The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1903-04-29
MR.. BOWEN INSANE.
A Great Mind mpaired-Legislative Cos
Sip-4O Years Ago.

1t is with great deal of regret
that we read of the recent commit
ment Of Ex-senator Bowen to the
St. Peter hospital for the insane.
When Mr.. Bowen conducted the
Sleepy Eye Herald he made it one Of
the best known country newspapers
in the State. His remarks were al
ways copied, and were cutting or
complimentary in the extreme. Few
newspaper men, indeed, Of those
days, cared to indulge in an alter
cation with Mr.. Bowen, either with
the pen or with the sword, the lat
ter being transferred to the field of
pugilism. With the pen he gener-
ally whipped his antagonist, and in
the field of pugilism he always held
his own-so much so that it cost
him several hundred dollars to
thrash 2. V. Collins, then running
the ST. Peter Tribune, and now con
nected with the North western A gri-
culturist
Mr., Bowen was senator from
Brown and Redwood county for a
term of four years, or two sessions
of the legislature, and it was the
writer's fortune to have been re-
porter for daily papers during both
of those sessions. Senator Bowen
was power in the Senate-his
friendship was courted, his opposi-
ton was feared, and his great fight
on the Duluth & Winnipeg swamp
land grant act made him the most
formidable debater ia the senate,
even with such men as the late Sen
ator Goodrich and Senator Pope and
others. That term in the senate,
however, seemed to have been the
turning point in the upward life of
Mr.. Bowen. He closed out his
newspaper interests at Sleepy Eye
either during the term or shortly
afterwards, and since that time has
been drifting around Duluth and
Minneapolis, picking up such work
as he could get, and recently this
once prolific, vigorous mind became
deranged, and the form carrying it
was committed to the insane hospi-
tai. His good deeds more than bal
anced by far his i'll deeds, if there
were any of the latter, and the peo-
pie of Redwo and Brown counties,
who once honored him with an cleo
ton to the senate, and the people of
the State, whom be so faithfully
served, can we'll afford to spread
the broad mantle of friendship,
charity and brotherly love over the
deeds and life of Thomas E. Bowen.
**x
The house committee on appro-
priations and the senate committee
on finance, having in charge the
drafting of the omnibus appropria-
ton bill, were certainly entitled to
great credit in keeping the list of
appropriations down so that the
thirty third session of the legisla-
ture-a solid Republican organiza-
tion-cane to close with the rec
ord of having again reduced the tax
levy-the lowest levy ever voted in
the history of the State. Represen-
tative Tighe of Ramsey county,
chairman of the senate house COM
mittee, gave all the credit to Sena-
tor Brewer, chairman of the senate
finance committee, but there is
| enough honor for both of these gen
tlemen and all the members of the
two committees, who did their work
SO we'll. Mr.. Tighe, in making a
brief speech on the bill before it
passed the house, stated the propo
sition CURLY, in the following lam
guage:
1.-The revenue bill, which will
follow this. will provide the lowest
tax levy ever contained in any such
bill in the States history.
I'm keeping down expenses ~
this bill the carnage has been ter
rible. We have offered up. out of
patriotism, our best friends. But
the limit we have set has not been
exceeded.
If this bill is passed, as it stands.
and our object is accomplished, it
will be done in the face of the fact
La L