* J iff J
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The Condcmtiw.
The recalcitrant
UNDER editor of the Mad-
SUSPICION. ison Mail will be
remembered as the
very effective olmirman of the popu
list national convention who cast
aside all rules for the government of
such bodies , and seemingly by main
strength forced the populists to en
dorse a ticket upon which they had
no acknowledged candidate ; throwing
aside their own patriots , relegating
to the rear the initiative and referen
dum , government ownership of all
sorts of things , two per cent money
and other principles for which the
pioneer populists contended. It is
this same Allen who now asserts that
there is no affinity between the two
parties , and warns the so-called de
mocracy not to ' ' undertake to dissolve
' ' the of Simp-
and absorb' party Jerry -
sou , Bill Dech , Bill McKeighau , Jake
Wolfe and the other Bills , Jakes and
Jerrys who have fought , sweated and
been defeated in the name of all that
is populistic. Has this versatile states
man , journalist and campaigner ex
perienced a suddeu change of heart ,
or is he the tame steer sent out to in
gratiate himself with the mavericks
and utimately lead them by easy
stages and sundry devious windings
into the Commonocratic corral in
time for the fall round-up ? Perhaps
lie is sincere ; perhaps he really in
tends to remove the ring from the
nose of populism and leave its former
master to hold both ends of the rope ,
but the past' acts of this new cham
pion of middle of-the-road-ism give
rise to a strong suspicion that he
is posing for a purpose. Later on the
whip will crack and shoulders will
be galled , but it will be too late then
to do more than bellow and sweat
and form resolutions as to what will
be done "nest time. "
The anti-trust
GREED AGAIN , law recently enact
ed by the Illinois
legislature has already been declared
invalid by the United States supreme
court because it contains an excep
tion clause intended' to exempt farm
products from the conditions of the
aoh This is the usual fate of such
legislation , the trouble being that
those upright and virtuous legislators
who frame the laws always conscien
tiously attend to it that every branch
of industry is forbidden to consoli
date , excepting those in which a ma
jority of the members of the assem
bly happen to bo engaged. Then it is
only a question of time when the
matter will reach the courts , and in
due course of events down will come
a decision that the law is antagonistic
to the provision of the * constitution
which guarantees to all equal rights
under the law. So consistently incon-
sisteut are the representatives of the
people in this respect , that it is well
nigh impossible for the citizens of
any state to select from their number
men who will push through an effect
ive anti-trust law ; yet these legisla
tors and their constituents who no
doubt have a voice in the construction
of the law never fail to 'join in a
miehty chorus of invective against
the judge who arrives at the only
conclusion ever left open [ to him :
that the industry which has the
greatest representation in the assem
bly is seeking to impose restrictions
upon less favored industries , which
it is by no means willing to have
applied to itself , which defect robs
the law of its virility , and proves
the axiom : " 'Greediness bursts the
bag. "
Ever since Blue
ANOTHER KAN- Lodges in the
SAS CRAZE. South and Beecher
Bible Rifle soci
eties in New England entered the ter
ritory of Kansas to struggle for Afri
can slavery on the one hand and uni
versal freedom on the other , that part
of Uncle Sam's domain has been in a
constant succession of tumultuous
hysterics. It had bled and indulged
in various civil convulsions to attract
the attention of the older states up to
1860 , when it went wild over a
drouth , and it shrieked and begged
for food and finances all over the
United States. Since then it has in
dulged in prohibitionpopulism , Mary
Ellen Leaseism , and Carrie Nation
Hatchetism ; and now it lias developed
a Boy Orator of five weeks of age , at
Harper in that state. This leaves the
adolescent Demosthenes of the Platte
in the rear by some forty years and
easily wins the belt for juvenile
declamation. This infant phenome
non began talking when three weeks
of age , and now , at five weeks , it .con
tinues to reiterate the lugubrious
prophecy : ' ' Six years of famine in
Kansas ! " The prophecies of Bry-
auarchy made in 1896 and 1900 are as
gopher hills to the Rooky Mountains ,
when compared to the famine fore
casts of the Peerless Infant of Kansas.
Hundreds have crowded the home of
his father , John Shelby , of Harper ,
who is a laboring man , to hear the
eloquent baby make his forecasts.
This infant is a rival to Bryan for
the nomination to the presidency in
1904 by all of the followers of the
Chicago and Kansas Oity platforms.
As has been said
LUXURY. in this journal the
line of division be
tween the classes in Mexico is drawn
sharply ; one has everything that ho
wants ; the other nothing that he
wants. While the poor peon is teach-
ing the world , and incidentally his
family , how very little a person may
subsist upon , wo glance at the hotel
bill of a party traveling in Mexico :
Lodging a days (2 ( rooms ) . . . . $ 96.00
Restaurant and wines 120.80
Express 9.50
Stove 1.25
Tailor 2.25
Lost his nose glasses 11.00
Mineral water 1.00
$211.80
Other expenses which we are unable
to decipher , and which were prob
ably not intended to be deciphered ,
bring the grand total up to $270.96
and adding to this the livery bill of
$190 the total expense of being on
earth for three days in the city of
Mexico , and seeing the city exactly
as an American city would be seen ,
$460.96.
Meanwhile the peon , whose sole
earthly possessions are about 80 cents
Worth of clothing and a game rooster
or two , surrounds himself with his
half-fed family , and alternately roasts
at midday and freezes at midnight.
But we hear you ask why these high
prices do not aid the peon ? The
answer is perfectly easy to under
stand ; high prices do not aid the
peon , simply because he has nothing
to sell , and quite probably never will
have. The rich bankers , dealing in
silver exactly as in this country men
deal in wheat , skin the poor man to
the bone and scrape the bone. Once
down , there is absolutely no chance
for him to regain his feet.
The continued
WORRIED failure of British
BRITONS. strategy in South
Africa is certainly
endangering the supremacy of the pres
ent ministry , and only the characteristic
tenacity of the Briton has enabled him
to countenance the continuation of a
struggle so expensive in men and means ,
and so monotonously unsuccessful The
Irish are evidently restless , and there is
ground for real apprehension that un
less there is a change for the better in
South African affairs , within a short
time , the peasantry will have to be
dealt with. Meanwhile the reports
from the front recall the good old
Quaker minister who , after marrying a
couple , remarked to the proud groom :
"Friend , then art at the end of thy
troubles. " The newly-wedded man
having shortly discovered that his wife
was a regular vixen , reminded the
minister of the failure of his prophecy
only to be told : "Verily , I said not
which end. " So when the end of the
Boer war is said to be in sight , it is al
ways pertinent to enquire , "which
end ? "