The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1874-02-12
How We Got In for IL.

he thought ne recORlilEeu rs an Olo HieaiA-- p" -
tng 70 attract his attention, but not being aoie
70 reach him, he requested the person in the nrst
seat In front to punch that man." The person
cor, nlied by giving the individual sharp poke
IN the back, who instantly squared around, when
Phnuix discovered that il was not his friend,
hut Sss a savage looking customer, big enough
% eat M half dozen ordinary msn. PhGniK
locked away, ard his accommodating ncighbor
eonld not possibly attract bis notice; and the
latter had to apologize 10 the savage stranger, and
.l,ds thresbing a. best be could. This being
.coornpIished, be turued TO Phenix, demanding.
HDidut YOU tell ne to punch that man, sirf"
Yssp1eplied Pbsuix. "well, why did you tell
ma 10 do soi" "Wby," replied PhGnix, al want
ed to see if you vas fool enough to punch him"
We editors are good deal like the man who
punched the stranger. We are expected to take
up and fight out enrery ones grievance; but
when the punching is returned, the man with
the grievance stands aside, and lets us fight il
out But we suppose that If we are fools enough
to do 1t, we have no right to complain.
The foregoing remarks suggested by n
little episode. Two weeks ago. published 3
s,atemen; relative to a revenue matter between
Collector George 7. Anthony and John F. Morton,
which represented Anthony as having victimizrd
Morton badly-ending by expressing oursoh in
clined to believe the story. The story was re-
ported as nearly Ss il was told us as We could
get it. We did not have it from Morton, but one
who did have it from him and from others who
were assisting him in his trouble. Our inform
ant was one Of the most straight-forw ard men in
the State who would not tell that which he be-
ieved to be untrue, and we are confident, AT the
the time, he firmly believed the statement. But
the sequel shows that he had beeu led Oh wrong
chase, as well as ourself. Morton takes the Chief
and when be ssw snch a damaging statement
against a man, in which his own name was so
prominently used, he should have at once in
formed ms of our error. C. F. Van Buskirk's
name was also connected with the matter He
is friend of ours, and subscriber to the Chief
He was in Troy, on Tuesday of last week, and we
were in his company for about FIVE minutes.
Had be notified MS OF our error, and given us the
facts, We would have at once published correc-
tion, before being aware that anything more Sc
rious was contemplated. We presume that his
mind was occupied with other business. aud that
the matter did not occur to him in that brief
time.
The first intimation we had that The story was
incorrect was a visit to Troy By Capt. Anthony,
on Friday afternoon, and r warrant from Justice
soper to appear and answer the charge of Irilifal
and malicious libel. We then told Capt. Anthony,
that we had told the story exactly as we got it,
from what we considered good authority; but
that if we had done him injustice, we would have
been willing to investigate and give correct
statement, and do all in power to set him
right, through the same medium in which he
was wrnnged, without the necessity for any such
proceedings as that; but he Indignantly replied
that nothing but a court Of Justice could make it
right. We therefore gave bond to answer IN the
District Court.
II has often been our luck TO publish statements
doing men injustice; but refused to
make a correction, when convinced that We had
committed an error. We should willingly have
done SO IN this case aud would have preferred to
have done SO before it could have been charged
that We were frightened into it by the prospect
Of lawsuit. We think it will be hard for Capt.
Anthony to prove malice on our part, and do not
believe that he really thinks so. He cannot show
anything In the past to make such thing appear
reasonable. We believe the only question on
which we ever differed with him, was some three
years ago, when we opposed an appropriation
bill before the LegislatuIe, in which he was in
interested, for certain immigration purposes as
We considered it a useless squandering of money.
For some months past, we had heard so many
complaints about revenue matters, principally
touching the actions of Capt. Anthony's deputies,
that we thought be certainly must hare
knowledge of it, and permit it; and when we
heard this Morton story, we the more readily be-
EeTed it.
Irasmnch ss Capt Anthony did not sec proper
% give Us the facts in the case. We have since
been to some pains to find out " hat they really
were, ard here present them in the very best
shape we have been able 20 get them, with one
OF two explanations hich Anthony gave to 9TH
ers. We will say right here, before preceding
with the statement, that far from our first sto-
~ being malicious we were not thinking Of
Capt. AnIhony wheu We received it. We bad
heard that Morton had been arrested on some
revenue difficulty, and were inquiring about it,
for the purpose Of making news item of his ar
rest, when, instead, the story was given US of
how Morton had been misused. Now, for the
other side.
Last Fall when Morton commenced business
90 Axtel, he requested Van Buskirk to apply for
q revenue license to sell wbskey. Van Buskirk
ulu ecuu poStdI uOneS OTtier LOT go, anu An |
thony forwarded blank application to be filed |
out. Van Buskirk says he filed it ont and re- |
turned it, and supposed all was right, until he |
heard that the Marshal was after Morton. An |
thcny says he received the money order, and put |
1t away in pigeon-hole until the application
should be returned, but that it never came back
10 him. Sometime in JANUARY, the Postmaster
at White Cloud received a telegram from the
Deputy U. S. Marshal inquiriug if Morton was
there, About the same time Morton, who was in
St. joe, got wind of the business, and hastened
to Leayenworth, TO see about it. About this
time, Frank Van BuSkrk came iAto the POST
ofeee at White Cloud saying that the l. s. Mar
sbal was after John, about license; that he had
seut money order to pay for it, aud wanted to
examine the bool, t0 and out the date. Ascer-
tanning this fact, he wrote Anthony, (January
19th,l informing him that be had sent him the
money, and also had filed and returned the
blank application, and desired 70 know what the
trouble was. This letter was addressed, inside,
to "Col. D. +. Anthony" aud We presume the
envelope was directed the same way. Geo. T.
Anthony replied (Jauuary slst,) that the appli-
cation, form IL had never been received, sd-
dirg: "You probably sent it TO Col D. R. A., OF
=. IL