The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-19
SOME HARD KNOCKS.
Kansas City Correspondent Discusses
Penitentiary Situation.
Kansas CITY. KAN. Sent. Is. 1903.

kansas city, Kan, sept. IL, lSO3-
To the Editor of the State journal:
In school and especially in Sunday
school the review of the lesson is the
most important part of the whole bust
ness. "A brief review of Kansas politics
might not be amiss. 1t is not necessary
to go back to Humphrey and Morrill,.
The chief trump card was W. Eugene
Stanley. He went in with a flourish of
trumpetS, camp meeting amenS and hal
lelujahs to beat the band and the tenn
perance Republicans fairly held their
breath in expectation of how the boot
leggers and jointists would fall all over
themselves and one another to get out
of the state. The nasty "Klondikers" at
once began to sass and defy him. This
raised tremendous howl all over Kan
sas. Stanley bristled up with his war
paint on and threatened to close the
awful "Klondike tighter than a drum -
He managed to pay Tom Fenlon and
Buck Dawes fifteen hundred dollars
of public funds to stand off and suck
their thumbs and make ugly faces at
at this hour, as Little Cripple Creek
the sinkhole of iniquity is indescribably
worse than ever. He inaugurated the
Staiger island deal that has Just been
completed by the Bailey administration
as unfinished business The reading
public has been RECALLED with odors and
reports of gross mismanageme from
all the state institutions. The State
L
UP the deplorable conditions at the In
sane asylum, National Military home
Boys Reform school, Kansas state pris-
on, and many other directions. 1 merely
Leavenworth correspondent has said of
the latter place.
The Lansing News of the 18th inst
says: The charge that our great and
good Ex-Governor Stanley is mixed up
in the CRAFTS in the Indian country no
doubt viii be a shock to those who
only knew him as a Sunday school su-
perintendent, but this community, who
know of the leather DEAL the convict
cattle DEAL and a few pardon deals to
say nothing of the defalcation under
Warden Tomlinsons administration of
the prison, it is no surprise and they
Will take the word of Pete Foley, presi-
dent of this grating company that
neither the vice presidency nor his
stock in the company was pushed on
Stanley, and that they 'hesitated to let
him in, but thought he might be of use
to them and finally consented"
Just a word about that ''trusty bust
ness mentioned by your correspond
ent. The Lansing News of the same
date says: Another convict who was
turned out at 4 o'clock Monday morn
building, slipped through the front
door and has not been heard from. The
boys must be dissatisfied: this makes
four who have left the Jewett hotel
] VI
the last ten days"
TRUSTEES have been carrying pistols.
1t IS claimed that many thousands of
pounds of Irvine was ruined in manu-
facture owing to incompetency. Trus-
ties have been selling new shoes down
at the pump house. A good many would
like to know why hundreds of dollars
of convict labor and material was put
in stone fences for private individuals,
good Republicans, without compensa-
ton to the state? Why must citizens
who sell produce to the prison pay one,
Earnest, a notary and guard, % cents
a deal and make oath to the weight ?
Can't the state trust its own weigh
master? And what do the citizens of
the state think of charging people ten
cents, each admission, to visit the
prison? This was inaugurated under
| the Sunday school management, that
also allowed shows and minstrels in the
prison chapel, charging outsiders for
admission, in perfect harmony with the
moral influence of the attorney chap
lain, and one hundred dollars for read
ing and three hundred for the lowest
grade of tobacco ever manufactured.
| With all this is it any wonder the viii
| lage is fast becoming a second "Klon-
dixie" of gambling and joints? Guards
go broke pay days and borrow money of
merchants and others the results of
| ''bucking the tiger in Lansing. Voters
| and citizens have a right to demand an
| immediate and rigid official investiga-
ton of these serious charges. The bet
ter residents are bound that this matter
shall be probed to the bottom 1t is q
beautiful town and with electric cars
running every hour in close touch with
Kansas City, Kansas