Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1902-01-16
DAD OSBORNE.
The Old Mans Hearts Right
Richard is Himself Again
Comfort for the
Afflicted.


November, are seriously disturbed by
the fact that there is no factionalism in
sight in the republican ranks in this
state just now. Their frequent, fatter-
ing attention to this writer suggest that
when he did what they never dared do
stood up and fought men and practices
in his own party which he did not
ap%prove-they had hopes the old man
was getting onto the same toboggan
slide down which they shot so swiftly
ont of the memory of man.
1t is wonderful what gauzy fabric can
be woven into Hope. If the boys ever
had the old "Oom's" vote listed in their
schedule of assets, they might as well
make a slight change in the ratio of
assets to liabilities and arrange to get
along with one votes less--indefinitely.
BUTT was not the absorption of the
Press that did it. The writer brought
the Press, in the ordinary way of bust
ness, from the mortgage into whose
hands it had reverted as the logical
result of trying to grow two blades Of
grass where there was only sustenance
for one. He knows also that r. S.
Pearson has not had one penny of
interest in the Press for at least two
years past.
If yon want the chief reason for
0sborn's greater conversation of late,
you can have it in plain words. He saw
as many others did, that the assassi-
nation Of the president was the legiti-
mate fruit Of opposition policy OF indis-
criminate and unmeasured defamation
of officials; that the direct tendency Of
your teachings and your methods was
toward anarchy. He began to question
whether the things ne was fighting war;
ranted promoting democratic success by
republican d~issension..
1t appears that a good many other, so
called, insurgents felt the same way,
and the chargin manifested by the
opposition bosses suggests that they
reckoned rs a more important factor in
their plans than we did ourselves.
Another-minor-factor in the tanning
of at least one ~insurgent is that the on
ditions he complained of have largely
ceased to exist. How far, if at all, the
iDsurgent protest contributed to that
result is not material. The fact itself is
sufficient.
This old crank, with all his crankiness
all his .sgall." all his "egotisn," tries to
be honest. Honest with himself, with
his friends, and honest with his enemies.
Governor Herreid was his bette noir. If
he had not been himself a very promis-
ing candidate for immortality just at
that time, he would have opposed Mr..
Herreid's nomination. He did oppose
his election to the extent of voting for q
very pleasant gentleman named Lem
encountered with a job lot of assorted
.'isms." He has never been difident
about criticising Mr.. Herreid-in fact
has hunted for trouble sometimes when
he happened to feel ugly-but decent
eandor compels the admission that there
has been very little to criticise. His
appointments have been made without
reference to fractional lines and his off,
cial record compares very ~favorably
with those of his predecessors. If a
majority of the republicans insist upon
renominating him next summer, The
Spirit intends to just let them do it.
And Mr.. Burke: The Spirit does not
approve today the tactics by which his
first nomination was secured any more
than it did in 1897, but if its fusion
friends think there is enough wheat left
in that old straw pile to pay for thresh-
ing it over, it will quit-claim its interest
to them very cheap. AS foT the rest,
Mr.. Burke has gone quietly along, work
ing effectively for the interests of
Dakota, supporting with his voice and
his vote the national army while the
copper-heads who want The Spirit to
make an onslaught on him were busily
trying to stain the one and shoot the
other in the back.
Then, there's kit" Time was when
the fusion ofaee seeker could go about
the state shaking Kit in the faces of
insurgents very much as the matadore
~tlaunts the red rag before the mad ball
and with the same effect. BY the hand
of God Senator Kyle was removed from
the senate and by the hand of Governor
Herreid Mr.. Kittredge was placed there.
Since then he has gone, and written,
over the state asking counsel and advice
seeking to know the wishes of his o n
stituents aud doing them. III he was
the i~ron-heeled despot we believed him.
he appears to have dropped the Ces,e-
rian scepter. And he did more real
good for the state in about fifteen min
utcs, with a two-cent stamp covering
expense, than a board of cheap-iohn,
fusion railroad commissioners were able
49, .Z-~.-Is~J. =. 49, . ~