The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-24

the Kansas Pacific station and back
with parts of the report.
My paper came out next morning
with election returns from every state
in the Union. Grant had been re-
elected.
THE opposition morning paper
came out with this announcements:
Due to the fact that Topeka is cut
off from the east by the storm the
Record is unable to give its readers
the election returns
II claim that was the greatest scoop
of all time"
That was just one of a chain of in
teresting early-day incidents told by
Mr.. Wood, a former newspaper man,
who began work IN Topeka in Deem
Der, 1869.
c. S. Gleed on "Shots.''
when They Used to Shoot Re-
porters" was the subject assigned to G.
S. Gleed, who was a reporter on Law
renee papers so soop after the Civil
war that nearly every one still carried
guns. His, first newspaper work was
done in 1866 and consisted of running
errands, but he soon blossomed into
real reporter and before he turned his
attention to more profitable things
had covered" some of the big stories
of the early days.
'In the early seventies when I was
doing newspaper work in Lawrence,
he said, the opportunities for getting
shot were excellent and the opportun1-
ties for getting half shot were almost
equally good. There was brewery,
two distiIleries three wholesale liquor
| houses, siXty-five saloons with 1000
people in Lawrence. Things happened
frequently"
/ MIR. GIeed admitted he escaped
shooting. altho he ran several narrow
! chances. He intimated that the shoot
ing of newspaper men was not due SO
much to the freedom with which guns
! were handled as to the freedom with
| which newspaper men handled their
pens and pencils.
lone summer while I was working
on a Lawrence paper" he said, "A
Colorado desperate came to Douglas
county. He stayed out in the country
but frequently borrowed a big black
! horse and with a gun in each hand
rode up and down the main street.
| upSetting grocery displays and shoot
ing holes in the atmosphere.
! 81 wrote a column and half about
! that fellow. L intended that it should
! be the meanest thing ever written
about any one. He was known as n
the office the next day the folks told
me to hide out and stay away until the
/ Colorado desperate lert town. I didn't
know enough to do that and stayed
around the office all day.
/ About the middle of the afternoon
word came to the office that my des-
| perado and another man were having
a big fight at the Eldridge house. AT
that time the present Eldrfdge house
dining room was a palatiaI saloon. 1t
ran from the street back to the alley
and was a beautiful place. 1 walked
| in and there stood my hero with a gun
in each hand and blood running down
his face. His eyes were filled with it
His opponent had hit him just over
the eye with a rock and the desperate
n
/ Just as L stepped in someone whis-
pered something to the desperate and
he looked my way. He came toward
me, a gun in each hand.
Are you the fellow that wrote that
piece about me?' he demanded in a
loud voice.
Ives, sir I whispered back.
Humph.' he said in disgust
you're too -- little to whip
And 1 escaped shooting again"
Mr.. Gleed told of half a dozen in
teresting early day episodes of which
Lawrence and Topeka newspapers
made much He was on the real firing
line for eight or ten years and de-
had was during that period. He was
careful to differentiate among the
words fun" Joy" pleasure" "han.
piness" and "contentment"
Commentaries John Macdonald.
ID. 0. McCray read a paper COM
AlieiiOh ettlhS the late JOnn macdonald
the first member of the club to die
Following Mr.. McCray's paper, Waite.
johnson made a motion, which was
passed, that a copy of DR.. Stephen S
Estey's sermon at the time of Mr.
MacDonald's death be obtained and
placed on file in the Press club rooms
A likeness of Mr.. Macdonald was pre-
sented to the club by Marco Morrow
Jesse Leach, a former Topeka news
paper man, now owner and editor OF
the Bartlesville (Okla.) Enterprise
gave an interesting Renaissance OF
the time when he was horsewhippe5
by woman, the same as William AL
len White was
1T was then I discovered that when
Bill White described the affair by say
ing that as the woman struck the ed
itor laughed, he was just a plain liar, .
said Leach.
Jay House Last Speaker.
Jaw E House was called 11non h-1i