The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-02
He HAD A FULL HOUSE
II. II. sHIEL GREETED by A BIG
CROWD AT MASONIC HALL.
People Came to BE Amused and
Used Revelations Not New.

city and drive several prominent citizens
out of town. attracted a great many cur
ious people and every seat was occupied
and the aisles half filled when he began
at s O'Clock. The audience was as strange
a study as the speaker. 1t was composed
almost entirely of men, though there were
a few women present. 1t was not confined
to any party. Republicans. Democrats and
Populists were there and rich and poor ell
bowed each other for room. A few of them
were in sympathy with the speaker, others
were coldly curious but the great mass had
come to be amused, and laughed hilariously
at everything, no less when Shiel was say
ing something pathethic than when ne was
raging at rings and things.
Mr.. She had prepared a typewriter
speech, but did not stick to his text. Though
he declared time and again that he was
never cooler in his life, he appeared to be
laboring under the greatest mental excite
ment and was so incoherent that his line
of thought could only be followed with the
greatest difficulty He did not follow it him
self and occasionally remarked that he was
making rambling speech, but declared
that t was hot stuff" If the crowd went
in the expectation of hearing any revela-
lions about the topics he had promised to
talk upon, it was disappointed, for what he
said was the same story he has been tell
ing on the streets for the last six months,
only he was even more indefinite in his
charges than he has been in conversation.
For the first hour he talked about himself
giving his family history and his own rise
to wealth. The crowd cheered wildly at the
start when he held up a bottle and ex-
planned that it contained good liquor to
stimulate him as he went along. His re-
cital of his family history was frequently
interpolated with sudden cries that that
feller's got to git out O town"
After he had finished with his personal
story it developed that the man he was
talking about driving out of town was
Charles r. Williams, editor of the News,
and he devoted the next hour to five criti-
cisms of him and said he had seven more.
1t developed that all these criticisms were
directed against the editorial and business
policy of the paper. There We're no personal
charges against the editor, and the most
serious charge that he made was that a
communication he had written had been
garbled and published over his signature
Passing from the editor of the News he
devoted a very brief portion of his speech
TO an assertion that John P. Frenzel and
or a ring to control the city, how they had
organized the City Railway Company and
now he had taken command of the Citizens
company forces in the Legislature. BY $3.50
Q clock the crowd had grown weary OF
Laughing, and, disappointed in the expecta-
ton OF some salty revelations, about two
movement and announced that he would
cut short his speech This stopped the
exodus, and the rest of the people heard
him out.
GROTESQUE AFFAIR
Such. in brief, was the meeting but this
outline gives little idea of the grotesqueness
of the affair, or the character of the speech. /
Shiel had hired the hall, and had employed
a brass band to play in front while the
crowd was gathering. The popular song,
"A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
seems to have caught his wandering fancy
and its title was painted upon both sides
of the wagon he has had advertising his
meeting for several days AT the most I'M
expected points in his rambling talk he
would burst forth Hot time in the old
town. or Hot stuff in the old time!" or
Hot town in the old stuff or whatever
version of the thought first came to his
tongue. He was wildly cheered when he
came upon the platform with his two little
boys. There was no chairman to introduce
him, He sat at the table and sorted his
papers, while the Marion Glee Club sang a
version of the hot time written for the
occasion.
Il wish you'd come up hyur on the
stand cried Mr.. Shiel. springing to his
those standing in the rear OF the hall.
They amt one of We will go home before
Y o'clock if my VOICE holds out! Hot stuff
in the old timer This was greeted with
cheers and laughter, and he began with the
text of his speech, but followed it only for
a paragraph. He stopped to think and took
with delight, and he held 1t up Know
what that ISL" he asked That's good
liquorp (Cheers) Il want it to stimulate
me as go along and help my voice. Now
got twelve points here. No l is--hes got to
git out O. town! He can't stay in my town
an be my partner
walking around the table and suddenly fac
ing the audience. mo mans party, no
RhodT Shell Then he again caught the
thread of his text and told his audience
that on one evening the News had said he
was pushing himself upon the committee,
and the next evening that the committee
pushing him forward 1t must have
lied one time or the other, and the truth
sentiment ne expressed. II m goin' to let
every man in town bow his head in submits
forgive EN- ali but two" he rambled on.
Zone of these men is Charlie Williams an
the other IS my family physician. lie amt
now but he was Family away. He give
me medicine. He give me medlcine. 1 got
another doctor now. An when [ was git
tin out of bed he signed petition to have
me expelled from the Columbia Club Char
lie williams! He's got to git out o. town.
There's three other families here and he's
got to git out, because the OIner TdmlneSS
got the records. I'm one O. them families.
CYells from the crowd) | got bigger rec
ord than any family in this town. Wy, you
don't know who | am I'm an inbred fight
in family. He calls me the right honora-
BILE. Mebbe he's read this book And he
held UP book. He said 1 was nobody.
Here some O. you. 1 can't read very well
Got one eye shot out in the war. Hot time
in the old town! Anybody hyur that kin
read?'
A PATHETIC SIGHT.
1t is needless to remark that his strange
"breaks" were punctuated with yells and
cheer from the pitiless crowd. He rambled
on telling of his ancestors and his own
experiences for an hour in this same start
ling fashion, and then went to the rest of
his speech. Toward the end he discussed
Candidate Smith briefly. ending with
"Charlie Smith, in the name O. God. don't
you know no politics." He made frequent
illusions to his church and told how he
had brought several people to time by tell
ing them that ii they did not do as he be-
leved to be right, they could never get abb
peroration his voice sank to a pathetic
whisper that sent the crowd into convul-
sions. II may fall tonight before I git
home" he said solemnlv Il may fall any
time at the hand of my hired assassin /
may have my house burned over me- But
I want you that live TO know who done itT'
And turning tragically to his boys. God
bless you, little men, / want you to take
your old fathers place an be honest"
Probably the most unique feature of the
close of his speech, suddenly turned to the
stenographers he had employed TO take his
speech and demanded that he be sworn to
an inmaterial statement he was making