The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-12-26
Somewhat General ami Some
what Particular.
Showing How Easy 1t is For a
Newspaper to Be Mistaken.
DON'T BE JEALOUS,
And Don't For a MIMI te Be-
lieVe All That
You Read in Papers Prepared
in the Darkness of Night.

| On bright, beautiful and CHEEKY
| Christmas morning those who read the
| Topeka Sunday paper were surprised to
see in it's columns one of the most
! vicious and ibelOus articles which has
ever been published in Topeka.
1t was not only libelous on this paper
but also upon the Associated Press and
Mr.. c. S. Gleed, one of the prominent
and estimable citizens of Topeka.
Just why the Topeka Capital, whose
editor is classed as a Christian gentle
man, should take Christmas morning
to publish such columns of untruth and
abuse is beyond comprehension.
Insane jealousy at the success and
progress of the State Journal is the only
| reasonable explanation.
Did the editor of this paper believe
in wagers, he would be willing to place
! $4,000 against $1.00 that Mr.. Chas. S.
Gleed was totally ignorant of that inter-
/ view, alleged to have been with him,
! as published in the Topeka Capital and
| that if he read it no one was more sur
| prised at the pretended interview than
/ he. He could not possibly have given
such an interview to any paper.
We have not seen Mr.. Gleed since the
/ publication and presume he is out of
I the city and has not seen the article.
| The following paragraphs which APP
| peared in the State Journal Thursday,
| December %, were undoubtedly garbled
/ and used as a basis for the TRADE in the
! Christmas edition of the Capital:
/ 1T is understood that the fast mail con-
/ tract between the government and the
coming year and that the early morning
mail all train Will be disceentinued -
! dubbed the unIucky one it would certain
! The Lang wreck was between the fast
4 mail and No and no wreck in the his
! the lives of the train crew as that En-
! Emporia with the mail one morning and
/ Fireman Foley lost his life on the same
/ while no railroad man will openly adj
still there are those in Topeka who would
would go out on the mail train"
It will be observed that the State
/ Journal did not say. as the Capital
! would lead its readers to believe that
the train would be taken off the first of
/ the year. 1t simply gave it as the I'M
| Outstanding that the train would be dis
continued, etc, and that the train by
/ railroad men was regarded as an I'M
| lucky one, all of which is strictly and
! literally true with the possible exception
! that the words the coming year. should
| have read the coming fiscal year.
|
The current understanding of the dis
/ continuance of the fast mall contract
! for the train running between Kansas
J City and Newton probably grew out
/ of the statement made by Second AS
/ sistant Postmaster General Shallenbar-
| ger who appeaed before a joint con-
] gresSiOnal commission at Washington
! several weeks ago in the investigation
i of the question of railway mail trans
/ pOrtatiOn. General Shallenbarger gave
/ it as his opinion that the general mail
/ service would be improved by discon-
1 tinuatiOn of the fast mail subsidy be-.
! tween New York and New Orleans and
! between Kansas City and Newton, Kan.
/ This statement was sent out from
! Washington and the Journal published
/ it. We do not know whether the Capital
/ printed it or not. We do not always
! read the Capital; life is too short.
The employees of the operating de-
J. partment of the Santa Fe have be N
Z discussing the diScOntinuance of this
! train and the changes it would make if
! it were taken off, in which event some
of the train crews would be restored to
/ freight runs. The Journal may readily
! understand that no announcement of
/ this kind was made by Santa Fe rail-
/ road company officials, but the feeling
/ exists among the trainmen just the
/ same and many of them believe that
| the fast mail will not prove a perma-
| nent train.
| In stating that the fast mail is re-
| garded as an unlucky train, the Journal
| is merely giving currency to a fact and
not theorizing. This feeling has been
/ produced because of a number of acct
( dents, one of them serious, but many of
{ them trivial, in which the fast mail was
! concerned in going to Newton or return
/ ing from Newton. The Lang wreck.
| which has always been treated as a
/ collision of the fast mail coming east
| and passenger train going west, was
| a most serious and deplOrable wreck.
No paper is more careful in it's state
| ments of news than the State Journal.
| It's reporters understand that accuracy
| is the first of all their requirements. 1t
| is true, that the Journal and every
/ paper published, finds great difficulty in
/ promptly procuring exact information,
/ especially in connection with railroad
/ tionauy mislead newspaper reporters.
/ Others give the best information they
/ have. In some references to the fast
| mail it is altogether likely an accident
/ to some other train which has caused
| delay of the fast mail, has been re-
! ported to the Journal as an accident to
| the fast mail.
! One of the items about which such a
| howl" is made, covering an accident
! to the fast mail in which the Journal
! stated that the drive wheel of the en-
/ CINE had come off was promptly dis
/ covered to be an error. 1t was correct
/ ed in the principal editions of the same
/ days issue. This particular accident
| happened to be to another train but
! it was the cause of a delay to the fast
mail
It is a strange coincident that yester-
/ days Topeka Capital with its mislead-
! ing report about the time the jury came
/ in Saturday evening with its verdict in
/ the Collins trial and the two columns
/ of abuse of the State Journal, should
/ fail to make connection with the fast
mail train leaving Topeka Sunday
/ morning. owing to an unlucky accident
! to its press. the Capital missed the fast
! mail. The State Journals extra of Sat
/ urday night and all the Kansas City