Decatur Democrat, Volume 42, Number 47, Decatur, Adams County, 2 February 1899 — Page 6

THE DEMOCRAT IVBRY THURSDAY MOKNINC BY LEW G. ELLINGHAM, Publisher, fl 50 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE. Entered at the Postoffice at Decatur. Indiana as Second-Class Mail Matter. OFFICIAL PAPER OF ADAMS THURSDAY, FEB. 2. The bill before the legislature requiring the assessor s stamp upon all, notes and like paper, is likely to pass. [ 1 The Daily Courier is a new patron for public favors at Winchester. Its | first issue came to life Monday of last week. February 6 is the date set by the I . S. senate for a vote upon the treaty of ' peace, as agreed by the commission | appointed to arrange terms of settle-| ment. .__ It is a matter of much concern and | regret that Senator Turpie’s illness is of such a nature that it necessitates his absence from the senate. He is now at his Indianapolis home and is seriously ill. Contract yearly advertising reaps the best results to the merchant who thus takes advantage of the opportunities thrust upon him. It pavs to advertise and it pays better to everlastingly and always advertise. The senate of Missouri, overwhelmingly democratic, adopted a resolution,' a few days since, that morality and the public interest demand the ejectment of the Mormon bigamist, Roberts, as a representative in congress from Utah. Fred S. Caldwell, lawyer of Winchester, will preside in several cases , in the Jay circuit court, in which Judge ' Smith is disqualified. Judge Cald- j well is an able lawyer and will grace the bench with dignity during the ’ trial of these cases. The election of United States sena- j tors by the popular vote of the people is again being promenaded before the public. It is a matter of importance and by all means should be the law. but as long as it is controlled by the senators themselves, it will remain in the same old rut. Kansas is again furnishing food for reflection. With her strict prohibitory liquor laws, their legislature has passed a law for the establishment of institutions where the drink habit will be cured, without money and without price. It would seem from this that some one has )>een rushing the can. The smallpox which has been prevailing in Indianapolis for a week or more, is abating under the skilled medical influence and strict quarantine effected bv the board of health. Some fears were entertained that it would break out in the legislature and kill off a few appropriation bills, but no such good luck seems apparent. Representative Krick came home Saturday to visit over Sunday with his family. He reports the session as progressing very satisfactorily and that the democratic minority is a very hard working and important branch of the assembly. He returned to Indianapolis Monday. Unfortunately Henry was so loud about a two cent railroad fare law, that he now performs the miraculous feat of paying his fare while traveling. Think of it. The commissioners of Jay county have publicly announced their intenlion of building a jail of modern style I and architecture, to replace the old antiquated structure now being used. In addition to this the citizens of Portland are seriously agitating the subject of brick streets. Should all these improvemente become a reality during the vear to come. Jay county can well congratulate herself upon the generous flow of progress that seems to be all her own.

GREAT EISRE SALE. i ’ Having bought the salvage stock of Fancy and Staple Groceries of I | EVERETT, HITE & COMPANY, we will, | FIRE Beginning *t °" e ■>«««°» Tuesday, Jan. 31, ’ Offer to the public the entire stock, regardless of former prices, and don't j forget that most of these goods are in first-class condition, done up in original ' > packages, and are free from any damage. We would like for you to call ' ! O7T I E" and examine the goods and be convinced. Remember there is no limit or J reserve. Everything MUST be sold QUICK. Yours 5 • " SALVAGE WRECKING CO. \

MIGHTY MOUNT Sudden Drop In the Little Farmer Governor’s Popularity. Analysis of the Causes That Has Brought About the Loss of His Political Lovers—Representative Etchhorn's Skillful Handling of the Democratic Minority — Uncle Joe Powers of Jay—Creger-Stoner Contest. [From Our Indianapolis Corresnondent.] One of the most striking things that has occurred in Indiana politics for a long time is the sudden drop in the popularity of Governor Mount. Two years ago, when the legislature was in session, the little governor was distinctly “it" and whatever he said was pretty apt to “go" with the Republican maI jority. This was particularly true in the house, and even the senators, who i are always jealous of their own supj posed greatness, bowed to his will, though they did it with a lot of growling. Now all that is needed to everlastingly kill a measure in either branch is an official hint that Mount is behind it. It was this that killed the Roby bill and caused the house to slaughter the antilynching bill. The governor was a “receptive” candidate for the senate, but not a member of the legislature ever intimated that he would like to vote for him. It is worth while to analyze the causes of this woeful loss of popularity, particularly when a man has worked as hard for popularity as Mount has. Now, Mount is an honest man and would make a firstclass county commissioner, but one great difficulty with him is that he doubts whether there are any other honest men. Not in the general sense, for he thinks the great masses of people are honest, but when he brings his mind ' down to any particular man, he rather has his doubts, and these doubts are ‘ greatly increased if the man happens to ' come recommended by anybody who has been active in either party. But I the general assumption that almost all j the honesty in official life is centered in the governor’s office has proven offensive. It proved particularly offensive to the soldiers who went out from Indiana and were treated as though they were a pack of robbers trying to beat the state out of all the threadbare uniforms, tin cups and things it possessed. It has proven more or less offensive to everybody who called upon the governor to suggest that this or that be done. It has proven tremendously offensive to the heads of the state institutions, though they, of course, have not dared to open their heads, even to their best friends. But no class has suffered quite as much from it as have the county and township officers throughout the state. The governor has. in public interviews, cast aspersions upon them that they will not soon forget. This interview habit is one of the things that has cost the governor not a little of his influence. He has a bad habit of telling the representatives of the local newspapers all about what he proposes to do before consulting the officers through whom he must do it. Like all people who talk too much, he frequently has to modify his interviews later, and occasionally has to back down altogether. He was just going to cut a swath a yard and a quarter wide on the Ripley county lynching business, but never accomplished anything at all. One day he flew off the handle about the state reformatory, but after the nonpartisan board in charge of the institution got him to Jeffersonville and took a fall or two out of him. he had a different tale to tell. The governor thunders a good deal in the index and plays to the galleries with the notion that he is | the only real farmer in the state. There have been some side issues that have contributed a little to the general result. The “military secretary" has made a good many people a bit weary of life and the horrible, hopeless incompetency and pomposity of his quartermastergeneral helped things along a little. Then he has been imbued with the fool notion that in making appointments he ought to go outside all people mentioned , and make “discoveries." with tne result

_ - 7 7 8 Clearance Sale. Dnrine the month of February we will conduct a Clearance Safe and will make it worth your while Lieaiance oaie, c i ose out h eaV y. weight Overcoats at COST. Heavy wool and cotton Underwear, Gloves, Mittens, heavy working Shirts, Men sTnd Boy’s Caps at 20 per cent reduction. In our Merchant Tailoring department we have cut prices almost in two. We have fifty new. up-to-date Pants Patterns in heavy and medium weight that formerly sold at $7 to 88; we have reduced the lot to 85.00 a pair. Don’t fail to take advantage of these prices, as you will never be able to get such values again. Remember, this is during February only. Schulte, Falk & Ehinger. The Leading Clothiers and Tailors.

that the newly-discovered do not care much and everybody else is mad. One can readily see why the politicians of his own party do not like him, but I have enumerated a few of the things that have tended to make the dislike of the governor pretty nearly unanimous. His notion of statesmanship is confined entirely to economy, and his notion of economy is cheeseparing. The opinion is pretty general that he is out of his class. I I I The Republican caucus has whipped Littleton into line on the subject of the local government bills and it has evidently made him a bit sore, for he is developing a temper that is horrible. He seldom lets a day go by without making remarks from the chair calculated to offend at least three or four of the members. The other day he took Roots down the line shamefullv. Everybody admits that Roots is a good deal of a nuisance in his continual pushing for prominence and notoriety, but he has good traits. I happen to know of a little act he did and said nothing about that ought to give him a big red mark in the minds of all people who love a j kindly heart. There were a number cf candidates for the clerkship I of the group of committees in which he holds a chairmanship and he had a candidate to whom he was pledged. Some people made a strong appeal to him in behalf of a bright man who has been very unfortunate and needed the place badly. The chairman divided the time, giving each of three candidates 20 days. The unfortunate fellow I have mentioned was one of them and, though he was a comparative stranger to Root*, the latter went down into his own bank account and gave him a check for the other 40 days' time. One can forgive a whole lot of eccentricity in a man who will do things of that sort. I I I Representative Eichhorn is handling | the leadership of the minority in supurb fashion in the house this session. The | secret of Eichhorn's success lies in his everlasting industry. He is at work every night while others areasleep, and, as a result, he always knows exactly

what he is talking about and, though he is quick as lightning in debate, he ■ never goes off halfcocked and is always sure of his ground. Louttit, Brown and I half a dozen other Democrats might be | mentioned who are always wide awake and ably second the work of making an excellent record for the minority. Ml The people will not have an antitrust law that is effective until they elect a Democratic legislature. The Republicans do a heap of talking, and last session they passed a law that did not mean anything and could not be enforced. This year the only measures looking to this end are those introduced by Democrats, and they do not stand any more show of I getting past the Republican majority than a snowball does of rolling through j the infernal regions unharmed. You may depend upon it that whenever anything touches the toes of the monied interests the Republican majority will be found lined up almost to a man against | it. I I I The great combine has not progressed so swimmingly with its schemes as it had hoped. It lost in the test of strength on the senatorship and seems in a fair 1 way to lose in the effort to kill off the . reform bills. Armanis Knotts is about the only member of the gang that has succeeded as yet in pulling anything out of the fire. He got the Roby bill killed. He was assisted in this, however, by ths | fact that it was known as a Mount bill. So that it seems to have been more a matter of good luck than good management. I i i Uncle Joe Powers of Jay. who became famous by his resemblance to the pictures of Uncle Sam, made a warm speech in the house the other day in defense of his bill preventing appeals from justices of the peace in cases involving less than SSO. The majority of the judiciary committee had reported against it, but Uncle Joe maintained that it was necessary to - prevent pettifogging lawyers from wheedling farmers into taking petty! cases to the circuit court and beating them out of SSOO in fees on a $25 case. When he read the list of “pettifoggers” j on the judiciary committee who had

voted against the bill there were howls of laughter and the house sustained his bill with a whirl. I I I Lieutenant Governor Haggard has put out a “feeler” to the effect that he is going to be a candidate for governor. As might have been expected, it was received with general derision. The idea of Haggard in the governor’s chair is too horrible to contemplate. However, it would be no worse than the nomination of Chase. The senators have fallen into a mean habit of “playing horse” with Haggard in the chair. He doesn’t. know any more about parliamentary law than a cat does about allegory, and these mean people take a fiendish delight in making all sorts of motions, amendments and substitutes until the old man gets into a state of mind where he does not know whether he is afoot or on horseback. I I I The developments in the CregerStoner contest in the senate have been productive of sickening revelations in regard to the violations of the ballot law as amended by the Republicans at the last session. They insisted that the pencil should be used instead of the stamp, as they did in Ohio. Then they imported from the Ohio corruptionists their method of “beating” the law by means of a carbon sheet concealed in a blank envelope. The evidence before the elections committee has shown that in Madison, Hancock and Rush counties the Republicans bought votes right and left, sometimes paying as high as f7 apiece for them. Even at that they failed to pull Stoner through and the only real grounds for their contest is their own fraud and the fact that the senate has a Republican majority. I I I One of the beautiful things in ths house is the harmony existing between those aspiring young Republican statesmen, Huff and Noel. The way they love each other is something awful. Whenever Noel has a bill Huff opposes it and whenever Huff wants anything, that is sufficient reason for Noel to vote against it. If Noel says anything is white Huff straightway declares it is black, and if

Huff says it is black Noel is sure it ii white. These two intellectual glass could not gather enough brains and ability between them to fit out a country schoolteacher, and their frequent exchanges of sarcasm are becoming exceedingly’ tiresome. I I I Notwithstanding all the tune and energy spent by the Roots iummisaa gathering data from the state lasnntions. the ways and means committees quietly ignoring its work and calling the superintendents to the capital i; large exj>ense to the state to tell verbally what they have already set out u great length in their report to Roots and his associates. I I I A lovely little scrap is going on between those two celebrated farmers who never farm. John Wingate of Wingate, and Sid Conger of Flat Rock, each (I whom wants to succeed I. N. Walkers tax commissioner. This is a soft snap, with very fat “pickings," it one watte to “get next" to the railroads, andeithtt one of these patriots would enjoy it inDensely. Walter Whitcuxb. A bill is being prepared and our representative in the legislature wiJ present the same, which is an amendment of the present law ->f township gravel road building. The present law is the fruits of the IS9-) legislature and provides for the payment : these improvements in ten annual installments or in ten years. The amendment in question at this time# the extension of payment to twent’ years in that many annual installments. It is an improvement over the present law and one that snonM receive favorable consideration by tM solons who are invested with the power of law making. It would no doubt mean much for Adams county a® would instill new life into the subject of road building, by giving the payers smaller payments and lenge time in which to pay for these roa improvements. Court convenes again Monday.