ty, one might be tempted to suggest that an
epidemic of this Western malady would prove beneficial to some Eastern
communities and have salutary results for the nation at large."

In this same year (1893) Kansas became a stormcenter in national
politics once more by reason of a contest between parties for control
of the lower house of the legislature. The returns had given the
Republicans a majority in the assembly, but several Republican seats had
been contested on suspicion of fraud. If the holders of these seats were
debarred from voting, the Populists could outvote the Republicans.
The situation itself was fraught with comedy; and the actions of the
contestants made it nothing less than farce. The assembly convened on
the 10th of January, and both Republican and Populist speakers were
declared duly elected by their respective factions. Loftily ignoring
each other, the two speakers went to the desk and attempted to conduct
the business of the house. Neither party left the assembly chamber that
night; the members slept on the benches; the speakers called a truce
at two in the morning, and lay down, gavels in hand, facing each other
behind the desk, to get what rest they could. For over two weeks the two
houses continued in tumultuous session. Meanwhile men were crowding into
Topeka from all over the State: grim-faced Populist farmers, determined
that Republican chicanery should not wrest from them the fruits of the
election; equally determined Republicans, resolved that the Populists
should not, by charges of election fraud, rob them of their hard-won
majority. Both sides came armed but apparently hoping to avoid
bloodshed.

Finally, on the 15th of February, the Populist house retreated from
the chamber, leaving the Republicans in possession, and proceeded to
transact business of state in the corridor of the Capitol. Populist
sympathizers now besieged the assembly chamber, immuring the luckless
Republicans and incidentally a few women who had come in as members of
the suffrage lobby and were now getting more of political equality than
they had anticipated. Food had to be sent through the Populist lines in
baskets, or drawn up to the windows of the chamber while the Populist
mob sat on the main stairway within. Towards evening, the Populist
janitor turned o$ the heat; and the Republicans shivered until oil
stoves were fetched by their followers outside and hoisted through the
windows. The Republican sheriff swore in m