The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-04-29
THE PLurooRArIo popuLlsrs.

"Our fellers appear to be talkin'
mighty strange, Mandy" said Deacon
Haysee az he sat down and wiped
the bald spot on his dome of thought
with a red bandana handkerchief.
"Johp Breidenthal says here in an
interview that the Populists own the
principal part of the wealth of this
State; 80 per cont of it, | believe he
says, and that lots of 'em air worth
from 500, 600 to 100000.
"Maybe John is right about this; he
is doing business with banks right
along and ought to know something
about who hez money and who hasn't,
/ suppose, hut don't it sound queer?
You recollect how Molle Lease used
to come around to our alliance picnics
and eat my beet and your chickens
and then she would get up and roar so
you could hear her half a mile, about
the way we was ground down by the
money power. She said we was serfs
and a sight wuss Off than the Africans
durin' slavery days; and we stood
around like passed. of consumed fools
with our mouths open and applauded
Molle when she was talkin' that sort
of rot; and after she got through we
fed her some more chicken and paid
her SIS and her expenses. In the
light of subsequent events, Mandy,
| must say that you and me was a
tolerable rank pair of suckers, con-
siderin' that we war born In free
country and was children Of Yankee
parents that had Il record fur havin'
considerable good boss sense. And
then came Jerry simpson, that |
helped to send to congress, who stood
up there ard said that OWN to the
iniquitous financial system we was
staggerin' under, the men among his
constituents wuz sellin' their honor
and the females their virtue fur
bread, and we was fools enough to
take that and send Jerry to congress.
And there was that Omaha platform
that we was all swearin' by, which
had us all fryin' on the altar OF
mammon.
1.-The tact is, as ! always understood
it the only excuse we had fur sartin'
new party was that the plutocracy
was goblin everything and leavin' US
absolutely nathin' to speak of. They
told US that it was all OWN to the
nefarious financial system which
didn't give us no chance; and now
here is our leader and the smartest
man in the hull caboodle of our fellers,
says that we own the bulk of the
wealth in this State and have a lot OF
fellers worth a quarter of million
and better. Accordin' to Johns tell,
our fellers air in mighty comfortable
circumstances for serfs, and they heZ
gathered it up under this nefarious
financial system that we wuz howlin
about.
"The fact is, Mandy, and there amt
no use denyin' it, that talk about us
! being serls IN the grip OF the money
power with no show to make anything
under the present financial system
and that the poor was gettin' in wuss
and wuss shape, was rot and tulerable
rotten rot at that. We was "A passel
of chumps for ever swallerin' it.
"Come to think of it, Mandy,
can't just understand why l ever
went trailin' round after lot OF
giloloo BIRDS like John Davis and
Mary Lease and John Otis tryin' tC
get information on finance. Kind o
seems to me | must hev had some
such experience as that fairy queen
was readin' about who had some stuff
rubbed on her eyes by old Oberon 81
that when she walked up she gOI
stuck on an ASST