The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-04-24

army holds Funston an abominable freak,
and Carrie Nation is, of course, the queen
of all freaks. By the same tokens there
are others. and as genius heads the list
their freakishness is worth considering.
ingalls, was freak, of course; the same
kind of a freak that Demosthenes was
when he put the pebbles in his mouth and
caught the deep seas rhythm in his
speech. He thought in classics and spoke
in fauItless numbers, whether annihiiat-
ing a Voorhees, in the senate or ordering
a joint from the butcher. No one can
question in these days of slipshod English
cheap slang and split infnitives that he
was a full-orbed freak.
Howe is another freak, and Howells dis
covered him and showed him up to the
nation in his freak story. Eugene Ware
is a freak, and James Whitcomb Riley,
among many other admirers, has caught
him and sent him forth to sing on i'm
MORALLY" These two Gleed brothers are
unquestioned freaks. and the leading
magazines have been writing them UP,
which a London critic says is the last and
surest proof of accomplished fame.
George Peck is a freak. and orators like
Archbishop Ireland proposed to incorpor-
ate his freak speeches into the classics of
the land. w. A. White is a hopeless
freak, of course, and that Boston speaker
who has lately been declaring him one Of
the most brilliant writers of America viii
have to go into freaks gallery with him
at once.
In fact, Kansas is full Of freaks Of one
kind and another. and about every crea-
ture who lights on her shores, even If not
possessed of the higher order Of freak
talent, begins to do something strange
and startling that he would never have
thought Of doing on his native heath. 1t
may be the restless spirit OF the Jayhaw-
ker haunting the air. the unlaid ghosts
from the bloody shores Of the Marais du
Cygne disturbing the currents. or just the
pure cussedness Of wind that blows
at the rate Of ffty-two miles an hour and
whirls you into tousler, thearing freak
in spite Of yourself. But it is certain that
to touch Kansas soil IS to begin forthwith
to suffer a kind of sky change into some
thing wild and strange. Even the minis
ters feel the pressure and proceed to
found new societies, ear up newspapers
and turn all the currents Of theology
backwards from Kansas to London. Small
BOYS have been known to sit on the gate
post and slap people in the face because
they were not pretty. a kind Of Kilkenny
cat performance through retaliation that
might depopulate the land. according to
the eastern ideas Of the great IN
washed
But in truth. from the Wichita lad who
was the first soldier boy to scale the wall
at Pekin. to the Pawnee City youth who
has introduced the bubonic plague at Ann
Arbor. the Kansas boy is sure to DO some
thing sensational OF significant wherever
he goes. To soar in some direction is the
first principle of the genuine kansan the
korld over. And VINO can wonder. when
he dwells in a land where home and an
its adjuucts can leap into the third heav-
en- while ne is handing the owner his note
for it. A suit IS pending in the state
courts at this moment 10 determine " 10
owns the buildings that cyclone swal-
lowed while one man was holding out his
note 10 another man for the purchase Of
them. No one can try the spirit of the
Kansas that goeth upward by the spirit
OF the n5n-Kansan that goeth calmly
some other way. unless he has faced the
currents that can upheave the Kansas
atmosphere.
1t is idle for the casual abseTer TO rec
( ornmend Kansas 20 wash her face and
anoint her head. that she appear not
unto the world as a freak. unti he has
I tried for himself how he would look L
( be should come through a spring srapp.e
+ with her dust-cIouds and prairie sinoors-
/ Then. If he could pick himself ND ara
J get down 10 a Ittle. dingy editorial OF
+ fee. he ruight BE- CONSIDERED enough ~ q
reu-esentative Kausan 20 pass Judgment
upon her. Moreover, Il he could forget MS
wrongs al the hands Of spr7rg ana WEI
come the tender and ca7ricio1s th-ns ar
ter the fashion CT ire true KalEas e5.-
tor. be might even join that immortal
ar-ny q kansas freaks that are rolling
up from more than ore editorial 9--ee
81 the state Tor the eonfogndis.z = ne
eastern critic Here Is "A strain from oi=