Mexico Missouri message., 1900-06-28
MISSOURI LIBELED.
An Eastern Magazine Gives
the Ninth District a
Write Up.

Inc fOllOWlnP Is taken from thc
Missouri Democrat:
Theodore Dresser has printed an
article in Ainslic's Magazine on
"Champ Clark, the Man and his
District" OF course the newspa-
pers of the ninth district are say
ing some unpleasant things about
Mr.. Dresser, who was formerly a
reporter for the st. Louis Republic,
as the following from the Wells
vile Record shows:
In Ainsley's Magazine for June
Theodore Dresser has an article,
"Champ Clark, the Man and his
District" which for genuine rot
tcnness and big lies takes the
cake" We don't know where
Dresser lives, but we know where
he ought to live. We can't under
stand why this fellow has been al
lowed to run at large"
Here are some things Mr.. Drc-
ser says about the District which
are not true, as every Missourian
knows:
1.-THE land is of mcagre popula-
ton, of crude habitation, of old
fashioned ideas, of simple, almost
primitive, amusemcnts. The long
roads lie untravelcd save by the
hardest necessity. The fields may
be cultivated in n crude way. The
majority may not see Il railroad
train in three weeks. a daily
newspaper may he rarity, except
in the ease of the best of the local
families. The fathers are rough
and husky-thcir one comfort
their home, their one diversion
politics. The mothers are excel
lent housewives, whose world con-
sists of husband and children.
The children, hale, quict-manncrcd
Youngsters, have II drawl of voices
and manner which would make
their city cousins stare.
"Thcrc are large tracts of wood
ed land, low hills, receding be-
tween low hills, where you will
scarce encounter n habitation.
Turnout the entire district there
are scarcelya hundred brick houS-
es. You may travel for miles and
miles andcncounter nothing b cttcr
than one-story log cabins built of
quarter sawed oak or hickory, and
filled in between with plaster.
Many cabins have mud floors.
Plastered walls and ceilings are
rare. Old style furniture abounds,
great, crude walnut beds, old fash
Toned rag carpets, piece quilts of
the forties, clocks, coffee mills and
stoves that have been in use any
where from forty to il hundred
years. Also old manners and Gus
toms, to say nothing of Il dialect
celebrated by Miss Craik as being
common to Tennessee.
(Theodore Dresser was employed
on the Republic some years ago
and gained his knowledge of the
Ninth District then. 1t was done
while making trip from st. Lou
is to Hannibal on the Burlington
Fast Mail train, which had Just
been put on between st. Louis and
Burlington. lie passed thru the
district between the hours of 3:3O
and 4:30 II. M. The cabins he
thought he saw were the hundreds
of corn pens along the railway
tliH ~ Nlidil'S anu I'llI'olll anu
ri Re counties. He spoke on his
return to st. Louis mt the time of
the funny little log hutS he saw
and was surprised when told they
We're corn pens. Dresser is bright
enough fellow, hut with badly
warped Imagination, so badly
warped that even for rcportorial
purposes of the st. Louis Rcpub-
lie the necessity of sticking to at
least Il Scmblancc of fact hamper
ed him so much us to make him
worthless. -Editor Missouri Demo-
crat.)