The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-11-03
In THE MATTER OF MR.. LAPHAM.
A Communication From Neighbors Of
the Combine Candidate for Judge.
CHANUrE, Kas oct. 20, '0I

EDITOR REGISTER,
Dear Strive have read with some
interest your editorial in last weeks
REGISTER, entitled peanut Politics"
in which you criticise the action of
Mr.. Amos Lapham, candidate for
Judge of this judicial District, for
printing letter of recommendation
given him 10y Judge Stilwell, in the
papers of the District for his own per-
sonal gain. Mr.. Lapham, it seems, is
making his canvass very largely
through the columns Of the newspa-
pers. His law partner, Mr. ;. w.
Brewster, gave out to the various pa
pers of the county four column arti-
Gle recently, which was intended to
glorify Mr. Lapham, and IL some de
gree to reflect on the actions of Judge
Stillwell i'm some cases that were
tried in this county, known as the
Cleveland Perjury" cases, but the
whole matter fell flat and the people
of this county upheld Judge Stilwell
in anything he may have done Then
under date of October 10th, 1899, a
circular letter has been gotten up and
sent to the voters of this judicial Dis
trict i'm which all of the virtues of Mr..
Lapham that could be collected are
embraced. 1t is signed Judicial
Committee Sth Judicial District" but
all of the circulars thus sent out are
sent from the Chanute postoilice and
the envelopes containing the same
are to be returned to clock Box 35,
and this is the postoflice box of Lap
ham d Brewster, so that Mr.. Lapham
and his partner are assuming to act as
the Judicial Committee of this Dis
trict.
Now, i'm this circular letter we
notice many good things said about
Mr.. Lapham aud we would not de-
tract from anything said about him in
the letter prepared by himself and his
law partner. We notice the follow
ing statement in this circular letter
"With the exception of four years as
lItdSultl vi ANtOhllO NDuul1 ne UNI.
Lapham) has been actively engaged
in the practice of law since his first
admission The letter would
further indicate thai this law firm has
holy adherence to what they term
"life tenure in office" and critici
Judge Stillwel for holding Office so
long. MIR. Lapham moved from lola
to this city in 1877 andsat once became
an earnest worker in thel Republican
party and in Il very few years, latter
locating i'm Chanute he went before
the Republican convention of: this
county and with the assistance of
Judge Stillwell who was a delegate i'm
the convention, and others, procured
the nomination for County Treasurer.
At that time the Office of County
Treasurer wa. the best paying Office
in the county. This Office Mr.. Lap
ham held for four years and at the
close Of the term had token from the
County Treasurer's Office salary and
fees somewhere in the neighborhood
of $4,000 and, aside from this it seems
he had obtained quite number of tax
titles to property in this city and was
soon regarded as one of the very
wealthiest men of our growing town.
In very short time Mr.. Lapham
again desired further faVors from the
Republican party and sought to OBJ
tain the nomination Of the Republican
party for the Legislature, but the del
egation from this city looked at it
differently threw its strength for
different candidate for that Office Then
Mr.. Lapham abandoned the Republi-
can party and joined the Populist
party and soon became an earnest
worker in his new field.
Now, as to the statement in the
circular letter sent out that Mr.. Lap
ham has been practlcing his profess
sion all of the time since he was Coun-
ty Treasurer, we desire to say with
due respect to Mr. Lapham, that one
very important enterprise of his has
Deen ONeIlOOkeu.
In the year 1892 Mr.. Lapham en-
gagged in the mercantile business i'm
this town i'm connection with a Nh.
Kramer and opened up large de-
partment store, and at that time as
Mr.. Lapham owned much valuable
real estate in the city, it was no
q. L, 4,
the wholesale houses, The business
continued for period of about six
months and then it failed. A local
bank and its officers took the stock
under a chattel mortgage, amounting
to about s., 800 and this consumed the
ssets. The wholesale houses and
others held claims amounting to SIS.
900 and upon investigation it was
found that Mr. IaDham's previous