The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-02-02


The condition of mind which can lead
person to stop at this time to denouncs
the political opinions and actions of Will
lam ,Goebel, governor of Kentucky, AMI
withhold condemnation of the causes oil
rectly. responsible for the murderous as
saut made On him, and to discuss the
probable effect Of that assault upon the
efforts of a political party to control the
state government, can only be described
by the word-depravity. The political and
official acts of the former governor, AR
Taylor, and his aiders and abettors, to
which is directly attributable the terrible
deed which has inflicted a lasting dis
grace upon the fame and name of the
state of Kentucky, were not even referred
to by the Pioneer Press yesterday morn
ing in its article treating of 1.-THE AssGs-
sination of Goebel," but the victim him
self of political hatred was held up to pub
lie odium even while he lay dying, and
the men who reused the ignorant fury of
his assailant, and who are as much re-
sponsible for the crime as the poor wretch
who fired the shots, are held up by the
Pioneer Press as the defenders of law and
the friends of order.
The men who filled Kentuckys state
house with rude and unrestrained armed
meuntaineers, who allowed such sem.-ciy-
- iized blood-letters to Turk, gun in hand,
ingthe attics and offices of the state house,
ready onaa Inomerifss notice to commence
aasbat chery-the men WI 0 gave up their
offices as sleeping places for the heroes
of manyaa bloody feud-these are held up
as thezloyers of law and order. the right
eous ones Of the state. while for the vic
tim of these lurking htrelings. the Pioneer
Press can only say: at is Impossible to
find a shadow of excuse even in his own
wicked and high-handed defiance of the
law"
The great regret of the Pioneer Press
for this almost unexampled and ferocious
crime is for the effect 1t will have upon
the Republican cause" in Kentucky.
''fIis assassination is severe blow to the
Republican cause In Kentucky. The act
undoubtedly Of some individual mailman,
II will be represented as the result Of
deliberate conspiracy on the part of the
Republican leaders, is the sad summing
up by the Pioneer Press of the effects
of this awful crime against the person of
William Goebel
The Pioneer Press anticipates the just
verdict of the people when they learn
that the murderous fusillade came from
the window of an office used and occu-
pied by one of Gov. Taylor's appointees,
and that in that Office armed mountain
GERS had been harbored for days, and
that every Office and room in the building
was similarly occupied and garrisoned
by men whose reputation as killers,
whether of revenue officers, political op.
ponents or their enemies in "feud," was
their sole recommendation for their I'M
holy occupation.
If such an expression of opinion had
been found in a Republican country
newspaper published in a mountain dis
trict of Kentucky; 1t would not have
been surprising; but in Minnesota, where
the punishment of crime and the main
teEance Of law and order are regarded as
far superior to any political exigency
such an expression is, to say the least
truly remarkable.
One inexplicable feature of the reports
Is the statement that the shot was fired
from a third story window, while the
medical examination of Goebel's wound
discloses that the bullet entered below
the armpit and made It's exit on tho
other side below the shoulder blade. The
angle of the direction of a bullet fired
from such an elevation would, it might
be reasonably supposed cause ii to
traverse the body in a downward direc-
ton and make It's exit below the waist
line and near the hip bone. 1t looks as
though the shot might have been fired by
a person standing nearly on the same
level as Mr.. Goebel ard not by person
in an upper window. It is highly prob,
able, however, that the facts relating to
this brutal deed will never be disclosed,
but that it will be added to the long list
of unpublished crimes in Kentucky The
scene of the crime and the measures fol