The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-05-21
Daily II Eagle
NJ. M. MURDOCH. Editor.
GOVERNOR LEEDY'S ROAST.

The people of Topeka, through the
State Temperance Union, have been
holding some meetings of late for the
purpose Of roasting Governor Leedy, III
which meetings the governor was not
asked TO participate. They held another
meeting two or three nights ago 10
which Leedy considerably invited
himself, and once there favored the
good people of that town, more especial
~ the said State Temperance Union.
With a speech. 1t was characteristic OF
the man. He declared that 1.-The failure
10 enforce the prohibitory law In To
peka is largely chargea5le to the exec
utive committee of the State Temper
apee Union. an organization which has
fallen into the hands Of agents Of cor
pcrations, who make it political weap-
on instead of an instrument for good.
That shot caused a flutter which was
emphasized by cultural growls of dis
sent. The governor then went on TO
say that he did not know what forces
foisted d railway attorney on the COM
mittee as its chairman, as the railways
are interested in the transportation Of
The traffic and have to pay their attor-
reys salaries, but he was satisfied that
said attorney had well earned his sal
airy since his appointment as leader of
the Temperance Unions committee.
He proceeded to rake the corporation
coterie at some length, then branching
off. cited the fact that there was a con-
victed whisky seller who, for some
strange reason, was still running at
large in Topeka, never having been SEN
fenced. He advised the union TO pass
fewer resolutions, to hold fewer bun
combe meetings and get down to bust
ness. The man who was convicted is
influential with the corporations and
whose brother is a brother-in-lSw TO
the Temperance union. The governor
closed his speech by advising the union
to quit playing TO the galleries and
come down to business.
Old man PETER. who has not been
alive to the affairs Of this mundane
sphere since his last reincarnation, had
been resurrected and brought TO the
meeting. He evinced real terrestrial life
and said in his mummified fashion that
if he was governor he would drive the
saloons out of the state or leave enough
wrecks behind to show that he had
been governor. and before Almighty
God and man. This was the first init
nation that his whiskers aspires to be
governor His declaration was re-
sponded to with the assurance that To-
peka was for him and that he could be
elected by an overwhelming majority. |
A man named Larimer, who next
took the floor. said he was ashamed of
the governor, ashamed for the people |
Of Kansas, of whom so many seemed |
TO be cranks This is the first in
stance in which 4 member of the State
Temperance Union has called the rest
of the people cranks. If Larimer is cor
rect. then the real source of all our
troubles as a state has been discovered. |
If, indeed, it is the majority, and not |
the minority. of the people who are |
the cranks, it would be the better part |
of wisdom to abandon hope and resign |
ourselves To fate.
The two big corporation attorneys, |
who We're to answer the governor, had |
been called to Chicago so Leedy said,
to help devise ways and means to multi
fy the Sherman antitrust law, and TO
defeat the late decision of the supreme |
court aboishing the Transmissouri traf
fic association.
So the meeting ended where it began,
except for the fact that all hands had |
been afforded another opportunity TO
rl3y TO the galleries, except in this:
Leedy told the canting cranks OF the
State Temperance Union some whole
some truths. These truths will not he
admitted by the Topeka crowd, but the
state will recognize them as such. He
told them that there were other laws OF
vastly more importance 10 the well-be
Ing of the people than the prohibitory
law. and that these laws were violated.
He cited the fact that the two promin-
ent lawyers of the Temperance Union
who had done So much 10 stir UP the
racket in Topeka were at that moment
seeking TO evade a law and break down
a court decision upon it, which law di-
rectly concerned every man in the state
He was tired of Topeka's eternal whine
about the wickedness of the rest OF the
stale.