The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-01-28

der's file of your paper from the start
L want it. L know you have another fill
on deposit in the Express Company
fire-proof safe. I'll give you 500 TO
the tile-here's the money-but if you'll
take my advice you'll not bet against m,
hand, for it'll win - i sold him the fill,
and made my bet good. He saw my be
and raised it just enough to take all m,
money-price of the ReUeilLe file-minu
the cost of cocktail or so in the morn
ing, and then, preliminaries settled, h,
showed me his hand-four queens, b,
jingo! every one simpering at me, anC
cutting sleeps eyes at the ace in tn,
corner.
Lapp rose. Gentlemen" said he
"day is not very far off, and there's
nothing more to drink here. My brother
Slam goes to press i'll the morning ant
has copy to prepare; / will therefor,
take my leave and my file of the Rec
ellie" And so, with a diabolical grin
he departed. His boy took Capt. Fris
tow off to bed, and when the ReUeiXt
foreman came to go to work in the morn
ing rose, escorted Mr.. Rollins to my
| humble couch, covered him with the
buffalo robe, and, after giving the fore
man an order to go down to the express
office for my file there locked up, and tC
fix up an editorial for the paper, went
off TO breakfast.
At the breakfast table found my de-
lightful old friend, Col Debonair, and q
Mr.. Chops, an English traveller, to
whom the Colonel introduced me. AT
ter breakfast we adjourned to the Col
onel's room, and, by sending for James
Addison, Esq, were able to make up
one Of the most charming whist parties
l ever took hand with. At l o'clock
p. m, with honors easy and Addison
sure Of two by cards to make up the game
our seventh successive rubber won
and seven empty bottles under the table,
we were startled by the cry of "Fire !"
| sprang to the window, only to see the
Office and building of the ReUeiHe in a
bright blaze, and Rube Rollins spring
ing from the second-story window, minus
his hair and lap-robe beard. The great
fire at Bakers Gulch had begun
Two days later, when the fire was ex-
tinguished, but while the ruins still
smoked, I first heard the rumor that it
was /, Rupert Slam, who had caused
this disastrous and overwhelming confia-
grafton. l horsewhipped several per
sons, but still the rumOr spread, and |
was too busy in re-establishing the Office
and restoring the edition of the ReUeiiie
to take more summary means to check
it, or to trace it to its source. But on
the Saturday week succeeding the fire
this Internal Lapp, in the issue of his
Mountain Damn, came out with an ed
itorial, double-leaded, upon the subject
of "Who is the Author of the Late
Conflagration" In that atrocious article
he says:
Fellow-citzens, we ask you to consider
where this fire originated to reflect what was
the debauched and desperate condition of the
proprietor of that establishment at the time.
We happen to be the owners ef n file of that
creatures miserable sheet and, in All article
so long ago as last December twelve months,
find the following " Bakers Gulch is n blot
and stigma upon the fair face of nature
upon the throbbipg bosom of humanity. Ba-
ker's Gulch must burn again in order to be re-
formed. Nothing but complete Baphometic
Fire-Baptism will suffice to purge awRy the
hideous iniquties of Bakers Gulch."
AS soon as / saw this copy of the
Doacn, took friend with me and pro-
ceeded to Lapp's office. explained my
mission.
Mr.. Slam, he replied, CT have
mission also, and that is to find out and
publish the author of this conhagration
which has ruined this whole community.
gave you name and date for the article.
Prove that you never wrote it." "How
can prove it except by asserting You
had one of my files ; the other was burnt
in the fire. Produce the file and show
me the article. If you can do that will
acknowledge that l burned Bakers
Gulch. "I cannot do that, Mr. Siam,"
for, as you know quite well, my file of
the RcUeiUe, as well as yours, was burned
in the great conhagration. But, IN this
volume, l have happily collected mass
of elegant extracts, from the editorial
columns of your paper during the past
three years, and mean to publish them
every one. " Let me see that volume,
Mr.. Lapp." 1 took it, glanced over
page or two of it's infamous contents,
stood a moment actually appalled, at
such devilish machination as l saw there
revealed, and then said : Publish an
other word of these lies at your peril,
Mr.. Lapp!'
1t was charged that 1 had saturated
my bedroom with kerosene and put
slow match to it. Rube Rollins, whom
L left asleep on my bed, when ques-
toned, admitted that he smelt kerosene
very strongly at the moment of his es-
cape. My foreman told me that Lapp
had visited tine room after L left for
breakfast, under pretense of searching
for shirt-stud of his, lost between the
puncheons of the floor. Lapp, then,
was there, and he is not too good to
make bonfire of whole city in order
to accomplish his ends and destroy his
enemy. In the very next issue Of his
paper he published another double
loaded article, entitled, I" Rupert Slams
Editorials, continued. In this muir
derous libel he quoted me as saying
" Unless the mean scalawags and mud
siils of Bakers Gulch are willing to come
forward at once and give this paper (the
ReUeiLte) the support and patronage it
deserves, let them prepare for tears
tears that will scald them TO the quick.
Let them insure, for the fire-bug is
amongst them, and his operations will
be guided by deliberate hands I"
For this article challenged Mr.. Lapp.
He refused to fight, and came out with