The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1903-05-13
Twin CITY LETTER
The Verdict in the Case of Former May
or AmeS and How 1t Was Received
by the People of Minneapolis Dr.
AmeS' characteristics.
ESPECIAL CoRREsPoNDENCE.1

the idol of certain class of Mime
apolis citizens, has at least beer
found guilty of accepting brides
while holding the high position O
mayor of this city. The verdict O
the trial jury is varously received
depending in each individual case
upon the feeling toward the doctor
There are some who have ALWAYS
been on intimate terms with him
and who profess to believe he was
innocent of any intentional wrong
doing in official life. These are
much wrought up over the verdict.
Others believe his Office to have
been cess pool of corruption and
misdemeanance, and that Ames was
t he arch cOnSpirator, even if he did
leave his details to be done by sub
ordinates. Such people rejoice in
the verdict, not through feelings of
revenge, or because they have no
sympathy for the man whose ruins
has been accomplished, but because
the verdict was needed to vindicate
the name of Minneapolis, and to
teach those elected to positions of
trust that they must be, at least.
decent. There are still others who
appear to assume that there is bound
to be more or less corruption in off
cial life, and think, far they think
at all, that Ames' administration
was perhaps no better nor worse
than the average. These looked
upon the trial, and now view the
result, with Indifference.
Th' re was one opinion, however.
that Was practically unanimous, viz,
that DR.. Ames would never be con-
victed with his official life. 1t was
not that he was thought innocent,
but rather, that no jury could be
found which could or would SO far
ignore natural sympathy for an old
man, decrepid in mind and BODY. as
to give a verdict which would ruin
him forever. But the jury was
sworn to render a verdict according
| tn no
evidence was so clear and over
whelming that the jury had no safe
alternative. A verdict of acquittal,
in the face of such evidence, would
have placed the jury under suspi-
cion of either having deliberately
violated their oaths, or being too
densely ignorant to understand the
English language in it's plainest
aud most direct form. And this
jury was not made up of chumps.
The old-time popularity of DR..
Ames, of which we have heard so
much, while it was genuine and sub
stantial, was a popularity of a rather
dubious character. To be sure it
made him four times mayor of the
largest city in the northwest, and
yet, in the face of this is the some
what paradoXical fact that there
never was time when any thor
oughly respectable man would not
feel called upon toapoligize for even
a remote association with doc"
Ames. From this it would appear
that there is kind of popularity
which is unenviable or, perhaps, a
popularity acquired in an unenvia-
BILE manner.
DR.. Ames, like most every one
else, has a good and a bad side. He
would be stranger character than
be is were this otherwise. The
trouble is that the bad side is the
stronger one. His morals, if they
may be called such, are very fexi-
BILE and his instincts run on low
plane. In the use of Intoxicating
liquors he was always able to make
the ordinary drinker ashamed of
himself A few years ago new dis
ease appeared in Minneapolis, which
was called winter cholera. AS the
disease was confined to Minneapolis,
not case having been found in St.
Paul, it was thought that it was due
to Impurities in the city's water
supply. This theory was generally
accepted until DR.. Ames became a
victim, and then they had to find