Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1906-05-17

The following address of welcome
was delivered by Miss Rosa Rhodes
of this county, in response to Gov.
Hoch's address of welcome to the
State Temperance Convention at
Topeka last week.
Your Excellency, Ladies and
Gentlemen:
The children of Kansas are well
come here. And they ought to be.
The reliance of the state on the fu-
tdre good Is not the reformation of
its elderly people. 1t is rather on
the trained habits of thought and
action bestowed on the children;
which becomes settled conviction
and as much part of their lives as
freckles, cross eyes or predisposition
to take the measles.
There is one place the children
are not welcome. 1t is place more
like dungeon keep: the door barred
and from peep hole in it, they pass
on the credentials of the visitor be-
fore he knows it. If he should be
blear eyed and trembly, if his clothes
are old or torn or napless, he may
enter. Behind that wicket is Ju-
das eye. Inside is the lair of a tiger.
Not one from the desert or jungle,
with teeth, claw and appetite, but
one rather whose fiercer and dead
lier weapon reposes in a bottle. If
chemists speak truly, the broth
which the witches brewed on that
lonely heath at midnight was slip
perry elm poultice compared to the
mixture in the jointist's jug. He is
not particularly solicitous about the
health of his patrons, for he is from
either Jackson or Buchanan county
in Missouri. He has no good will
of the establishment to keep up, and
he would not know what purity,
quality or vintage meant if he broke
his neck over them while hunting
their Whereabouts in a dictionary.
His stew as offered for sale has more |
of the potential elements of murder
multiplied by burglary and assassi-
nation than any other mathematical
problem of iniquity ever engineered
into existence by his satanic majesty!
1t has strychnine, bartender's
sweat, logwood, arsenic, ipecac, To-
bella and creek water in it; but the
Hamlet of Bourbon is not in the jug
as he concocts it.
This is one of the few places in |
Kansas where children are not wei
coined. The beetle browed Buchan-
Mantle, with saffron whiskers founc-
ing his under jaw, his mouth cut
bias and strained at each corner with
Missouri twist, strabismus eyes,
curvature of the spine, one leg long |
er than the other where it has been
pulled by officers, and bow legged
and handy shanked at that, front
teeth irregular, jagged and failing to
hit, his Adams apple resting on the
top of his wamus, like a Raphael
cherub on the bottom of the picture,
and, bobbing up and down as he spits
or swallows; this, ladies and gentle
man, and my dear fellow children is
the creation to whom sworn Of
fcers bow in loyalty to his mandates!
He pays no taxes, hut makes taxes |
for good people to pay. This is the
political angel who takes the back
bone out of the officers of the lawi
He is the great power of municipal
elections, to which people considered
respectable, truckle and cringe! He
is the man who has more power over
the officers of the law when they are
awake and on the hunt for him, than
Queen Nab had over soldier, lawyer,
courtier or lover asleep.
In rendering you this address of
welcome, l think l can say for every
child in this audience, that when we
are grown up and become officers of
the law ourselves, we will execute
the laws and send these fellows back
to Missouri in jiffy. And if we
are but the wives of officers of the
law, they will see to it that the laws
are executed, or feel the vengeance
of the slop bucket, broom or fiat
iron!
Well singe his whiskers, his hair we'll yank,
And make him gnash his teeth and groan:
And then we'll put him in the tank
To tread the sour mash all alone.
His biscuits shall be wormy bread,
His coffee poor and not half ground:
And all the wheels within his head,
Shall buzz and whir around and round.
And if he growls and gives not in,
Well take to larger schemes of force:
Well go to Court and there begin
A case for money and divorce!
So welcome children to this hall;
Prophetic scenes | seem TO view:
What victories upon the wall,
In years to come are won by you!