Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-03-31
WRITES A sTINGING OPEN LETTER
TO BISHOP M'CABE.
HIS vITRIoL BOTTLE.
REPLIES TO THE BISHOPS RECENT
REMARKS AT WINFIELD.
Takes the Bishop Severely to Task
for the AssauIt-vigorouxly De-
fends His Course in Reports
ei'i ing the Carson City
Prize Fight.

Leavenworth, kas., March 30.-EN-Sen-
ator ingalls, has written the following
open letter to Bishop McCabe in reply TO
criticisms made upon the ex-senator ;
course in reporting the Carson City prize
fight:
Sleeping Car Essen March %, 1897.
my Dear Bishop McCabe:-In Kan
sas City paper which bought at Trinidad
this morning on my way home from San
Francisco, L find the following:
".At the Winfield conference Bishop Nc
Cabe rose to a question of personal nriVi-
lege and roasted John ]. ingalls, for his
report of the prize fight. He said: 1T is a
fitting sequel to the career of the man
who declared the publication of politics en-
iridescent dream to find him sloughing off
his senatorship toga long enough to pros
titute his glowing rhetoric for the SPORT
ing readers of the New York Journal.
What a contrast between the calm dignity
with which John ]. ingalls, held the restfve
members of the upper house OF congress
within the bounds of senatorial courtesy
and his gentle efforts to soothe the ruff
fan spirit of Mrs. FitZsimmons when she
shrieked to her husband, kill the dirty
puppy 1 am willing to leave the aero
batic statesman amid such genial environ
ments, but as an American citizen l pro-
tators at the brutal fistic tournament
were average citizens of this republic.
This statement is lie-an insult to Amer
lean citizenship and American manhood:
Not being a member of the Methodist
church, / am at a loss to know how the
censure of any act of mine, no matter how
nefarious, could have been properly queS-
ton of personal privilege at the Winfield
conference; but my respect for your high
Office. and for the great organization which
you represent, many Of whose members are ire
it appropriate that L should not allow your
comments to pass unnoticed.
Your revival OF the venerable calumny
that l advocated depravity because said
the publication of politics by the methods
proposed by Democracy and Populism was
an iridescent dream, requires no extended
reply. If you think that the politics of Kan
sas and the nation have been purified by
the precepts of the opponents of Repub-
licanism then you are warranted in your
condemnation of the phrase which / ut
tered ten years ago; If not, then your quo
tation is disingenous and unjust.
Your allusion to the tsenatorship toga'
makes 1t proper that | should say that
left the senate involuntarily six years ago.
]. did not slough my toga, as you intimate.
The Populists sloughed it for me, very
much against my inclination. Intellectual
ly endeavored to resume it at the recent
election, but the people decided otherwise,
and am now private citizen without
even the vague and shadowy publicity that
attends a man who is a prospective candi-
date for office, for I realize that my polit-
ical career in Kansas is at an end.
II am glad to be able to infer from your
remarks that while l wore that garment
I dishonored neither my constituents nor
the country, whatever I may have done
since.
During the interval, I have been, like
yourself, working for my living. Not hav-
ing the gifts, faculties and conservation re-
quisite for a bishop, being out of practice
been doing. odd jobs, on the lyceum plat
form and for the press. talk and write,
as you preach, for money, but my opinions,
convictions and judgment are no more for
sale than yours. -
From your ,allusions to my glowing
rhetoric and the alleged incidents at the
read the accounts of the brutal fistic tour
nament' at Carson; whether from the pulpit
to your congregation. at the freside to
your your, family or in the @ seeusion OF your
ate mind it looks quite as immoral to read
about a disreputable transaction as to wit
mine, admit. could have been more profit
ably employed in meditating upon the mall
edictions of Christ against the Pharisees of
HIS day the e,s eanting hypocrites Of Paes-
sas, who, thanking God they are not as
other men, pay tithes of anise, mint and
cummin and omit the weightier matters Of
law.
"I went to Carson with authority to
write as much or as little as 1 pleased, in
any vein, as l saw fit. and my purpose was
audience and the moral environment as 1t
appeared to me. Had been requested to
attend the Winfield conference and write
my impressions of its proceedings, 1 should
have done SO with equal composure, had
the compensation offered been satisfactory,
and no other occupation prevented.
Had heard you distort and misconstrue
the language of a man who had always
treated you with courtesy and spoken of
you with respect; had 1 heard you apply
injurious epithets gratuitously and with
out provocation to one who had endeavored
to endure adversely with fortitude; had
heard you denouncc as lie a statement
of whose truth you could personally know
nothing, I should have said so. in the same
spirit with which l described what took
place at Carson: and might also have
added that you exhibited all the character
istics of the gladiator, except his courage.
"I heard no such language at Carson as
Is imputed to you at the Winfield confer
ence. Its only parallel is the fictitious ex-
ciamation which you incorrectly ascribe to
the frenzied Mrs. Fitzsimmons.
''The etiquette of the prize ring does not
permit man to call another liar, or ac-
cuse him of being a 'prostituted acrobat
with impunity. Perhaps you are Incorrect
ly reported. ! hope so. ] should regret to
be compelled to believe that Carson has a
higher code of ethics than Winfield. or that
a pugilist may have better manners than a
bishop. Very truly yours.
Nyn~arr