Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1899 — Page 4 Advertisements Column 3 [ADVERTISEMENT]

indignity heaped upon her, and to-day, despite this barbarous and inhuman law, she goes about on all occasions, unhampered and unharmed. The present legislature is again wrestling with this question. However, any assault on the constitutional liberty of Mr. or Mrs. Dog will be resented at the proper time and in the proper manner. What the farmers of this county think of the merits of the prosecution of John E. Alter is shown by the fact that they unanimously elected him president of the county farmers’ institute, for the ensuing year. They have and esteemed Mr. Alter all his life and they khow that his prosecution is nothing else but malicious persecution.—Apologist. The action of the commissioners’ court in cutting a large number of bills nearly in two, and dismissing many others altogether, filed the last year by J. E. Alter, for services of himself and “assistants,” must, in the light of recent events, be attributed to malicious persecution. Next week The Democrat will publish the amount of the bills filed by Mr. Alter, the amount cut off from, and the amount dismissed altogether by the commissioners during the last year, as shown by the county records.

County Treasurer Gwin seems to have very peculiar ideas about the publicity of the records in his office. On the only two occasions we have called at his office to see canceled county warrants he has required us to state explicitly just what information we wished to get before allowing us to see them, the request for the warrant by number and the month issued not being sufficient information in his opinion to let us examine a canceled warrant. Thursday we wished to see the warrant issued to J. E. Alter for “field work on Coates ditch,” and he required us to state just what reasons we had for desiring to see the warrant before he would make any effort to show us same, then the warrant was not found. Perhaps it had not yet been presented for payment, but it was drawn several weeks ago. We had supposed it was none of the treasurer’s business what information we desired from examining a canceled warrant, but that individual seems to rule otherwise. We trust he will not force us to secure a mandate from the circuit court compelling him to allow us to examine records in his records in his possession without explicity stating the information we desire to gain therefrom? Gentle reader, have you noticed the direction from which the howl comes, when The Democrat man’s club comes down? From this same source, comes the ribald and vulgar criticism which is being heaped upon him. Investigation will show that these howling critics have fed, are feeding, or expect to feed at the public crib. Some of these carping, howling critics have some ugly sores on their official persons, and these sores are very tender. The Democrat man has not trimmed all the knots off his clubs, and throws them without regard to these tender places. Some of these clubs have come down “kerwhack” on a sore place, and then they howl. Do you blame them? You are not in a position to realize how it hurts. No official who turned over his office to his successor with clean hands is doing any howling, neither is he standing on the street corners barking and snarling at The Democrat man. His conscience is clear. He didn’t take any money from the public but that belonged to him. He didn’t “stand in” with dishonest scoundrels whose only business consists in bribing corrupt public officials, and robbing a long suffering public. He has no fear for The Ddmocrat man’s clubs. But it tickles him all bver when he sees these clubs start on their journey. He knows they will hit a sore place, and everybody else knows it, too. They can locate it by the howl it raises. The Democrat man has some more clubs and he intends throwing them, and and when you find one of the ring ducking and blinking his eyes, or “cussin” The Democrat man, you I can rest assured he has been hit.