Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-09-02

pears under the above head, and com
municatlons only carry the endorsement,
of this journal when lie fact is so stated
EDITOR HERALD
HoARCE BELL.
EDITOR HERALD: An article un-
der the caption, "Wbite Rescuing
Stephens" appears in the Los An
geles Smut Machine, edited by one
Horace Bell, who voted (according
to the Santa Ana Ucrald) against
the new Constitution. l suppose
this piece of Billingsgate was writ
ten by the editor, because it is not
charged TO any one else, is in his
usual fllibustering style, and be.
cause it is false from beginning to
end. The fellow even fails to get
my name right. Murphy is a good
name, but it Is not my name. How
ever, there never was n Murphy,
either in the ground or out of it,
that had not more sense than this
slimy editor.
1t is said that l have disease for
seeing myself in print. This is un-
true. | am not in the habit of ex-
hlbiting myself in that way. With
the exception of two instances, my
name has not appeared this year
with my authority in any newspa-
per.
Bell pretends to recite the facts
of the Phelps case, though he pur-
posely avoids the truth from one
end of his recitation to the other
He announces that Phelps can re,
cover his homestead from Mr..
Long. Now, the latter gentleman,
as it turns out, paid much more for
that property than it is worth. So
Horace's law is as bad as his inten
tions. We are also told that
Phelps cannot be in bad health, be-
cause he is singing bricks at San
Quentin. This is not SO, if the
statement of the Captain OF the Jail
Yard is correct. The Shut Ma
cline also declares that Long was
we'll paid for signing this petition.
AS has been often shown, owing to
deprecated values, Mr.. Long has
lost at least $1,000 by the transac-
tion. While Phelps was a felon
and deserved felon's fate, it is un-
true that there was nothing before
the court as to his previous good
character. The banker for whom
he worked in Georgia, and many
other business men with whom he
had been connected, certified in ii
most pointed and fiattering manner
to his antecedent reputation. The
Supreme Court has decided that
good character must be taken into
consideration in such cases, and
Judge Stephens acted on the evil
dence introduced and on nothing
else.
AS to the ArZaga case, / only
know that the defendant, within
three years, has been convicted of
petty offenses in Los Angeles city
some thirty-eight times. The stat
ute makes petty larceny, when
committed more than once by the
same person, felony. The oifense
of which ArZaga was convicted
was a repeated petty larceny. The
Court, before passing sentence, did
investigate his past history, and as
certained that the culprit's record
was without q redeeming feature;
that he had for years been q Jail
bird, and that reformation was I'M
possible, and OH this state of facts
Judgment was rendered. Arzaga
has won Bells susceptible heart.
If the NcaO Constitution editor runs
for Office when Arzaga is liberated
no doubt that he will get at least
one vote besides his own. Sympa-
thetic Bell!
Maybe the community would
like to know why this man hates
Stephens. The reason is this: Hor-
ace, when in court, is very over
bearing and insulting. Upon sew
eral occasions he tried to bull-doze
the County Court, but failed. FL
nally the Judge was compelled to
fine the unruly ranger fifty dollars.
Ever since that time Bell has bell
lowed against Stephens,
Horace says that Phelps employ
ed me at low figure. Now l con-
slider that l was very decently paid
in that case. 1t might have been a
small fee for Bell. This communl-
ty knows whether his services as
an attorney are considered of more
value than mine. But l would
rather undertake to defend Phelps
on any charge for moderate COM
pensation than to attempt, for an
enormous sum, to acquit Bell of
the charge of being a long. cared
ass. STEPHEN M. WHITE.