Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-01-13
PLEA FOR SYMPATHY.
Grant Tyler Wants People TO Believe
That Rainsbargers Are Innocent.

ifldOra, Jan. l3.-EulLof oI tho
Times Republican,: We notice In the
Topics OF the Times column of your
paper of Jan. 5, the following: IF Inc
Rainsbargers have, as Is asserted,
grown old and gray and made them
selves fit by reason of their skill to be-
come useful citizens, perhaps it would
not offend justice to give them trial.
The poorest place for men who desire
to BIO decent and are able to be decent,
is i'll the penitentiary."
Now the writer has been a SUBJ
scriber to the Times Republican for
many years, and very often our heart
has been made to beat faster as we
have watched your manly fight. some
times against great odds. for decency.
morality and justice, and our scrap
book is sprinkled with editorials
clipped from your paper, when you
have. I'M the face of great Odds. de-
manded simple. justice or perhaps
dared to defend man you thought to
be right even in defiance Of the great
est corporate powers of the state and
nation, which threatened you with an
initiation.
We find no fault with your article
If we are to assume that the Rains
bargers are guilty of the murder of
Enoch Johnson, but as we read and re-
read that article, we thought again and
again how we would love to read an
article written by your hand after you
had read all the evidence, made a
thorough investigation of the case and
understood all Of the circumstances
surrounding the conviction of the
Rainsbargers. We imagine such a
story, written by you, in defense of
men who are helpless and cruelty
wronged would stir the hearts of che
people of Iowa until they would riss
as one man to demand Justice
1t is easy to accept the verdict of a
slider the state of public opinion, some-
times manufactured by designing man,
and do we not know of instances
where mob rule" has led whole COM
munities to do the wrong? And is not
the calm Judgment Of after years more
likely to be correct2
Is 1t possible that more than 80 per
cent of the people of Hardin county,
who would now be glad to see the
Rainsbargers free are at the same time
believing them guilty of murder?
Let us ask ourselves--are the 80 or
more per cent of our people asking FOR
the pardon of men whom they believe
guilty and is the S. or less per cent who
demand the pound of flesh actuat ted
only by sense of duty? Nay! verify!
It has been said that the men who
oppose the pardon of thesa men are
afraid of personal violence, If they
should be released.
William Rainsharger lives at Steam
boat Rock and is one of the respected
and peaceful citizens of Hardin coun-
ty, owning nearly 400 acres of Hardin
county land and numbering among his
friends the leading citizens of this
William Rainsbarger, who
only escaped the fury of the mob that
shot down two of his brothers by
to have the money to put
up as a bond, living for twenty years
in that same community and no man
able to find flaw in his life, and the
two convicts, during that same twenty
years, having not a single flaw in their
record, does this speak Of blood
thirsty lot?
Afraid of personal violence from
Frank and Nate Rainsbarger and not
afraid to live as neighbor to their
brother while fighting for the last
ounce of blood of his brothers? They
will have to tell that to me who do not
live in Hardin county and write it
where no crimes have been committed
in the name of justice
Thru all these trying years William
Ratnsbarger has lived as model cit
izen and no act of revenge has ever
been known on his part and in this he
has shown that he Is more than ordin-
airy man for even a wild beast, pur-
sued until it can run no longer will
turn, wounded and bleeding, to fight
the hounds.
And SO, if, instead Of the article