The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-14
HOW WARE WAS DEFEATED
'The Organ Grinder" Not ''The Wash
erwoman,0 Buried His Ambitions.

The following is a letter to the Kan
sas City Times from Topeka:
What the state of Kansas needs ev-
identity, is a superintendent of Kansas
history, as official whose duty shall be
to search out and eliminate from her
history all little errors that creep in
through the mistakes of overWorked
and imposed-upon newspaper CORES
pOndents
If you don't believe it, look at the
story in The Times of January g. which
alleges that it was the irreligious senti-
ment of"The Washerwoman" which de-
feated Eugene Ware in his aspirations
for congress.
That's a good story, but no better
than the true one I am going to tell
and why should not the public know
the truth?
1t was THE Organ Grinder that de-
feated Gene Ware; not the mere fact
that the poet-lawyer had undertaken
to bride the machine musician by fire.
quently dropping a quarter into his hat,
ferred to the said musical perambula-
tor 'nOble Roman" but the more
sOrrOwful fact that the sentiment of
the poem did not rhyme with the pre-
vailing sentiment of Kansas Repub
canism at the time at which Mr.. Ware
posed as a candidate for congressional
hOnorS.
"Ironquill,' who had recently caught
the spirit of modern Republicanism, was
making a speech to the convention, in
which he dwelt upon the glorious re-
SUITS OF the war, the reunited nation.
the best banking system the world
ever saw the credit strength
ening act, and the payment
of the public debt in specie
the Substituting of railroads, and the
numerous other acts in the interests of
capital, all of which he approved be
cause the millionaireS had saved the
country and were now developing its
resources.
All this stuff which has since become
50 monotonous was new argument in
Kansas in those days, and Mr.. Ware
had adopted it for the occasion. Nice
as it sounded to most of the delegates,
one of them, rural representative who
had been a constant reader of Wares
verses, interrupted the speaker and ask
ed permission to read the following
gem from The Organ Grinder"
Fires smouldered at the freside when the
nation called To armsY
Ny comrades left the forest. the foundries
They fought the nations battles on the
land and on the sea-
Alas! alas no millionaire went to the war
The merit Of the country marched and
The money of the country marched, and
filled the English banks.
At last the war was over and Johnny
He came with bugles playing; the specie
sneaked back home
A chilly atmosphere pervaded the con
vention and seriously affected the dele
gates who had just been applauding the
poets imported speech. After that things
didn't go as had been expected. and-welI.
Mr.. Ware was saved the humiliation of
going to congress. He has since become
a prominent and prosperous railroad at
tOrney.
And sooa after the incident related above
(as the professional story-teller would
say) "IronquiIr' penned the following
soulful melody:
THE world does not care for the frag-
rance that never is lost in perfum-
ing:
The world does not care for the blossoms
that wither away before blooming.
The world does not care for the chimes re
naming unrung by the ringer;
The world does not care for the songs I'M
sung in the soul of the singer.
The motives. the hopes and the schemes
that have ended in idle conclusions,
Are buried along with the failures that
come in a life of Illusions
GEORGE WAGNER.