Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1886 — THE OHIO BOOOLE-GANG. [ARTICLE]

THE OHIO BOOOLE-GANG.

The Investigating Committee at Columbus Secures Interesting Information. A Standard OH Company Agent It Watt Who Handled the Senatorial Slush Fund. V 'wH [Colnmbua (Ohio) special to Chicago Tribune., With the Senate adjourned over into next week, and no matter of interest likely to come before the House, Columbus would be dead politically to-day but for the latest developments in the Payne investigation. It is getting more and more apparent that direct testimony as to the buying of votes in the Democratic caucus will be hard to obtain, but it is nlso getting more and more apparent that the case made out to a moral certainty will be as damning to some political reputations asc ould be a conviction before a jury in a formal trial in court. The flight of witnesses desired is in itself on indication of their guilty knowledge, and the circumstances under which these disappearances occur, asaioipe new fact is stumbled upon by the committee of investigation, are such as to make reported incidents of the past dovetail into each other strikingly. The investment in Pendleton legislators avos made in a style which speaks volumes for the political acuteness of the purchasers. No checks were passed, no written promises to pay were given, and wliefi the money changed hands it Avas in the form of crisp SSOO and SIOO bills. So much new money was never seen in Columbus before. There must have been a trnnkful of it in some room of the Neil House, the Payne headquarters, and the. method of its expenditure was a triumph of secrecy. There was a slight trail, left, though, nnd this trail the investigating committee has ctnmbled upon. The money was handled by a stranger. Many of those who dealt with him did not know his name. He was not even a resident of the State, but he is known uoav. He lives in West Virgiuia, and he is a trusted agent of the Standard Oil Company. Of course the investigation committee cannot secure this man to give testimony, and if they could he Avould not talk; but he is not unlikely to have fame thrust upon him soon to an extent Avhich must be painful to one of his retiring nature. This paymaster must have been an exceeding shrewd as well as trustworthy personage. His connection Avith the prominent figures among the Payne boomyrs was never suspected by the multitude. Col. Oliver Payne, an officer of the Standard Oil Company, of which his father, the Seuator, is the long-headed adviser and schemer, occupied rooms- in state at the principal hotel in Columbus, and his hotel and all others in town of any note were practically rented for the occasion, everything being made free as water to'iegishitqrß gn'dTfagir~ families. There avus a roar and a bustle, an advent of hundreds of the Cincinnati gang sent on by Payne’s associates there, and amid the tumult the confidential man from West Virgiuia could move about unnoticed. The cashier was not a prominent personage before the caucus; after it he had but a few' hours’ work to do. 'and then he melted away like a fog in the morning. He has not materialized in Columbus, since. The list of those who, immediately after the Payne election, stepped suddenly from almost penury to what is opulence in the rural districts has received a number of additions. As the matter is agitated reports come in from the small towns, where each individual knows all about the affairs of every one else iu the place, and where the sudden prosperity of the member of the Legislature from the district became about a year and a half ago the subject of comment nnd scandal. The marvel is tlgit these scandals were never grouped before. But one town knows little about the scandals of another unless such scandals are printed, and it is only now, when the tales of sudden comparative wealth are brought together, that their full significance is seen and an idea obtained of the immense sum of money which must have been expended in Columbus immediately after the assembling of the Coal-Oil Legislature. Even the shrewdness of the men now employed- to get witnesses and damaging documents out of the way of the Investigating Committee is now taxed in interposing obstacles, from the fact that information sought is now comjng by letter from sources of w-hieh the Coal-oil people can have no idea. There is literally no popular regard Payne iu Ohio. He was not even a prominent Democratic leader before he appeared, with his enormous fortune and backed by the anti-Pen-dleton crowd from Cincinnati, to defeat the favorite of the majority, and now no hesitation is shown by Democrats of the better classrin telling what they know of the methods of his group. The very fact that the Payne investigation has been instituted is creditable to one portion of the Democratic party in the State and indicative of the presence -in its ranks of a large number of honest aud intelligent voters. It is from such as these that letters and telegrams are coming, and the obstructionists doxtot kneiv Avhere to find them. There is coming in this matter what the shrewdest men of both parties iu the Legislature say, as a political sensation, will dwarf the present struggle in the Senate.

“Who is Bob Kennedy?” frantically shrieks an Ohio Democratic organ. What! Don’t you know Bob? Well, well! such ignorance is deplorable. There is hot a Democrat of prominence in the State of Ohio that doesn’t know him. Not know Bob Kennedy? Great Scott! man, where have yon spent all your life? The Democratic Senators and Representatives all know him. Tlie four Democrats in the Senate from Hamilton County know him; and Boh knows them—knows them intimately. Ajb len O. Myers knows Bob, and Bob knows Allen. Clerk Vallandigham has a passing acquaintance with him, but doesn’t 'know ‘ him well enough to call him Bob. County i Clerk Dalton knows Bob so well that he ! gave the four gentlemen from Hamilton County letters of introduction to him, and Bob has been treating these gentlemen very, warmly ever since. They will know Bob well—very well—before they are through with him. Hunt Bob up, Mr. Editor, and get acquainted with him. Half your life is gone by not knowing Mr. Robert Kennedy up to date. —Chicago Tribune. The Democratic party in Ohio is holding a finger over one of the jipots, and trying to play off four Senatorial dences for aces. of the heights of clouds have been made at tbe Upsala Observatory during the past summer. The results are approximately as follows : Stratus, 2,000 feet; nimbus, or rain clond, from 3,G00 to 7,200 feet; cumulus, from 4,300 to 18,000 feet; cirrus, 2’3,400 feet Cloud measurements are always somewhat difficult and uncertain, but these figures are considered fairly exact 't 'T r * r \ ‘ . .3 Really good men are unconscious of their goodness. — George Sand.