Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-08-16
Open Letter 10 One Spalding.

|
riable toadistic prefix of Honorable
before Mr.. Ayers's name, q prefix
which, in his own paper, as be is
not entitled to it by any recognized
usage, seems to me indeleate) has
placed you in charge OF the Express,
o newspaper which was purchased
from the Messrs. Tiffany & Paynter
by company which was organ
lied by my friends. You ere a ma
tural puppy and Of course yoa can't
forego your natural base instincts.
Notwithstanding the desire which
L have repeatedly shown to stay
out of the present Congressional
contest you have again and again
tried to interest me by the gross
ness, grotesqueness and exaggera-
ton of the claims you assert for Mr..
Ayers and by your iow-lived impu-
tations leveled at me. Mr.. Ayers
was in no sense entitled to the
Democratic nomination for this
District. l did not advocate him
for that position and am glad of
it. A man who could leave ps-
mire like you to edit paper which
was intended to advance the inter
ests of an entire community was
not entitled to the recognition of
Democratic Convention, even
though he were as good Il Demo-
orat as he has certainly proved q
bad one.
While you forget that / have
some personal interest in the EC-
press, which has lately been used
as mere vehicle of Mr.. Ayers's
ambition, / cannot be equally for
getful. / have had some business
relations with you on the HERALD
When I took charge of this paper
found you on it. At the request of
two then friends Of yours, whom
you have since betrayed, as you
will in time betray every one who
has anything to do with you, | re-
tanned you on the paper at salary
of $40 week. | fourd you as eX-
pensiTe q curiosity as ever op-
pressed the gatherer Of a museum.
You are naturally CT dog-like and
snarling temper and you can make
| more enemies for u paper in Rweek
than a better hammered and better
hearted man could friends in u
month.
You very well remember that it
was less than a week after | took
| oh - fho T 7, /
ceived letter under enclosure TO
me, bat which was addressed to
you, from Mr.. Bassett, your late
employer and th former editor of
the HERALD, telling yOn, though
doubtless with u view to its effect
on me, that yOu were q dog ana q
thief treated you with extreme
delicacy on that oeeaslon-in fact,
as if you had been gentleman, q
character as foreign to you az it
would be to any other tawny cur
who runs Los Angeles streets.
While | am not prepared to say
| that you were thief, am ready
to say that l discovered circum-
stance in the relation of the princi-
pal carrier of the HERALD to this
Office whose ectifie..tion-and it
should have been reetlfied by you
as business manager IN the inter
est of The Stockholders Of the HER
ALD-has saved to this Office at
least $ll week in the one
hundred and llfty-three weeks dur
ing which | have published the
paper. While | do not court the
law of libel, and an therefore
technically guarded, Mr.. Bassett
and myself agree on far more
points than formerly. We c3pe-
eially agree on one point.
Though a coward by nature and
q sneak by intuition and prefer
ence. you, about n year ago, under
took to bull-dozeH political
meeting. Amongst other things
you left ofl'of u list Of callers of the
meeting the name of gentleman
whose standing in this community
is above reproach, and who, by the
way, was one of those who inter-
ested themselves for yOnr reten-
| ton on the HERALD. When he
asked you why you had taken such
an insulting liberty, you tried to
hector and oven pat your hand on
your pistol pocket. On having
your face slapped, you turned and
ran like scared hound. In your
cowardly confusion and terror you
encountered the iron chain which
connects the posts in front Of the
Court House, and youi impetus was
so violent and your heels so nimble
that you turned double somer-
sault over this physical impedi-
ment. You then, with the sagacity
Of lear and the impulse Of terror
crowded your miserable, palpitat-
ing carcass into the narrow space
which separates the Capitol store
from DIR. Shorb's Office. Since then,
with the view of denying refuge to
towards, this passage-way has been
boarded up. With a forbearance
which you would never show to
any one, the HERALD forebore all
mention of this shameful episode.
| Since then you have been as safe
as any woman from mans notice.
Hereafter I shall discuss Col.
Ayers's candidacy with as much
freedom as | would any one else's.
You have had the insolence-an in
science not rebuked by him-to in
innate treachery upon my part to
him. You have painted me as a
Judas Iscariot and held me respon-
sible for the failure of Democrat
ie Convention to nominate Mr..
Ayers for Congl ess. The fact is
that no one in that body desired to
nominate Col. Ayers and I would
have been powerless to influence ii
one way or the other. Your allu-
sion to Judas Iscariot was an un-
fortunate one. Whatever may be
my avoirdupois, good faith and
face. AS for you, you are the very
beau ideal Of a physical reproduc-
ton of Judas Iscariot. You have