The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-05-15
ON ANOTHER TACK.

Welave a few words to say in reply
to the second personal attack made on
us in the last Courier, by the chief of
tile white league, in our capacity as edi-
tor--tbe first one Was made. on simply
"Mr. Jackson He seems to be as ig-
= norant Of the meaning or of the proper
application Of the term "biIlingsgateE
as he was of that of I" scrub-race,H which
he 80 unfortunately used in his court
house speech. One would have thought
there, from his pretensions to the art of
criticism, that
o He was In logic d great critic,
Profoundly skilled in analytic.
But he still plumbers in the use of terms;
We used no billingsgate. We did not
misrepresent him. IL he was misrepre-
scented, lie did it himself. We simply
c0ntfasted his inconsistencies and con-
Predictions, that were already before the
public, and showed his abuse of terms
ofwhich q political reformera and literary
critic should not have been guilty. If
We had said that be stated that the can
didates at the special election last De-
cember were slow and contemplate
animals" he might have justly accused
iii Of misrepresentation. But We did
IN such thing; he used the term { scrub
racep in regard to them, and we gave
the meaning Of it, to show what a critic
IT, Lo3 neag4rNnd fEna roTn nf
critic ut our expense, and we had the
right to inquire into his qualifications.
Hithad to be done, we wanted it done
secundun drtcm and not by a bungler.
We pursued a parallel course in regard
to his language and conduct. II we
had chosen or IL we now chose to resort
to other facts and channels of informa-
ton, we could make a still strong show
ing Ia the case. But thus far we have
not accumulated enough moral weak
ness and meanness to do it. 1T he was
lnisrepresented, he did it himself; and
u part Of il was simply showing it to
him. He seems to have been blind to
his own self misrepresentation, as he
has been for several years that the
JOURNAL is "a subsidized press" We
Judge from the last Courier that his eyes
have just been opened to the latter, but
We fear he will remain in utter darkness
as To the. former. II lie will go to "his
dusky friend John Simms, and get the
truth out Of him, he will discover that
somebody else wanted to be "a sub
sidized press and he may find out some
~otIlerfacts from him in regard to color
ed men running for office that may have
leaked out of the cracks OF his "
capacious memory.
The gentleman should not have lugged
our name into his meeting and made
the personal attack on us he did. Va
were no necessary part o. parcel OF the
proceedings, and might with propriety
have been left ont. This part did not
appear in the minutes and we ar
naturally led to infer that it was Q side
show gotten up in the club room K
show off the g~entleman's skill(N in crit
eism and ridieule. 70 do such q thing
to say the least of II, was exceedingly
small, and unworthy of any one-mucE
more unworthy a party leader. The
Cardinal de Retz said: II am persua.
ded that greater qualities are required
tn form Il party leader than to form al
emueror of the universe ~ and, "Thert
are no snail steps If great affairs
The gentleman knows that If we hat
not been attacked in that meeting VIZ
would have said nothing there mol
published anything afterwards der0ga.
tory to him or it. Notwithstanding
we simply returned o Roland fol
an Oliver Y or, as the common saying
ID, slit for lat land helesS his temper
III the light BIZ facts and informatior
that he knows lie before us, how hi
could reconcile it with his heart and
conscience Z To publicly say what be hai
said, Ii Z puzzliug problem 10 us in hu'
mar nature. There s q certain pas.
sage in d certain book that it might
profit him to read but we eanE0t point
1t out ID tho public eye. When he re.
gains his temper and ceases to miz
politics With social and private relations
We may show IL to him.
#ARa