The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-09-07
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Editors Nero Dominion:

though 40 not DelleVe you lntend-
ed it,after briefly describing the case,
the place and the occasion, you say
(which resulted in a regular ground
scuffle," thereby saying, in effect,
that / had willingly participated in
said foolish and disgraceful ARRAY
and criminal reach of the peace.
This is not in fact true, as l propose
to show by a statement of the
substantial facts of the case,
which l am ready to prove, / am
90 old man to be written down as
a bully, a madcap or a maniac. l
never had fist and scull fight in my
life. l have none of the blood or gen.
ealogy of the red nose, vulgar fight
ing stock. | abhor it. The law af-
fords sufficient redress for all griev-
ances. Now to the facts. The charge
which Sturgiss so made against me
10 cold blood, and unprovoked, was
so utterly untrue, so personal and SO
offensive, and uttered in voice so
loud, boisterous, imperious and in
sulting. and so uncalled for, and out
of order and place, that it greatly
offended me, and hence, on the spur
Of the moment, l replied to him as
follows: "You lie." This was sharp
language, but it wa true. / could
but either say SO, or words of like
import, or say nothing at all. l did
not choose to let such false charge
and personal insult 20 unrebuked.
We we're all sitting when these
words were spoken, but Sturgiss i'm
mediately arose and demanded in
his imperious and doginatic manner
that l take back my reply, aforesaid.
This / could not do truthfully nor
in justice to myself until he (Sturgiss)
first took back his said false and Of
fensive charge, w hich he did not Of
fer to do. SturgiSs continued to rave
around in the room for several min
utes, more like mailman than brave
man of sense, striking me once with
his hercuean strength and great pu-
gilistic skill, while l remained sit
ting quiet and still, but inflicted no
particular injury upon me, and also
raised a heavy chair to strike me
with, when l called upon the mayor
of the town; Who was present, to ex-
ercise his official functions in pre-
serving the peace, which he did, by
the aid of two or three other persons,
| by selling Sturgiss, who soon quiet
ed down to zero. During all this
time 1 did nothing or said nothing
bit to ask the Mayor to do his duty.
Theredpon the dispositions quietly
proceeded until dinner time, when
we adjourned for about two hours,
and met again and completed the
dispositions between three or four
O'Clock P. NJ. quietly and, as / sup
posed, peaceably. About one O'Clock
P. NJ. l was informed by a friend,
who had right to feel an interest in
my life and welfare, that Sturgiss
and his confederates purposed on re-
newing the ARRAY again that after
noon and he requested me to be on
my guard and to take his small
pocket revolver to defend myself
with if it became necessary. | re-
piled to the friend that | could not
believe that such a thing was intend
ed, at least that 1 hoped not; but he
insisted that he had good reason to
believe that it was so premeditated,
thereupOn l took his said revolver,
placing it in my breast pocket, and
went and took the dispositions as
aforesaid, never again thinking Of the
revolver until l drew it, as hereafter
stated, for l never carried a revolver
but once before in my life, and that
was nearly 20 years ago. Soon after
we resumed the dispositions in the
afternoon, l saw what induced me to
believe that Stursiss did intend to
renew the ARRAY If he could, hence
was very careful not to give him any
occasion or even excuse for 50 doing
The dispositions were closed, all was
quiet and we had adjourned to nine
O'Clock on the morrow; l had picked
up my hat and was walking out OF
the room to go to my Office some SO
feet distant, when Sturgiss, calling
me by name, asked me 10 stop that
he wanted to talk to me, and Isuppos-
ing, that now that we were both cool,
he desired to apologize for his said
false and offensive charge against me
and thereby give me an opportunity
to do the same with him, which l
would have been glad to have done,
but could not honorably do until he
first took his said charge back. l
stopped near the door, with my hat
in my hand, but instead of offering to
do as / supposed he would, he de.
manded, or asked me in a manner
equal to demand, to take back my
said reply" he styling it "your Of
fensive remark to me-" but without
any offer to take back or explain his.
My first thought was to say, after