Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1913-02-11
LETTER FROM WALT. c. PRADT.
FRESNO, CALIFORNIA, Feb. 2, 1913.
Friend Gene:

FRESNO, CALIFORNIA, Feb. 2, 1913.
Friend Gene:
For long time it has struck me
as very curious that while we often
read about the ravages of the shook
worm" in the southern states there
is no mention ever made of much
more fatal disease which for about
twelve years has been very prevalent
in Wisconsin, the disease l mean is
known to science as the "BaWb worm"
Unlike the hook worm which lodges
in the bowels of its victims, the BaWb
worm confines it's ravages to the brain
cells of its victims, they laboring un-
der the strange deluSion that Bob
LaFollette is second coming or re-
incarnation of King Solomon with
modern Improvements and also i'm
agine that, politically speaking, Bob
owns in fee simple all the offices, both
elective and appointive, in the state
of Wisconsin, TO hold in fee simple
while he lives and dole out to whom
soever he deems worthy and no Ques-
tions asked. They. also believe that
Bob to be the last wo-d on ali politi
cal questions and is above the supreme
court and even the Almighty, with
whom he occasionally holds friendly
ard respectful conversations. They
believe him to be the symbol of
patriotism, the very embodiment of
craftsmanship and with full power to
bind and to lose in all things political.
At one time the Bawb worm overran
the whole state, many persons be-
coming victims who have since fully
recovered. The microbes of the Bawb
worm flourish best in sap and mush,
consequently persons with plenty of
gray matter sooE recovered and were
thereafter immune: but sap heads,
young men in the real stage of their
mental development, venerable patri-
archS in their dotage and persons
with feeble intellects and partially
developed minds, seldom recovered.
Fortunately the rayages Of the Bawb
worm have been almost entirely con-
| fined to the state of Wisconsin.
have been very much entertained
lately by the monkey and parrot fight
between Gov. McGoyerl and Ekern,
ex-insurance commissioner, the atti-
tude of Ekern reminding me of that
of a cefe2in lick-spittle of an En-
peror of Ancient Rome told of in days
of ancient Rome, II wait on Appius
| Claudius, l waited on his sire'' let
him who works the Ekern wrong
beware the Pompadear's ire. l hope
| will be pardoged for changing the
last of the quotation a little to suit
the exigencies OF the occasion.
Bawb's protest in his magazine late
Ily against the removal Of Ekern is
certainly amusing, considering the
Il fact that wien LaFolette was Gov.
he removed scores of good, faithful
public officers simply because they did
not fall down and kowtow TO him
and replaced them with Bawb worm
victims without any regard 10 fitness
or whether public interests suffered
4 thereby: and now with the waters oi
sorrow coursing down his cheeks OF
solid brass and being splasiaed to
salt spray on his feet and legs OF clay
which rises even To the top Of his
sacred and historical pomIpadour, and
meets an agonized and heart broken
wall like disreputable old tom cal
that is getting the worst OF mid
night encounter in somei back alley
LaEolletD9 says that ''the people OF
Wisconsin will not sta1d Tor Ekern's
removal Bawb's memory must be
short or he would remember going uT
few years ago into the assembly
district where Ekern lives, after saiC
henchnan and Bawb worm victim:
had been beaten BY Gods Patient
J Poor at the primaries and having saic