A KANSAS FEUD.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12632, 8 December 1911, Page 8

A KANSAS FEUD.

A special correspondent of the New York Post' has written .an interesting account '■ of the state of municipal "politics'in the little. Texas town of Hunhewell, which is divided on the question of a woman Mayor. Mrs Ella- Wilson was chosen ; Mayor,, but the - Council ■ refused to' have anything to do with her, and at latest advices the State authorities were taking steps to make her authority felt. Hunnewell is an isolated "one-horse" town, of 300 inhabitants, which slept until its municipal affairs made it famous. Feud is m the air, and old friends., divided on the Miuyor question, pass each other m the street with faces averted. The local correspondent who sent out the first news of the feud is practically a recluse. He is, perhaps, the only man m the town with more than an elementary' education. "Joe made a mistak'/' one of the men sitting before the barber's! shop said to a visitor. "We uster like him. 'cause he taught our kids ter play on the pianner; but," and this last most emphatically, "he hadn't oughter writ all that 'er stuff about . thei-' town. And now," he added with a vindictive gleam m his eyes, "he don't come around ter the barber shop at night. Jes gits 'is. mail an' hurries right home. An' yer bet he's sorry now, too, 'cause Joe's a man what likes 'is argument." Mrs Wilson, the Mayor, was interviewed m her three-room house, m company with Mrs Rosie Osbom, her appointee as Marshal, and Mrs Tilton, her appointee as City Clerk. Mrs Wilson is a woman of 45, with a kindly and intelligent expression. Her husband is dying m an asylum, but she is desperately m earnest about her local politics. She wants the saloons and gambling room shut ; it was for this that she added the Mayoralty to her other burdens. She and her two women assistants raided the gambling • place one Sunday and arrested five men, who were fined. The correspondent says a feature of the town is the swagger of every one. They ostracise the poor local correspondent, but. really they are proud of their quarrel. A newspaper man who visited the hamlet recently, liad six offers of photographs of local celebrities on the morning he left. "Here's my picture," each would say ; "I started all the trouble. Can have it for a dollar; just what it cost me ter have it taken."- The journalist did not buy, but. these pictures are, nevertheless, sold. Poor Mrs Wilson, struggling with her household cares ahd the obstinacy of her opponents, is probably glad to make a few dollars out of the liifrh but troublesome position m which she has been placed.