The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-15
of more than five thousand who have worn
the LOYAL blue.

of more than five thousand who have worn
the loyal blue.
The city of Leavenworth began it's career
in 1854, when the border ruffians'' were ex-
erting all their power to bring Kansas I'M
der the dominion of slavery and it became
the gateway of settlement and supplies for
Kansas, as the fort had been for the army
and the overland trains. There the con-
tending factions met and mingled, and in
the bitterness of the conflict between free
dom and slavery many upon each side shed
their blood. The Northern settlers and
Southern Shareholders that entered Kansas
in those times fought the preliminary bat
ties of the great rebellion. Later on came
the time when the railway must supplant
the Missouri-river steamboat in the Western
settlement. The Importance and prospective
greatness Of the city had never been ques-
toned except by some insignificant rival
town. Its citizens felt the railroads needed
Leavenworth much worse than Leaven-
worth needed the railroads. But the great
soulless corporations did not view the stu
alton through the same kind of spectacles
They called for assistance and Leaven-
worth made no response That day her op-
portunity passed forever, her precedence
vanished. The business men of Kansas City
any cost. The Eastern man hears Kansas
City mentioned one thousand times and
Leavenworth once. Leavenworth has a pop
ulation of twenty-five thousand and ought
to be a great business center. 1t has SEW
enty-five inches of workable coal, numerous
factories and boundaries, the fort and 1890
old soldiers at the home three miles south,
to throw loose change into its commerce.
and yet they pay per cent. tax and claim
TO be hard up. Under the present Populistic
administration the town is run wide open"
according to the desire of the majority BY
means of fines they license saloons and
bawdy houses. In many saloons the drinker
is not concealed by door screens and painted
windows. To estimate the saloons at three
hundred and the occupants of bawdy
houses at five hundred is said to be con-
sentative. Between the home and the bust
ness part of town there are twenty-three
drinking places and on the road south as
many more. Governor Rowland who has
recently succeeded Governor Smith, threat
ems to break up these robber roosts, but
he will need a standing army if he keeps
them cleaned out. 1t is unfortunate that the
$500 inmates of that beautiful soldiers
home cannot be better protected from the
soulless vultures that surround the place. 1t
is a cold fact that a large per cent. of these
old veterans have the drinking habit, and
when they get their pensions and go into
these dives they drink and are promptly
robbed. Along the Missouri river at this
place prohibition is an absolute failure be-
cause public sentiment has not been edu-
Gated along that line. We have the law upon
the statute books but the people of the city
and county make no effort to enforce it, If
this town is not in condition of anarchy
the writer is mistaken in the use of terms
Even Christian people seem to think such
a state of affairs is all right. They prefer
saloons to Joints" One gentleman in a
candid and conservative manner, told me
that not more than one-hfth of the popu-
lation could be classed i'll favor of enforce
ment of law. q