The Manitowoc Pilot

RAILROAD MATTERS.
Excitement at Menasha—Bonds of the Wisconsin Central Railroad
Correspondence of the Chicago Evening Post

Menasha, Wis., July 20.

This flourishing little village on the Lower Fox, at the head of Lake Winnebago, has subscribed and voted $50,000 for the Wisconsin Central railroad. A proposition was drawn up by the company, and accepted by the town of Menasha. This proposition states that the town should deposit bonds to the amount of $50,000 in the National Bank of Commerce, of New York, and that they should be deposited by the Supervisor or some person appointed for that purpose, but not until we had some sign of having a road at Menasha. We have as yet no signs, though they are building a little out of town; but still some hot-headed citizens, to make some money from it, got the members of the Board to sign the bond and coupons, and the Supervisor, not daring to start from Menasha, went to Appleton and got on a freight car to go to New York with the bonds and interest warrants, and coupons, to deposit them. A person who understood the whole fraud, served an injunction on him before he had gone fifty miles, and stopped him. Had those bonds and coupons gone to New York, it would have utterly ruined Menasha, by placing such a debt on her shoulders that she never could rally from. Never was a greater whirlwind blown up by the injunction. On street corners, in factories, mills, and in the store and family circle, it was discussed alike. But, remember, that all who went against it did not know the real unvarnished truth. They had not even read the proposition, nor had they ever seen a bond or a coupon. The smooth tongue of one person who did nothing else but swindle the community—had no other business whatever—and live off the dividends, made great havoc in public opinion, and an indignation meeting was called to produce still more havoc by the hot-headed ones who had the great fraud in hand. Speeches were made that did to hotter the speaker's brow until nature would not stand it under the pressure any longer, when he took his seat amid cheers from the excited crowd and the barks of frightened dogs. He had uttered sentiments that were not fit for man to say, even to himself, let alone saying it to a crowd of men; but though this meeting was indignant it made no difference with the fraud. They were a fraud and a swindle, and honorable men like us, who favored the injunction, shall live in the eyes of the people of Menasha as a lifter, not a tearer down of the place. The suit will be perpetuated in a few days and then we will see if a few swindlers and vagabonds can run the town of Menasha by fraud and a smooth tongue.
T.