Morgan County democrat. (Versailles, Mo.) 1900-1906, 1906-07-27
BE A MANI

his d%ishonorable acts he might gain for
himself the hand Of a queen, lie will give
proof Of this fact in more ways than one.
In the face Of impending danger he will
be brave, in the hour of peril he will
protect his brother like a chivalric
knight; in a crisis where truth may win
him his spurs or the question of veracity
may loose him a crown, he will be a
man. Honor will assert itself no matter
how severe the test or how burdensome
the task. The lack Of principle, the
lack of manhood, the lack of those finer
requisites which go to make up pure,
unauthorized citizenship soon come to
the front when the yellow streak is up
permost in the being who would have
you call him a man.
Last week the imbecile who Yields
the pen for the Versailles Statesman,
spread his thimble full of emaciated
brain over a column Of his disreputable
sheet to belittle the Democrat and its ed
itor. We will not impose on a generous
and moral public by quoting a word of
the ha-rangue. For over twenty-five
years we have been in the newspaper
business and never, until now, did we
come in contact with a being who had
the audacity TO place before his readers
such a filthy, loathsome, verbose and
obscene mess of invectives and railing
which he would term editorial--too filthy
indeed for a sane mind to o ceive. A
mind so loathe as to drift into such a
channel of imbecility is too low and
degraded to be called an editor, much
less TO be charged with having a devel.
oped brain or enough manhood to awake
the moral impulses of a leper. Such an
effusion needs NJ denial, needs nothing
but the condemnation of an insultcd
community who are compelled to rub
shoulders with the author Of il, because
Of circumstances.
Adebauched and degenerate mind can
only produce debauched and degenerate
substance, Baker is off. lie has gone
daft, and from what w can depict, is la
boring under a love strain such as a
young lothario in his teens might live
under but which may be termed dotage
in an older or more mature being. He is
flirting with cupid, while he tries TO for
get the unnanly picture he furnishes
that the world may look upon his dis
eased and beattled brain.
For weeks past he has published love
of the most touching outbursts OF
tickling emotion. For instance, three
weeks ago the love-sick strain, when
Hearts are Trumps," found a place in
his columns. This, before the tears of
sorrow had dried on his hard
ened cheek for one who had taken on
In his hypocrisy he has posed as an
inebria,e, self-confcssed. without the
manhood to cure the accursed disease.
He has posed as a churchman to the dis
grace of his offspring and a congregation
who must be ashamed of his degradation.
lie has abused his friends if he had any,
and maligned his foes with the venom
of obscenity.
Week before last he made false charges
involving us in the business of other
people, two weeks previous. This was
reiuted, with Mr.. Young as proof. Then
he left the subject an drifted to person.
making false quotations to suit
the obscene and depraved rawlings which
he probably thought prosy. We were
prepared to star,e to death, after the
fashion lie had starved out Walt. Head.
hence the matter to which he refers,
wholly along commercial lines, dropped.
lie took care to use what might delude
his readers, keeping back explanations
and conditions which would place us in
a fair and honorable light. We are only
glad conditions have changed. This
is another illustration of his low and un-
d!gnifcd nature.
These are only a few Of the dishonor-
able traits of his infamous character
which come from his own befouled sheet
and emanate from his silent and weird
sanctum in the hole in THE wall. Come
from under the spell, Baker! BE a man
II such is possible in one so far down in
the scale of degradation that obsceni,y is
stock in trade. Throw off your
mask and show to our people that there
is something besides satan, graft and