight course would better answer
his end. I have seen it-so have YOU
what are our heads for, doctor? And
what good is a man to anyone after he
has sold his soul!
Il was a stage driver before l be-
came an undertaken. I have been car
rying folks living or dead all my life
One day when l was in Providence
during that time, who should come tC
me but Grant, and he said to me, says
he: I have letter here; l want you
to mail it for me from Warrenr
looked as it and says to myself, From
Warren, from Warren? Why from
Warren?' Things that people have
touched impress you. The letter fell
just like a trick. I could feel the trick
in it.
81 mailed the letter from Warren
1t was directed to a Providence paper
called the Eagle. The next day but
one there appeared in that paper let
ter that startled the state. It read
something like this. I can remember
it because l read it over so many times
Editor of the EagIe:-It is under g
NOSE painful sense of duty that 1 write
and mail to you this communication
Conscience cOmpels me to do it, and
have forecast the consequences on my
dying bed. A man has no moral right
to pass among men for other than he
is, and if he DO so, it is the duty OF
those who know him to present him tC
the world in his true light. I am only
acting on principles when | say that
know Louis Placide, one of our candi-
dates for congress, to be a very differ
ent man from what the public believe
him 10 be. Let me furnish one EXAM
pie: Iii his youth he set fire to a barn
on the Mt. Hope Lands at Bristol, and
cOwaTdly led his cOmaniOnS who knew
of the fact to promise him that they
would never reveal the secret. This
fire was followed by another in the
same town that was set to conceal a
robbery, and that awakened the graVest
suspicious. l make known these facts
as matter of principle. They were
entrusted to me by one of the young
men who was with Placide when he
set fire to the barn, and who was I'm
duly Influenced to promise never to tell
the secret. Shall we elect to represent
us this Bristol incendiary?'
JUSTICE
THAT letter shot Placide. There are
murders for which no one is ever ar
rested The jury is an unseen world.
read that charge over and over again
who wrote it-what your soul tells you
is likely to be true. Men die of poi
soned words-the words Bristol incen-
diary were poison.
ct is the asides of life that are rev.
Citations. Do you understand me? The
aside in this case was this-'They were
entrusted to me by zone of the young
men" who was with Placide! l knew
that Grant wrote that letter, and how
could he be acting on principle and be
trying to hide his hand in such blind
and deceptive way as that? That was
Grant. Now you see the soul of each
of them.
"The state buzzed like the little bee
hive it is. Two days after the letter
appeared the postmaster at Warren
sent for me. He said to me-"This
envelope has been brought to me from
Providence for identifcation-did you
ever see it before?' I stood dumb-my
heart beat like the heart Of an OK.
riveted my eyes on the envelope, and
they blurred. Driver, why do you
stare SOP asked the postmaster What
do you see in that envelope?' "A lost
soulr said T. 'Whose?' he asked.
Placide's?' No I answered with a
voice that gave vent to my feelings,
and I staggered out of the door. He
called after me, but did not return.
"PIacide was defeated at the election
by three votes. 1t was said that Grant
used money to purchase votes for him
self but this was not proven. From
the day that Placide read the letter in
the Eagle he shrank away from men.
His fathers blood was in him. His
poor mother said that when the paper
fell into his hands and he had read it,
he sunk upon his bed in his room and
said. my brain burns. Ny character
is lied away. Other accusations as IN
itics. Don't let anyone see me-to be
just will follow-that is the way of pol
accused of dishonor-it sets a fire in