Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1905-02-22

the jury would probably have re-
turned a verdict of guilty" in less
than two minutes. However, if it
had been some other woman there
would not have been any trouble.
1t is agreed by all parties, re-
gardless of personal prejudice, that
this ''trial" was as great a farce as
was ever enacted in a court room.
1t is common street talk that the
defendant had two attorneys while
the prosecution had none. The
county attorney who represented
the prosecution did not only not
use any effort to secure jury to
convict, but he assisted the defend
ants attorney to secure one which
he thought would acquit. To
prove this statement it need only
be cited that the county attorney
struck off the names of such men as
J. 5. Runyan and Ernest Williams
from the list of jurors submitted
by the court, and did not strike out
the name of a single man who he
knew was prejudiced in favor of
the defendant. Neither did he OBJ
lect to single question PROFOUND
ed to any witness by the defend
ants attorney. In justice to Judge
Collins it should be said that the
original list of names selected by
him for jury service, embraced all
classes radical on each side
OF the temperance question as we'll
| as some conservative ones, al
though we have heard him criti-
cised for permitting hearsay evil
dence so to the jury, even if no OBJ
lection was raised, and it has also
been contended that when the at
torneys refused to ascertain wheth-
er or not the jury was qualified to
sit in the case, it became his duty
to do SO. Further. than that we
have not heard the court criticised.
The Index has no interest in the
fracas. We merely give the cold
facts as they existed without any
attempt to color them for or
against either party. We think
that is as far as our duty goes in
the matter. We might add that
we have been asked by radicals on
both sides to explode" on the 9TH
er and we have been confdentially
assured by both elements that
failure to do thus and so will mean
disaster to our business. We have
listened patiently to the various ap-
peals and then followed our origin
al intention of publishing the facts.
We hope our decision in the mat
ter will meet the approval of the
public, but if it doesn't we have no
apology to offer. We have existed
on scant rations during many of our
years and are prepared for the
worst if it is inevitable.
On thursday night Mrs. Nation
lectured at the Christian Church.
A crowded house greeted her and
her discourse was the usual radical
arraignment of the rum power, the
political parties and officers con-
trolled by it, and last but not least,
the christian voter who walks up
to the ballot box and votes with
the jointist and the distiller.
Few of those who heard her
would have courage to endorse
what she said, but her speech SEEM
ed to be taken good naturedly nev-
ertheless.. 1t got little warm for
a few republicans who vacated
their chairs but they were soon oc-
cupied by others who were eager to
get in.
| Mrs. Nation is an oddity whose
lame IS not confined to the
shores of any continent. She has
few admirers anywhere. She has
been in courts galore and has never
won a case. She has smashed"
saloons sDrorn;sc,io,,cI,, and hoe h.an