The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-01-04
RUNNING ron GOTERNOB,
Mark Train Experiences a " campaign
of Defamation.

A few months ago l was nominated
for governor of the great state of New
York, to run against Stewart L. Wood
ford and John T. Hoffman, on an indie
pendent ticket. | somewhat felt that l
had one prominent advantage over these
gentlemen. and that was good character.
It was easy to see by the newspapers
that if thcv had ever known what it was
to bear a good name, that time had gone
by. 1t was plain that in these latter
years they had become acquainted with
all manner Of shameful crimes. But at
the very moment that l was exalting my
advantage and joying in it in secret,
there was a muddy under current of dis
comfort "riling" the deeps Of my haPPi-
ness-and that was the having to hear
nv name banded about in familiar con-
nection with those of such people. |
grew more and more disturbed. Finally
| wrote my grandmother about it. Her
answer came quick and sharp. She
said
You have never done one single thing in
all YOUR life to be ashamed Of-nOt one.
Look at the misrepresentation at them
and comprehend what sort OF characters
WOodford and Hoffman are, and then see
if YOU are willing to lower yourself to
.heir level and enter q public canvass with
them.
1t was my very thought! did not
sleep a single moment that night. But
after all, I could not recede, I was fully
committed and must 60 on with the
fight. Ash was looking listlessIy over
the papers at breakfast, | came across
this paragraph, and may truly say l
never was so COMPOUNDED before:
PERJURY.-Perhaps now that Mr.. Mark
Twain is before the people as candidate for
! governor. he will cOndesceId to explain how
| he came to be convicted of perjury by thirty
! four witnesses, in Wakahak, Cochin China,
| in 1863 the intent of which perjury was to
! rob a poor native widow and her helpless
| family of a meagre plantain patch, their only
STAY and support in their bereavement and
their disconsolatiOn. Mr.. Twain owes it to
himself, as well as to the great people whose
! suffrage he asks, to clear the matter up. VIII
he do it?
thought would burst with amaze
ment! Such cruel, heartless charge
| never had seen Cochin China never
heard of Wakawak didn't know plan
tain patch from a kangaroo / did not
know what to do I was crazed and
helpless. let the day slip away with
out doing anything at all. The next
morning the same paper had this-noth-
ing more:
SIGNIFICANT.-Mr Twain, it will be OBJ
served is suggestively silent about :he Cochin
China perjury.
Mem. During the rest of the cam.
paign this paper never referred to me in
any other way than as "the Infamous
perjurer Twain."
Next came the Gazette with this:
WANTED TO KNOw.-WIll the new candi.
date for governor deign to explain to GER
! tain OF his fellow citizens (whO are suffered
20 vote for him y the little circumstance OF
his cabir.mates in Montana losing small val
uables fro n time to time, until at last, these
| things having been invariably found on Mr..
| Twain's person or his trunk newspapers he
|
give him q friendly RdmOnitiOn for his own
! good, and so tarred and feathered him and
| rode him ON a rail- and then advised him to
| leave a permanent vacuum in the place he
usually occupied in the camp. Will he do
| this?
! Could any thing be more deliberately
malicious than that ? For ! never WAS
in Montana in my life.
After this, this journal custOmarily
spoke of me as Twain, the Montana
thief.
got to picking up newspapers appre-
hensively--much as one would lift a de,
sired blanket which he had some idea
might have a rattlesnake under it, One
day this met my eye:
THE LIE NAILED By the sworn affidavits
of Mtcheal O'Flanagan, Esq, of the Five
| Points, and MIR. Kit Burns and John Allen,
Of Water street, it is established that Mr..
| Mark Twains vile sentiment that the lament
! ed grandfather OF our noble standard bearer,
| John T. Hoffman, was hanged for highway
| robbery, is a brutal and gratuitous lie, with
! out q single shadow OF foundation 10 fact
| 1t IL dsheartening to virtuOus men TO see
| such shameful means rCsOrted TO, to
| achieve political success, as the at
| lacking OF the dead In their graves
and defling their hoDored names with
| SANDER. When we think Of the anguish
this miserable falsehOod must cause the In.
pocent relatives and friends Of the deceased,
| we are almost driven to incite an outraged