Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-03-07

giant In size, out with his huge figure,
unshapely and ill-clad, all promise Of
greatness seemed to pause.
His face, broad-featured, colorless,
and beardless as boys was either a
blank or an impenetrable mask. There
was no confinement in the lack-luster
gaze of the small, porcine eyes: no elo-
Quence in the harsh, nasal tones of the
unframed voice, or in the ponderous
and awkward wavings of the BEAM
like arms. None the less, before he
had uttered dozen hating sentences
he was carrying the audience with him
step by step; moving the great con-
course of listeners with his common
place periods as mellifluous Hawk
could never hope to move it.
Explain it as he might, Loring soon
assured himself that the Honorable
Jasper G. Bucks was laying hold of the
sentiment of the audience as though
it were thing tangible to be grasped
by the huge hands. Unlike Hawk,
whose speech famed easily into denun-
citation when it touched on the alien
corporations, he counseled moderation
and lawful reprisals. Land syndicates,
railroads, foreign capital in whatever
employment, were prime necessities
in any new and growing common
wealth. The province of the people
was not to wreck the ship, but to guide
it. And the remedy for all ills lay
in controlling legislation, faithfully
and rigidly enforced.
"My friends: I'm only plain, hard
handed farmer as those of you who are
my fellow townsmen can testify. But
I've seen what you've seen, and I've
suffered what you've suffered Year
after year we send our representatives
to the legislature, and what comes of
it? Why, these corporations, looking
only to their own interests, as they're
in duty bound to do, buys 'em if they
can. You can't blame 'em for that;
it's buSineSS-their business. But it is
our business, as citizens of this great
commonwealth, to prevent it. We have
good laws on our statute books, but
We need more of 'em; laws for con-
troll, with plain, honest men at the
capital, in the judiciary, in every root
force 'em. With such laws, and such
men to See that they are executed,
there wouldn't be any more extortion.
any more raising of the rates of trans
portation on the produce of our ranches
and farms merely because the eastern
market for that particular product
happened to jump few cents on the
dollar.
mo, my friends; plain, hard-handed
farmer though be, can see what will
follow an honest election of the people,
by the people, and for the people. The
state can bet ought to be-sovereign
within its own boundaries. If we rise
up as one man next Tuesday and put
ticket into the ballot-boX that says we
are going to make it so, and keep it so,
you'll see new commodity tariff put
into effect on the Western Pacific rail-
road the day after"
The speaker paused, and into the
little gap of silence parked a voice
from the gallery
That's what you say. But supposin'
they don't do it,"
Loring was gazing Steadfastly at the
blank, heavy face, so utterly devoid of
the enthusiasm the man was evoking
in others. For one fitting instant he
thought he saw behind the mask. The
immobile face, the awkward gestures,
the slipshod English became suddenly
transparent, revealing the real man;
man of titanic strength, of tremendous
possibilities for good or evil Loring
put up his glasses and looked again:
but the figure of the f1ash-light inner
vision had vanished, and the speaker
was answering his objector as calmly
as though the house held only the sin
gle critic to be set right
I'm always glad to hear a man
speak right out in meeting" he said.
dropping still deeper into the colo
quialisms. "Sapposing the corpora
lions don't see the handwriting on the
wall-won't see it, you say? Then. my
friend, it will become the manifest
duty of the legislature and the execu-
tive to make 'em see it: always law
fully, you understand; always with a
just and equitable respect for the rights
rious institutions are founded, but
with level-headed justice, and without
fear or favor"
Again the clamor of applause rose
like fine dust on the throng-heated air,
and Kent looked at his watch.
ut is time we were going" he said;
adding: Il guess you have had enough
of it. havn't your
Loring was silent for the better part
of the way back to the railway station.
When he spoke it was in answer to a
delayed question of Kent's.
What do ] think of him? 1 don't
know, David; and that's the plain
truth. He is not the man he appears
to be as he stands there haranguing
that crowd. That is pose, and an ex-
ceedingly skillful one. He is not al
together apparent to me; but he
strikes me as being man of immense