The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-06-01
DENNIS AND THE CANNON
Flynn Gets Flash from an Almost
Forgotten Memory.

DENNIS AND THE CANNON
Flynn Gets Flash from an Almost
Forgotten Memory.
Washington, May 3L-(Special.) - Dele
gate Dennis Flynn, Of Oklahoma, has a
habit Of breaking off in the middle of
an interesting conversation and suddenly
reminding himself of sorae forgotten IN
cident, which may or may not be i'm
portant. The other day he was sitting
IN the house restaurant over his coffee,
talking with a group OF friends about
statehood, or something equally import
ant. when suddenly, far-away dreamy
look overspread his thoughtful counten-
ance. and:
4 wonder" he suddenly said, what
ever became Of that cannon"
Now, no one had said anything about
cannon. The matter of heavy ordnance.
artillery or anything akin to these. had
not been mooted in the conversation. So
everybody paused and looked at the Ok
lahoma delegate in mild surprise.
What eannon?" finally asked one of
the group; you must be having day
dreams"
'-Oh. no, by golIy," said Flynn, shaking
his head in a characteristic way and
smiling vaguely; I'm dead serious. 1
haven't thought of it for years and IL just
flashed into my mind at that moment. q"
Tell us about your cannon" put in
one of the crowd. IF it's as serious as
all that"
Well" said Flynn, Just after the
Oh,
patriotic wave swept over a portion Of
Oklahoma. and it took the peculiar form
of an overwhelming desire to possess
a captured cannon taken from the enemy
by American soldiers and sailors. Pretty
nearly every town had the fever more
or Jess, but it was particularly virulent at
Enid, whose citizens were fairly insistent
that the government should present them
with one Of the captured cannon about
which they had been reading in the
papers. These requests. of course. came
TO me. Whenever the territory wants
anything from the government, free Of
cost, it comes to NE, because every wo-
man and child down there knows-and
1 don't have to mention the men-that
am the most miserable man in the world
unless 1 can contribute to the happiness
of my constituents. hold that no man
has any right to come to congress un-
less ne is animated with that spirit
Well, continued Flynn. Il made life
a burden for the war department to get
Enid cannon. 1 begged and threatened,
and committed myself TO all sorts of
burned fool promises never to bother
them again if they would only let me
have that cannon. And after making life
miserable for everybody in authority
there, they finally let me have the can
non.
Now there had been such clamor
for cannon from other sections OF the
country, and sc many Of them had been
given away to historic societies. military
colleges. public parks. etc. that when I
started in TO get one of the captured guns
all the portable small guns had been
given away. But I had made things so
interesting for them al the department
that they concluded to give me my fiji
Of cannon. They must have had Krupp
siege gun in reserve. OF a Cruesot. or
some other heavy piece of artillery that
could shoot distance OF thirty miles or
more. Anyway. they sent TO Enid some
thing in the nature Of froarm that
might have attracted attention in a big
ger town than that know it could
have been no ordinary gun. and the rail-
roads must have sent it on a special
train. for the freight on II was 500 or
maybe s900.
That's where the patriotism all oozed
out Of the whole business. When Enid
saw that cannon and compared it to the
freight bill. 1t concluded that the govern
ment had played the town dirty trick
I don't know whether they thought the
government ought 70 pay the freight or
whether they regarded it as coming iegit-
imateiv under the head Of my campaign
expenses. At al events ii was up 10
Enid
The last thing 7 remember hearing
about the gun concluded Flynn. was
that the railroad company refused 20 de-
liver il unless the town paid the freight
did hear that there was some talk
hy the more ardently patriotic citizens
Of authorizing bond issue but 1t was
never daue. Neither was the freight ever
paid. The government might have taken
the sun hack II the company had de-
livered Il AZ Uncle Sans door: but il
didn't want that cannon bad enough 70
pay $50 for Il. So Il remained the prop
ertv Of the railroad company.
'Nsow. what made re address that in
quIgs n myself MAS the thought: What
could the railroad company DO vsth it,
and what has become OF the cannons I
have always had some cempunctian Of
conscience about going 10 the war de-
psrimert Tor fear they would ask ne
how the citisens az Enid liked their can
non. ! haven't nerve enouSs 10 tell en-
the facts FRED F. SCHRADER.