The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-02-11

| has created a sensation, for Mr.. Neil IS
known as the matinee idol of the Pacific
| coast. He was seen at the Crawford in
IAN American Citizen and made al
| excellent impression in Topeka.
| In his letter to a friend at Spokane
| explaining why he baked Mr.. NELL
| says:
Butte, Mont, Feb. 8.
| My Dear Friend:
| Il Rave had time to think over and
| sleep over the events of Saturday and
| am conscientiously bound to withdraw
the authority l gave you to attempt to
| patch up the difficulty. Reflection con-
! Vinces me that my protest against per-
| sonal indignity and coarse buffOOnery
| was timely and entirely justi1iIble. For
the first time in it's history a member of
my fam lily has received an insulting
blow and has been powerlesS to resent
it. / fin grateful to the young man
who, in discharge of his lofty functions,
VIE lded the stick with which, while
tllndfolded, l was struck from behind
the moment of my entrance into your
irner sanctum, for his courtesy in af-
forwards apologiZing to me in the ante
room.
Il congratulate myself that was not
inundated into customary cowardly
subn ission to indignities, the first and
probably the miIdest of which was suf-
fcient to make me declare myself and
withdraw. / wish you to bear in mind
that you and other officers and mem
bers of the lodge, Immediately prior to
my entrance into the chamber of initi-
alton, had assured me that no undue
liberties would be attempted and that
l would be treated as a serious N inded
gentleman. Permit me to say that
am convinced that when they and
sober reason have enoved the last
veStige of the undignif1ed and debasing
actions that disgraced the order in it's
primitive days, and which have unfor
tunately survived in part today, I shall
be asked again to present myself be-
fore your exalted ruler. Until then l
n6rSOn2l
and American manliness.
THE flag that adorns your altar
should be a platform upon which men
and gentlemen may meet together in
bond of fellowship, brotherly love and
patriotic enthusiasm. and it ought not
to be necessary for candidate to wear
a highwayman'S mask and old
woman's nightgown as a fitting garb in
which to approach that altar
In your heart you know, as does
every man who witnessed my foolish
humiliation, that / was justified in my
anger and in the use of the caustic Ian
guage that L employed L am bound to
say in all sincerity that believe that
every man who wears an E1ks. badge,
if that badge was earned with the
wages offered me, comes out from the
ordeal less Of a man than when he went
in. No lodge could give enough to any
man to make up for what was lost IN
self-respect. Those are my honest
views, and I should stultify myself if {
failed to disclose them.
In asking the W1lnOFaWaI OIL my
application I am keenly alive to the en-
barrassments of the situation. 1 have
been elected and partly initiated;I have
walked open eyed among the parapher-
MALTA of your work and have taken no
oath to maintain secrecy. However, if
the matter is dropped and allowed to be
forgotten you may rely upon 1t that L |
need not take an oath to bind me to
silence as to what saw and heard, or L |
am ready now, or when you will, to take |
your serious work and obligations and |
become a member of your lodge. but it |
must be with my eyes open and under |
conditions that shall impress upon me |
the fact that I am being received into |
an organized secret order.
For you, my dear old friend of 80 |
years assure you L entertain no other |
feeling but of profound attachment and |
deep regard, and not the least of my re-
grets is that, as my proposer, you should |
have suffered any embarrassment. With |
sincere good wishes 1 am, very cordially
yours,
(Signe) JAMES NELL"