The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-10-29
In HOTEL CORRIDORS.

Il have seen a. lot in the papers con-
| corning the cruelty and barparous &C
! tions Of the Chinese in Tien Tsln, now
| they will mutilate the bodies OF their
enemies and torture their captives IN
| every conceivable manner" said a gen
tleman who lives in Denver and was in
| the city on business. 7 also saw IN one
account where the foreigners had orders
to save at least one charge in order that
/ they might kill the women and children
! in case the boxers were successful ~
| breaking into their rudely constructed
| defenses. / have never been in China
and know nothing of the Chinese eA-
cepting what L have read and heard
| but DO know all about our native Ii
/ dams and 1 want to say that savage
red man is the worst demon the world
can produce, not excepting the Sclenlluc
boxer mutilatiOn. In the early days OF
this country no woman ever dreamed o.
allowing herself to be taken captive ana
many OF the early settlers can tell stories
of suicides which were committed IN
preference to capture and the subsS-
Quent Economical torture by the red men,
Anyone who has seen the bodies OF the
victims of the Indian raids knows that
the heather Chinee' could do nothing
that would compare with the hellisn
work Of the Indians Occasionally prlS-
oners would be taken who would not pc
tortured to death and the stories they
would relate OF their treatment were not
calculated to make, one desire 70 exper-
fence it There is a woman living near
Wichita who was sca1ped by Conan
enc 1nQlan over 81 years ago anu Liz
agony she suffered was terrible She was
living with her husband near where
Udan now stands when the Indians
made their raids. Her husband was
away at the time and she made a gal
liant fight for her life and that of her
little boy, but she was so seriously
wounded that she tainted and the IN
dams then gained entrance to the house
They thought she was dead and scalped
her. Incidentally they mutilated her
body before they took the child and left
When the husband returned be found
her almost HfelesSs but with constant
care she recovered. The boy was after
ward found through the efforts of the
Indian agents, but it was some ten years
later and he had become so used to IN
dian mode of living that he never
amounted to anything and eventually
died. The Womans head healed, but it
left her disfigured for life. 1t was bet
ter that she suffered as she did than
that she should have been taken prison
er for her fate would have been much
more horrible
There is one nuisance who has not
been so prevalent this campaign as is
usual in presidential election years, said
a travelling man, and l am mighty
glad of it. I refer to the light Drained
man who insists on taking straw votes.
I have only been asked to express my
preference three times by men who were
remarkable falling off. 1t is considered
by some of the boys as a sign of the
general apathy for which this campaign
has been noted and don't know but
that they are right. On the occasion that
I have been asked to poll a straw vote
I noticed that it was done by men who
were returning from a political meeting
somewhere and had their hides soaked
full of enthusiasm for the cause. / do
not recall the result of either of the
polls for / did not take enough interest
to ask which may be taken as sign
that apathy seems to have a hold of me.
a nuisance that it became almost I'M
bearable- Every time I would get on
train I would be buttonholed by some
would-be politician who was polling the
train He was not content with inquir-
ing into your political preference, but
after he had footed up the result of his
poll he would come back and tell you
how it stood. He would also tell you of
other trains he had polled at different
dates and would explain from his figures
how the tide was turning and at what
rate. The straw vote man is always a
politician, or thinks he is, and in addi-
ton to telling how the people will vote,
he attempts to use his influence on the
passengers who do not agree with him.
The argument Of a man who has no bet
ter sense than to poll a train cannot be
very strong and is usually about as con-
vincing as an argument on woman's
rights and is not pleasant thing to lis
ten to at best, so I am glad that he has
disappeared.
a Chicago travelling man. land I heard
of an old gag being worked that I
thought was played out years ago. Tt
seems that a negro with his wife had
drifted into a little town near Peoria
and had told that he was a runaway
slave who had just escaped from his
master down in Mississippi He said
that he had been working TOR his mas
ter ever since he had been born, about
go years, in one of the backwoods coun-
ties and that he had never had chance
to escape until recently. He asked fo-'
protection from the other negroes and
of course the story soon reached the
white people who at once raised a purse,
bought the old man a home and gave
him a little money to furnish it with.
His story was to the effect that he had
never heard of the war or Of the eman-
cipation proclamation; that his master,
whose plantation was miles from the
railroad had kept him with his wife and
several other negroes in ignorance of the
fact that they were free and that he
finally escaped on account of cruel treat
ment. 1t is an old game and was work
ed successfully for years after the war,
but this is the first case I have heard Of
for some time. Ine old negro would not
tell who his master was or exactly where
he lives for he processes to have the
greatest fear that if he tells his old mas
ter will in some way find it out and
come and take him back. On this ac-
count it is impossible to prove that the
old negro is lying, although there is no
question but that he is at the old game.
There is not a plantation in Mississippi
that is so out Of the way that such a