The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-06-30
HELLO KANSAS" i"
Startling Little Book Written
by Eugene Ware.
Will Whites "What's the Mat
ter With Kansas Eclipsed.
A PICTURE OF GLOOM.
Effort Made to Show How State
Has Suffered.
EVerYthingCharged to POpulism
and Prohibition.
Dates MisfOrtunes From Ingalls,
Downfall.
A PICTURE OF GLOOM,


press of Crane & Co. which may startle
the country It is a little inoffensive
looking pamphlet of 10 pages and bears
the title Hello, Kansasi The Fall of In
gals and What Happened; by Tired
Man"
The Tired Man" is Eugene F. Ware,
better known as ''Ironquill," who has
never known to be tired but he has de-
voted his little book to proving that
the conditions in Kansas for the past
ten years have made him extremely
weary.
Mr. Wares name does not appear in
the pamphlet which is signed Paint
Creek
AS might be guessed the book is devo-
ted to proving that Kansas has suffered
immeasurably because of Populism and
it is entitled to a place alongside of
Will Whites famous Whats the Mat
ter with Kansas"
The Tired Man says:
Kansas is not a state: it has never
been a state; it is and has been a uni
versity It's history is one of woes and
glory. Kansas is where people learn
things If all those who came within
| it borders, with the intention of staying,
had remained therein, there would be
population of five millions. They have
have gone. For one to live in Kansas
| has required iron nerves, for it has been
| like working in a boiler shop. To make
! a living in Kansas has required genius,
/ fol, no sooner has one condition of things
taken place than another has impOrtu-
nately demanded permission to happen.
AS there is a presidential election on
! hand and great interests at stake, as
| Mr.. Bryan is going to be nominated
next month for the presidency, and Mr.
Ireidenthal for the governorship of
Kansas, the writer begs leave to submit
| the following statistics:
In 1890, we had national legislation on
trusts and on silver. and in that year
/ Kansas had settled down to bedrock
| and had begun a new regime. She had
| tl4en gone through the boom. More than
ore hundred thousand people had come
and gone, and Kansas had returned
to where she was in 1886. comparison
of 1886 and 1890 in Kansas is as fol-
lows:
Year. Population. Children.
1886 ...... ...1,406,7 73S. 497,7S
1880 ....-... -..-1,427,09 ,096 50S, 614
Between the dates of 1886 and 1890 the
population of Kansas ran up to over one
and half million, but it ran down
gain, so that when the United States
census was taken in June, 1890, the state
was practically normal, as to popula-
ton.
In 1885 and 1887 the eWheelers' had
been organized in Arkansas, and they
with kindred societies were sweeping
the southwest. They were against eX-
erything. In Kansas the Farmers Alli-
ance' and other farmers secret socie-
ties We're at the same time organizing.
Socialism began to creep into the state
In 1880 the condition was that of an
insane fervOr. The Indians were dane
ing ghost dances from Canada to the
Gulf, and the political picnic crazes' oi
the white man outrivaled anything
known or heard of before.
'All of these things were the precurS-
ors of the POpulist party. Thousands OF
sensible men talked gibberish and pa
. raded the streets singing in a yell
: 'GoOd-by, old party, gOod-by.' Wagons
loaded with children were paraded Ia
: beled 'over-p production The Indians IL
= their ghost dances painted their faces
and waited for Messiah and so die
the Populists. The Indian Messiah re
fused to appear, but the Populist Mes
siah' was found in Nebraska. The In
dians expected their Messiah to brins
g back the buffalo, the others, free
! coinage of silver both had been lont
= | extinct.
'All of this ancient craze must hav,
h | been caused by some exhalation from
e the planets. It must have been in tn
Y air. People went politically crazy over
: night. 1t reminded one of the orgie
Y preceding the cruSades; or the Wilt
: epoch of the Medieval 'F'Iagellants
II Perhaps the earth wandered somewha
= from its orbit. Something might hav
o been the matter with the sun. Their
e was strange melancholy in the air
Y Scrub politicians seemed to get the dis
e ease a little worse than anybody else
n and those who. before, could talk onl-
four hours on a stretch, were suddenl,
h endowed with a power to talk ten. Tn
t French Revolution was the leading top
Y ic, and in speeches the principal illus
tration. Women quit frying sprin
It chicken, and became national charac
d ters, and divided their time between tn
d octopus the Money Devil the 'Grea
s Red Dragon and the Crime of 1873
If Their voices sounded like lawn-mowers
r | a portrait of q statesman of that perio
y would merely have the appearance O
Y a ten-inch ring.
II In the summer of 1890 when the cen
e sas was taken the Republican part
s the chasm. 1t hoped to cross it but di
II not know how deep and wide the chasr
o was. It was dark
IL The November elections in the fall c
Is 1880 wound up by placing a secret soci
Z, ETY., the Farmers Alliance in charge {
7 the legislature Things went accordin
ie to the sign, grip and password; and tn
Alliance dominated the state until tn
legislative session Of 1899 by either pass
ing such laws as it pleased, or by hold
ing one branch or the other of the legis
1t lature, which prevented any repeal {
their laws.
! Mr.. ingalls, was defeated by the elet
= tion of 1890, and his position taken by
m new man. The new man was a man {
" halr: his political principles revolve
y, lilfe an electric fan. A vast war dane
7s vas held over the remains of Mr. II
. gals, as if something had been achieve
from the downfall of MI. ingalls, da