Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-01-19

feated the democratic
democratic distrtcts q
tern state for congress- ata
election said h8rdwaTf1
he sat In the center ofS
travelling mensin the lobby
lingall last night
Despite the fact that thS&kN
had been democratic for many
the fight this time was exce4 ~
close and as the spelEbinding
progressed neither man appears
gain any advantage over his oppon7k
I was selling goods around the Nh 4
trict for some time and hadaa chGnnA'
to watch the fight. Both candidSyes'
popular men in the district and
there was q good deal Of erasing OF
party lines during the campaign.
About q week before the election,
one Of the republican candidates spell
binders. q clever young lawyer, made
a speech that turned the tide decis.
lively in favor Of his man. The speech
referred exclusively to the case Of a.
dog and in essence 1t was something
like this:
"sFelow Citizens-About twenty
years ago I was one Of the small boy
pals of the youngest son Of the demo-
cratic candidate who now asks your
votes to send him to congress. In the
way that dog-loving boys have, this
bright affectionate little 10 year old
boy got hold of a dog.
The dog a an&ornery, common
yaller, bat-eared, stub-tailed mutt, the
mongrelest Of mongrels, with no pedi-
gree or ancestry whatever and no
frills of any kind; but fellow citizens,
the small boy loved that dog. He dotted
on that dog. He would have done any
old thing for that dog.
1.-The boy put up the fight of his
young life to get permission to have
his dog sleep in the kitchen on an old
piece of carpet on cold winter nights,
but he couldn't make it stick. His
people wouldn't have it. The boy was
then willing to sleep in the. stable with
his dog, but that was. vetoed too. You
never saw a boy and a dog so thick as
that boy and that dog were. They
were always together during the sum-
mer vacation. and when school took
up and the boy had to go the dog
would follow him and wait outside in
the rain and snow for his only friend
to come out. The boy often had to
fight for his dog. Any boy that tried
to put 1t on the dog had to fight, and
he had to know how to fight at that.
The boy stood for many a licking for
swiping things off the family table and
out Of the family larder wherewith to
fed his dog, and he stood these thrash
ings manfully.
"fOnce, when the boy was in swim
ming, he got over his depth or had a
cramp or something in the water and
he let out a yell. The yaller cur was
sitting on the shore wagging his tail
like a fool. %no-account dog, but when
he heard his only pal, the boy, Civ
ing out a cry of distress, he jumped
right into the water and swan out to
the boy and handed him a straw paw
and pulled the almost drowned
youngster to the shore.
81 know all these things In connec.
ton with the history of that dog and
that boy, because / was around myself,
barefooted and in knee pants, and one
%suspender, when they happened.
Fellow citizens, the second sum
mer that the son Of the man who now
asks you for your votes had his dog
came around and the town constable
showed up and demanded that a II.
cense at a cost of so cents be taken
out on the boys dog. The boy hap.
pened to be home with his dog when
the constable got around. The boy
didn't have any so cents, and he went
to his father about 1T. He asked his
father to get him a so cent tag for
his dog to save the dogs life. His
father wouldn't listen to him.
THE ours no account said the
father to the constable. You can take
him down to the pound and shoot him.
"'The boy broke into a torrent OF
tears, hanging on frienziedly to his dog
but it was no go. The constable TIED
a rope around the dogs neck and
dragged him to the pound, the boy and
me with him, hopping along after
him, and the boy crying fit to break
his heart. On his way down the boy
stopped a grown man and tried to sci
him an old. worn out, no account brass
watch "a treasure very dear unto the
youngsters soul) for half a dollar
wherewith to pay the tax on his dog
The man laughed at him and the boy
ran again after the constable and his
dog, me with him. The constable
dragged the dog into the pound tha'
had a high board fence around 1t, apt
slammed the gate on the boy and me
"'Fellow citizens, that boy had tx
have a last look at his dog through {
crack in the high board fence ant
when the constable pinned the poor
faithful cur to the ground by placing
a heavy log on his head and pulling his
gun, fired three bullets into the dogs
head. the small boy let out a groan O
misery that / haven't forgotten dowr
to the present hour.
81 tell you this story because / be
lieve you will agree with me that &
man who will plant such a heartache
in the breast Of a small boy, espe
cially his own son, hasn't got much Of
the milk of human kindness in his
makeup to represent this constituency
in the national halls of legislation al
Washington
THAT story got all over the districi
within a day or two after the speech
was made, and it killed the democratic