The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-08-02

tory from 1870 to 1891 as Thomas Jeffer-
son was the peculiar genius of the post
revolutionary epoch.
Since retiring from politics the sem
ator has devoted a great deal of his
time to historical studies and to writing
reviews of certain periods in the history
Of the republic with which he happens
to be familiar, and now that the hard
times of 1890 to 1897 have passed. and
people have forgotten the animosities
and political hatred of that time, he
finds more who are interested in his
work than would have been the case
had he written in the first year of his
term in the senate. Men who at one
time denounced Mr.. PETER as a dam
gerOus crank are now surprised to find
him very conservative and liberal
man Of the world, whose writings are
revelation to those who once opposed
his political principles.
person living in a remote region,
such, for example, as the interior of
Alaska, from, say, 1890 to 1897, and hav
ing no means or source Of information
as to people and events in the United
States other than newspapers opposed
to POpulism as it then appeared, would,
in the event he came to Washington at
any time during the past two years, be
surprised beyond measure to discover
that instead of being the very embodi-
ment of ignorance and anarchy the real
Senator PETER is the very opposite.
OLD CARTOONS PRESERVED.
Out at his home the senator has thirty
large scrapbooks filled to overlooking
with newspaper clippings of caricatures
of himself and the principles that he
once advocated, and still advocates, yet,
despite all this. future generations will
know the real PETER, and not the crea-
ture pictured and described by his en-
emies, most of whom are now his
friends. Such is the work of time.
Ex-senator PETER was born in Cum
berland county, Pa, in 1880. his ancest-
ors having been members of colony
hot c6c f1xr For
the Revolutionary war. settling in that
and other counties of Pennsylvania. He
was well educated in the best schools of
the state, and being of a StudiOus turn
of mind. spent great deal of the time
of his early life in reading. In 1870 he
went to Kansas, settling in Topeka,
where he became the editor of the Kan
sas Farmer at that and for long time
afterward the only agricultural paper
west OF ST. Louis. and for that reason
a journal having an immense following
and clientele.
Kansas had started on in a peculiar
way, different from that in which most
of the states were settled Along in 1870
a large body of the Indian lands were
sold, bringing in the neighborhood of
5000 per quarter section. A large number
of poor settlers were not able to buy
these lands in the southern part OF the
state, but eastern men. who had plenty
of money and were seeking investment,
appeared on the scene and loaned these
people the wherewithal to purchase
farms at q high rate of interest, taking
a lien on the farm purchased as secur-
| ity.
Then some years after this agents OF
eastern money lenders poured into Kan
sas begging people to borrow money OF
them All went well as long as times
remained good, and the crops were not
| injured by drought or grasshoppers, but
| finally along in 1888 hard times came on,
money was scarce and hard to get, crops
| failed, and the money lenders of the
east began to foreelose the mortgages
| they held on the farms General and
widespread distress followed, resulting
in the Farmers Alliance and Populist
movements. The paper. of which Mr.
| PETER was the editor, very naturally
! took the side of the Alliance movement
| from the outset, and he, being the edi-
| tor. was naturally drawn into promin-
ence by reason of his position.
RISE OF POPULISM.
The election of 1880, which reduced
| the Republican vote of the state from
| majority of 1000 in 1889 to a short
age OF so 000 and which landed the Pop
uiists in power all over the state, viii
long be remembered in Kansas 1t was
the elimination of the farmers upris-