The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-06-28
The Career, Home-Life and Char
aCter of the Wichita
Candidate.
From the Kansas City World:


change his mind. or the Republican man
ayers persuade him TO alter his determine
tion. Governor Leedy will find himself,
petore the campaign is over. assailed in
his own stronghold and invaded IN his
chosen political pastures.
Mr.. Stanley told a World correspondent
who visited him at his home IN Wichita,
that he intended TO go right down among
the people; TO visit the farmer. the miner,
the mechanic, the laborer. the men who
toll with their hands as well as those
VINO work with their brain, find out their
needs and what they wanted, and try
TO give II TO them when he was governor.
The man who proposes TO thus Invade
what has been regarded as Governor
Leedy's peculiar political domain, is a
good deal of a character. He is out Of
the ordinary run Of men. He has person
atty and distinctive characteristics. He is
the senior member of the firm which does
the biggest law business in Wichita
Stanley, Vermilion & Evans. He says he
has probably tried more cases before
the superintendent Of the biggest Sunday
school in Kansas and maybe the biggest
In the west. Vie Wes raised on farm.
has farmed a little and can talk crops
with the veriest Populist of them all
He is persuasive and ready campaign
talker and first rate mixer. He neither
drinks. smokes, chews nor swears, from
choice. At the same time he doesn't think
that his neighbor who may net be a total
abstainer is going lickety split to perdl-
ton. He is as far as possible from being
man and enthusiastic fisherman. SO that
it will be seen that here is a combination,
take il all in all, that is likely to make
John Nv. Leedy realize that he has
game, so to speak, on his hands.
Mr.. Stanley is not without honor IN his
own country-in Wichita, a least. He
has no handle to his name: They don't
call him Judge Stanley or Colonel Stanley.
That was what first strikes the visitor
who inquiries about him not unfavOrably
The hotel clerk was warm in his praises
Of Mr.. Stanley. The barger said that MI
Stanley was one Of the best men IN
Wichita. Half a dozen men who were
waiting for an er-breakfast shave said
the same thing. Everybody who was
asked about him gave a similar report
He is said to know about everybody In
the town, and he calls most of them by
their first name. He has a good deal OF
the Major Warner campaign way about
him, though. perhaps, not so much OF the
suaviter. Yet his wife says there are only
two men in Wichita who call him Gene
They used to call him Gene back In ONO
he was born in Ohio, of couFse-put they
don't do 1t any more.
Mr.. Stanley lives on a couple of acres
of ground in an addition called River
side because it is on the little Arkansas
river. His house is just two miles from
his office, and he drives back and forth
in a sort of half buggy and half phaeton,
behind filly which would not take a prize
at a Paramount horse show, but IS uocl4e
and serViCeable nevertheless.
The house itself is a handsome frame,
in the midst of a neatly kept lawn, sur
rounded by rows of naples 1t Is fur-
nished prettily and lastly. but without
any extravaganza. Everything is INTENDED
for comfort.
When The World correspondent ylsl{ {tga
Mr.. Stanley he had been teaching MS
17-year-old son to bind wheat. MI stan
ley explained that the wheat field q1d noS
belong to him, but he had gotten 1t from
the owner and sowed it in wheat rather
ethan have It grow up in weeds. He had
had it Graded but the scarcity OF men;
who had all gone to the FARMS compelleo
him 70 press his son into service anu ne
After dinner Mr.. Stanley showed his VS.
itor over his grounds; He has Dig
| strawberry patch which Mr.. Stanley says,
| grows the best Strawberries grown any
| where. He has blackberries and red ana
| black raspberries, grapes, peaches, plums,
| cherries and about everything that can
! be grown in that part of Kansas. HIS
! son was picking cherries in the afternoon.
| His orchard and garden were badly grown
up with weeds, and this MI STANLEY con-
| tinually and earnestly explained. he Salu
! that when he went away on his campaign
| ing tour he hired man 20 keep then
down. and when he got back he didn't see
| any signs of any work on them
! He is very proud OF his maple trees;
| Standing under one of them he pointed
| to fine mansion field or two away,
| surrounded by trees a third smaller than
| his own. The mansion is now cIo5ed up,
! one of the monuments 70 the WlchlId
| booms and the plating of Riverside.
''When Davidson put in those trees"
! said he, they were We'll grown. Nine
| were put in the same time. Mine were
| only saplings. l told him then mine would
| beat his in five years. They did in three.
| But l gave mine great care and atten-
| ton. That IS what counts in everything.
! Mr. Stanley is very fond of his family
| and they are very plainly devoted TO him.
! There IS no more doubt in their minds
! that he Is just the man for governor Of
| Kansas than there is that he will be. His
| oldest Henry Z.
! feet tall. a fine, manly fellow, and is
| putting in the summer helping" on che
| diminutive farm. His daughter Hattie
| is a pretty, dark-haired, healthy girl Of IS.
| Eugene is boy Of Z. He was not per-
| mitted TO see visitors when The World
| correspondent was at the house because
| of a misunderstanding with his mother
| over some point Of domestic regulation.
Mrs. Stanley is a blue-eyed, pleasant
! woman, wrapped up in her family and
| domestic affairs. When the visitor asked
for her photograph she said she wouldn's
| think of 1t, and she wouldn't. She said II
was all right for Mr.. Stanley or the boys,
! but she and Hattie were going to keep out
| OF it. When told that when she was
| Mrs. Governor Stanley she was bound TO
| get her picture in the paper she replied
| that when that time came she would give
| II to the World first. In the meantime
| she disliked any publicity II was that
! part of politics she objected to-
II doesn't take the most Of days visit
to the Stanleys to discover that their
home life is a very homely and happy and
| pleasant one
Mr.. Stanley is not very definite in his
! expressions of opinion on issues that
! Kansas is usually interested in. When
! asked his views on prohibition, the metro
/ pOlitan police law and other state issues,
! he asked 10 be permitted to confine him
| self to a general answer. Here IL is:
LAS TO your question about prohibit
! ton and other questions which you have
/ asked, l Will say that when l am elected
| I propose TO know what viii suit the peo-
! pie better than any man who was ever
| elected TO office ] propose to make q cam
| palgn among the people, to mix among
! them and get their views on all questions.
| ! intend 70 see all kinds and classes. 50
| that when I 90 into office l will know
| what the common people think and l VIII
| do the best I can 70 respect their de-
sires. 7 will not take my idea OF what
! the people think from few politicians,
| but Will get II from the people themselves.
That expresses my opinion and IS my an
| swer to your questions as 10 my opinion
| on temperance. labor and any other that
| ought 10 enter into 4 state COnCass.'
| Afterwards Mr.. Stanley apparently IN
! order 10 thoroughly state his position re
Il wish you would say again that IN
! tend 70 60 personally 10 the farmers,
| stOCkmen, 10 the men in the mines and
! workshops and get the views Of all OF
! them on the things that affect them IN
/ their respective classes. Then. after the
| election. I VIII know what the people
/ think al first hand. I don't want 10 De
/ understood as undertaking the poiu-
/ clans Politicians are necessary IN both
| parties and I don't think they have been
] oVerrated. but IN political matters the
! people are underrated. ! propose to take
! the people into my confidence. aud, Il pos
siale find out what they want
But. governor. the metropolitan police
law Is q very interesting topic just az
/ present"
There IS no occasion for ne 70 discuss
the metropolitan police law. The other