The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-14
Still Pursued by His Friends.


Still Pursued by His Friends.
Col. Kiefer will never be free from
the persecution of his friends until he
shall have yielded himself up the I'M
willing victim Of some Of the bacilli
coli cummunis discovered by the bac-
teriologist of the city health depart
ment They-the friends, not the strep-
tococcus pyogenes-are insanely bent
upon robbing that good citizen and
valiant soldier of his peace of mind,
his calm repose, his otiosity, and
thrusting upon him the herculean la
bors of public service. We recall many
instances Of this most unseemly intru-
sion upon the placid, restful life of
our distinguished fellow citizen; this
gratuitouS, effiorescent, bubbling,
gushing, spontaneous rush of the gal
liant colonel's innumerable friends to
eXalt him on the pedestal of public
station. What baleful fairy presided
at his birth and singled him out for
this unenviable fate we know not, but
it is most remarkable how relentlesSly
his fate has pursued him. We recall
no instance in which he has been its
victim that the cause was not the
same horde of thoughtless, impetuous,
senseless fool friends
Other men no worther than he are
not so afflicted; in fact, we believe very
few other men are. They can pursue
their customary vacations in quiet;
enjoy the well earned leisure that
comes after years of effort, without
being once even mentioned by any
one as suitable for public station. But
the colonel can no more escape them
than the rest of us can death, taxa
ton or karma. We recall, with deep
pity for their victim, how, from all
the quarters of the country, and some
of those of the globe. came the de-
mands of these unnumbered friends,
focusing on the ear of the new presi-
dent, all unbeknownst to the colonel,
that he forthwith make the colonel
commissioner of immigration. Read
erS of The G o b e with retentiVe
memories will recall the protest we
then made against this most unseemly
interference with the good mans rest
sentative of the Fourth congressional
district of Minnesota. Whether it was
our protest or the presidents deaf ear
we know not, but the colonel owes to
one or the other the obligation OF hav-
ing saved him from his fool friends
that time. We were then candidly of
the opinion that no further burdens
should be thrust upon the colonel until
after he should become fully recuper-
ated from his heroic struggle with per-
centages in his vain assault upon the
Wilson bill.
A period of rest having interviewed
in which no public Office cropped out
into which his friends thought him
worthy of being pushed, or which was
worthy of having him pushed into it.
1t now happens that one looms up on
the May horizon that is thought by
them to be just his size. And forth
with this legion of friends are as act
i've as are the staphylococcus pyogenes
aureus in the city hall. Passers by
on East Seventh street have wondered
at the long procession of men press
ing each other up the narrow stairway
that leads to the real estate office Of
the colonel. They were not an uproar-
ious set, but their faces beamed with
enthusiasm and there was a wildness
in their eyes that betokened great pur-
pose and and unfiinching determine
ton. The colonel himself now makes
known their mission. They were there
to beg, to plead, to browbeat, to coax
him to become a candidate for mayor
Of this great metropolis. He SAYS so
over his own signature, and that silen-
ces all doubts. What he does not tell
what his native modesty prevents him
from telling, but what any one of the
ten thousand and odd friends who
went up and down those stairs will
confirm. is the coy reluctance, the
modest depreciation of self the plea for
quiet, for continuance of the bliss Of
private life, with which the colonel
tried to evade their demand. But re-
monstrance, pleadings, refusals were
all in vain, and again the colonel finds
himself captive of his relentless. i'm
placable army of friends. He has our
profound comm:seration.