The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-04-21

4
VIII take everything with him but the
record he leaves behind. He can not
take with him those foot prints which
he made on the state house grounds
The foot prints have been obIiterated
| by that healer Of all wounds Of the
earth, blue grass
The late Governor Lewelling may be
remembered for his tramp circular
put Governor Leedy's administration
IS remembered, among other things
Tor the diagonal walks in the state
mouse grounds and if it had not been
for John DALEY those walks would not
be there.
The Populist administration. which
was charged with using the state house
grounds for COW pasture, decided to
stop all passa ge across the grounds
People would have to walk around and
not through the grounds from corner
to corner as had been the custom.
The edict went forth that the state
house grounds We're closed to traffic
foot, horse and dragon. The ground
was nicely pulverized and graded and
presented a surface as smooth as the
Establishments of a politician. People
resented the order closing the grounds
but resent was all they did. Mr..
Daley gave notice through the State
Journal that the next day at a certain
hour he would walk across the state
house grounds Notwithstanding the
order
John Daley came down town in the
morning as usual on his way to the
Santa Fe offices where he has been in
the engineering department for years.
He started in at the northwest corner
Of the grounds and he walked diagonal
" across, following the course he had
navigated for years; the course he had
taken morning after morning and
night after night long before Leedy
was ever thought of for governor.
Daley left behind a trail of footprints
on that soft, smooth, gIanulated earth
which made the POpulist executive
Z on Of -7ea n he fra
was seen. He was captured by the
custodian half way across and was ar
rested in police court What he was
arrested for was hard to say. He was
just arrested, that was all. to appease
the anger of the executive council,
though the charge was put down as
trespass. He was never convicted Of
anything, Vagrancy, trespass, or any
thing else.
The executive council changed its
mind. The diagonal walks, from each
corner of the state house grounds 70
the center, and the straight walks from
each side to the center were built
John Daley won the battle for the pc
destrians who otherwise would have
had TO walk around the big square It
was q bigger victory than that historic
event y hen the boys of Ye Old Boston
Towne secured from General Gates the
resembling OF the order prohibiting the
boys from the common.
It was John Daley who read a pa
per before the Saturday Night clue
three years ago, in which he made the
prediction that the Kansas river would
rise and go on rampage and that
North Topeka and the KaW valley
would be flooded No one took any
notice of the prediction at the time
and the warning was unthOught of IN
I'll the flood came in 1903. Then Dahl
ey's prediction was brought from the
archives where it had been fled. Dali
ey is one OF the old members of the
club which is limited to Is.
One of John Dailey's recent charac-
teristic doings was the declining of a
He was shot and severely wounded. He
went through all the trials and tribu-
lations of a soldier. and he went
through more than q good many high
men who would hardly know face pow
der from gun powder
Daley made application for a pen
sion Commissioner Ware and his
forces looked up Dailey's record and
found that he was entitled to and
ought TO have a pension He was nOU-
fed that his pension had been granted
Then Daley wrote TO the commission
er and announced that he didn't want
the pension He stated that he had
been able TO make his own living and
lay up competency and that he did
not intend TO take aims from the Uni
ted States He said he applied for a
sion solely 10 have the department look
up his record so that ne would know
how he stood He found out
These are some Of the things Daley
has done that VIII remain behind him
in many a memory For years Daley
has been an active Mason He has
been master of many Of the bodies. He
knows the ritual from a TO lizard and
every Mason who ever came TO the
Valley OF Topeka for a meeting of the
rite or TO see Sloan lodge put on the
third degree. and these people come
from al over the state, knows John
Daley They remember him as
but that is a part Of the story not 20
be told
John Daley is going east He viii
follow his boys who have gone before
back TO New York and John Daley
will follow them back to Grigsby's
station tt viii be goodly gathering
which viii meet at the Masonic tent
IL - IL.