New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-03-08
it in the following card which he forwarded at once
for publications. ,eoo
To The Editor OF rhs tribune.

WASHINGTON, FED z, 1907
To the Editor Of The Tribune.
SIR, My attention has been called TO the fact
that am charged, on good authority" with being
the friend OF tho late President" who furnished me
NeT-IOrt Herald with tho telegram from WHICH"
Reid.
Permit me to say that Y is not true my first knowl
edge of the existence Of the dispatch referred 20 coming
to me with its reading In the columns or me HeLdd'
Very truly you're, A f. ROCKWELL"
% There remains only ono Of Mr.. CorkhilPS
five leaks. He says the dispatch might have been
stolen in transit Hardly. Consider the circumstances
1t is after midnight. Few operators are lett on duty
few that the night manager in Wasmng-
ton has to receive the message. 1t Is not
probable that anybody lsteningj I'M
possible, if he were, that, with his attention
suddenly arrested by something he heard. he
should have taken down long message, rapidly
transmitted, beginning cih the rey first rOrd and
adhering to it without break to the end. There
was no warning that the message coming was any
thing special. A casual listener might have caught
its significance after two or three sentences, and
begun making notes But tins thief began with the
first word on the first line 1t q long dispatch,
covering ten pages. and he had every line OF it, 1t
was transmitted wi admirable accuracy COM
par5on Of the Washington copy with the
original shows that even the punctuation CORE
spends From this the stolen copy varies
in numerous, but mostly slight, particulars,-ihe
errors being such az a steNOWGpher Woum make ~
takiag hurried copy Of a manuscript before nm.
The dispatch was sent with only the initials OF
the writer. The Washington operator orote
ont the name In fuH. The thief did the same. But
it was not stolen from the press copy in the
Office because the condition Of the manuscript sho'cs
that no press copy taken; and on the Office HES OF
that date there is neither copy a sign that one
had been alb tracted.
The thief has been very nearly located.
The original story that President Garfield
gave ont the dispatch is foolish fc-
ton, for President Garfield never had it. The
story that Colonel Rockwell gave it out Is
equally foolish, for Garfield, never having had it,
could neither have shown it nor left it among
his papers. And besides, the Colonel has spoken.
There were, as Mr. COrkhi justly observed just hVe
ways in which couldhaye got out But the evidence
closes every one of them. 1t was not given
out by Mr.. Reid's amanuensis. 1t was not
given out by the New-York operator. 1t
was not stolen from the original filed
here among undisturbcd private papers, Sc
cnrcly locked 1t was not stolen from Colonel Hay.
It was not stolen, by casual listener, from the
wires
1t was stolen by man who saw tho use
he could mako of it then with the Conk-
ling faction. 1t so used. ana used
at once Within forty-eight hours after its
receipt in Washington the substance Of it
was carried by a newspaper correspondent, whose
name andlctcrs are preserved, to high Official from
that day it was IL the market, and the men who
tatled about it made no secret of the fact that 1t
had been 8 ocn from the telegraph office.
There were just two men who could steal 1t. One
was the man who received il, the other was the
man who sat- a few yards distant, at the
short loop on the same private wire. One was
"IIu." Hutch" J. A. Hutchinson, then the
night manager of the main Off q in Washington,
now Il confidential stenographer and telegraph
operator in the employment of II. d. Cooke
a. Co., and often small dealer IN news.
The other is Guthrldge, the late operator
in the Washington Office of The Cincinnati Gazette,
which had the only loop on this wire. Whichever
one of these clears himself, convicts the other
We Judge from their letter that the Western
Union Company already have "A pretty definite
opinion as to which ought TO be convicted So have
we.
Mr. Corllhin very justly says that the copy
was certainly procured by a gross violation of
faith on the part of someone, but he can
find 10 law in the Districto punish him. It is lucky
for the criminal that he did not commit his act in
New-Yorl, or he would probably have gone to the
workhouse. Here is the New-York statute and
nearly every State has 4 similar one:
l. 1850 Ch 3iO 8. l. As amended, l. 1867, Oh. s71.
: EduI. 1877. 10.
[Dirugtpg TeegrnDSl
ANY person connected with telegraph company in
this State either a. clerk operator moss ser or IN any
tine nature Of the contents Of any private cO4lEu
nication intrlsted To him for Transmission or
delivery, who shall Wtuy refuse or neglect 10 trans
nit or deliver the same shall on conviction before any
court, be adjudgrd guilty Of mi3demeanor, ana hhaI
suffer Imprisonment in the county jail or wOrkhouse In
IN" county where such conviction shall be had, for
term Of not more than three months or ShaI
9oIlar4, At the discretion Of the court
and any person who shall wliully, by cOnnivance
with any clerk operator lncssengr o. 0ther Goye OF
any telegraph company, otherwise viltully and
yyrongfly obtain, OF attempt 10 obtain, any knowledge
o. any Geographic message or Dispatch, communication
in course or Transmission, "lthoNt nIst
having The assent and authority OF some person hQYlnS
the right t. give sucn assent and authority sDau DC
deemed gully Of misdcmc3nOr, and Slall, upon coRYlc
dollars imprisonment for not more than three uOnhs
or both such tnc and imprsOnmenL
There was nothing in the stolen dispatch
that was not true, aud proper TO be
said at that time and under the crcumsta nces
then existing. Its publication has done
rs no harm and given us no concern.
If other people, however, agree with US
in not relishing the idea of having
the Washington telegraph offices a free
hunting ground for thieves we advise them TO
help the Western Union to get the District of
Columbia relieved from its present bad
emucncc, as the only place in the country where
theft is not legally criminal.
-
IAN over the State this year." says The Ultra OBJ
serer "the Democracy is sweepng things this year"