Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-10-19
ANYTHING BUT A FOOL.
A Dramatic Entertainment.

A Dramatic Entertainment
Scene Republican ofice-Date, after
Opera Honse Convention Characters -
l. Campbell Houk, NJ. c., of Tennessee,
and Henry R. Gibson, office holder and
editor of Houk's organ.
Houk.-Gibson, was in a devilish
bad place when they handed me that
Brownlow letter. What do you think
of my poison story? A happy
thought that wasn't.
Gibson-Happy thought? If you
had consulted me you would never
have made that speech The people
will never swallow that,and they will
only hold you up to ridicule. It
would have been better if you had
just owned up and promised them
never to do SO any more.
E.-Well, it is done now, and we
will have to stick to it and make the
best of it.
Give! You will have to stick
to it, but you can't get me into that
trap. The people may call me
mean trickster, scoundrel and most
anything they are mind to, but I am
not going to publish that statement
of yours and pretend to believe it,
and have them call me fool. Any
thing bat that.
H--Well, if you won't help
me out in this, I suppose
I will have to fight it out
on that line myself A lie well stuck
to is almost as good as the truth,
especially in the mountains where the
people believe almost anything [
tell them, be it ever so thin and
and ridiculous.
G.-Houk you know will do al
most anything for you, but I can't
agree to give the people a good ex-
cuse for putting me down fool.
H.-All right Gibson. [ will try
the pizen dodge and if it don't work
| will study up something else. Elk
it Houk
Scene place and character same as scene
1-Tme-A few weeks later.
IOuh.-NIUSOl, tulS COulOuuuGO
calaboose business and the pizen
story is playing the mischief with
me, and my supporters are just fore
saking me by the scores. [ had to do
something. l got some of my friends
to get affidavits from the policemen
that l was not in the calaboose. I
don't know whether they really got
these policemen to make them, or
whether they were gotten up like
the Isham G. Harris letter some
years ago, but it makes no difference
SO the people get to believe that /
was not in the calaboose. OF course
you will help me out now.
Gibson-Now that is good. That
is just what you ought to have done
at first, instead of that pizen story.
Let me lee the affidavits.
Gibson receives them and reads |
G.-Houk, these are not worth the
paper they are written on Why,
they don't clear you any more than
the pizen story. They simply say
| that they have no record that L. G.
Houk was in the calaboose. Brown
low never charged that they had
such a record, but that you
was in there, and that you
signed your name L. Campbell. [
can't publish them and pretend to
believe them, [ will do almost any
thing for you, Houk, but I can't af-
ford to let the people put me down
as fool
| Houk,-I think you might publish
them. 1t can't harm anything here,
for Knox County is against me any
how by a large majority, and it
might save me some votes in the
back counties where the people are
not so likely TO see through it.
G.-YoC are mistaken there again
Houk- This is so COMPOUNDED thin
that almost any one can see throuh it.
get off lots of thin and fimsy
excuses for you, goodness knows,
but this, I don't believe that even
the mountain people will swallow.
Please excuse me.
H-Well, if you won't publish
them, [ will read them on the stump,
and have copies made and read by
my friends to such parties as they
think can be hoodwinked Exit
Houk.
Scene 3-Place and characters same.
Time, week or so afterwards.
H-Gibson, these letters from the
polio force did not take SO well as I
supposed they would. The people
say they don't prove anything, and
then they believe official pressure
was brought to bear upon them, so
got my friend Corkhill, at Wash
ington, to get me up a certificate,
and l know that you will give it
wide circulation.
Gibson-(taking letter and read
ing it)-Houk, this is worse than
ever. Why, the people don't care
snap what Corkhill believes himself,
what they want is certificate that
there never was man in the Gala.
boose, who signed his name L.
Campbell, and that the
receipt in the Waterman
supplement is forgery. I dol't
believe you can get any such afida-
vid. You know, Houk, that I know
your writing, and I am certain you
gave that receipt, and there is not
lawyer in Knoxville but what recog-
nized the handwriting at a glance.
No, Houk, Corkhill's letter is not
worth cent to you, and I can't
afford to use my paper in trying to
get off so thin fraud. L tell you
now Houk, wash my hands from
that whole calaboose, pizen and afis
david business. 1t is too utterly
thin