Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1871-11-29
A Slnnder Refnfed.

The Memphis Appeal of recent date
published the following, based as we learn
upon a statement which appeared origi-
nally in the Brownsville Bee!
The diabolism of Chicago is not only il
Illustrated in tho fact that no woman could
walk the streets of the shameless city after
nightfall, not even at MONDAY, without
mourning the danger of insult, but recently
after Memphis had forwarded its contribu-
ton, and it had been received by Chicago's
mayor, that soulless but proper representa-
tive of his people refused to aid a manned
ex-confederate soldier. After the war he
had made Chicago his home; by the fire
he lost everything, and sought to return to
Alabama. The sanity mayor was applied
to, and when the ex-soldier stated that he
had served in the Confederacy he was told
by the chief magistrate of Chicago, with
twenty-five thousand dollars in his pocket
given by Memphis, that he had no fund
for the relief of "REBEIS.n A curse upon
Chicago. 1t deserved its fate and none of
the sympathies of our race. Memphis did
its duty, and we have nothing to regret,
but when Chicago is rebuilt, if owned by
the brutal villains who represented it as
soldiers and now as civilians, we would
send the next twenty-five thousand dollars
to that recalcitrant COW that would lay the
accused place in ashes.
Hon. A. A. Freeman, the able Repre-
sentative in the present Legislature from
Haywood county, upon reading the above
addressed the Mayor of Chicago, and writes
to us of the result of his correspondence
| as follows:
.-,l. NASHVILLE, Nov. 22, 1871.
! DfeSsrs. Rlt(e d Ricks ..........
GENTS: Please find enclosed an eX-
tract from the Memphis appeal of Nov.
q. The extract, indeed, is taken from
statement published in the Brownie vile
Bee upon the authority or some tramp
whose name / have forgotten. Immedi-
ately upon reading the statement in the
Bee Enclosed it to the Mayor of Chicago
and received the enclosed reply. l have
sent a copy of this letter to the Bee, asking
its publication, which, l have no doubt,
will be made, as l do not believe that the
editor of that paper would willfully give
credit to such an unmtigated Islander, /
ask a publication of this letter, in order
that justice may be done the Mayor and
the people of Chicago. Yours, &c,
A. A. FREEMAN.
-s CHICAGO, Nov. 10, 1871.
Hon. 4. 4. freeman:
DEAR SIR: Your favor of the 18th was
received this evening just as | was leaving
my Office. l hasten to reply before return
ing to nv office tomorrow. [ can say
such conversation ever took place between
me and any living man, and the statement
inclosed fails to bring to my recollection
any conversation with such person as he
is described to be. pronounce it unqual-
ifiedly false from beginning to the end.
y o passes were issued for the first day or
two after the fire, but all the railroads, [
think, without exception, carried all the
passengers free from Chicago, and when
we commenced issuing passes it was
done at several different places, 50 that
there could have been no difficulty in his
going at first without a pass, or if he re-
manned q day or two after the fire, in get
ting pass.
During my term of office two years.
which is now near its close, / never have |
had occasion to show a man the door and |
never have called upon my police to do so, |
and ! am quite sure that no person can say |
with truth that I have treated him ungen- |
tlemanly or unkindly during my admin |
istration.
L thank you, sir, for calling my atten- |
ton to this and could wish if any doubt |
remained in your mind that you or your
friends would apply to any citizen of
Chicago and inquire of them whether it is
at all probable that any such occurrence as
is represented ever took place.
am, dear sir, very respectfully yours,
X. b. MASON, Mayor.
1t is such graceless scamps as the one in
venting this false story that contribute
very largely to keeping up the unhappy
differences between the Northern and the
Southern people, which all good men are in
terested in healing. 1t is not improbable
that this fellow came away from Chicago
without paying his honest hotel bill.