The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-06-28
A SAD RECITAL.
How a Chicago Philanthropist way
Maligned by a Newspa ,er,
and the Wherefore.

CHICAGO, June 27.--Ernst John Lehman
proprietor of ''The Fair in this CITY. has s1ed
lhe Herald company for libel in publishing
an article defamatory of his character in Feb.
ruary last The plaintiff told his story as fol.
lows; Il live at No. 800 Michigan avenue. and
have been In Chicago for twenty nine years
l am the one referred to in the hbels.
man named Murphy came in and said he
was connected with The Herald-that it was
new paper, was going to hove big circu-
lation, and he wanted contract fer adver-
tlslng, | asked him how big circulation it
was going to have and he said Bigger than
The News, or any other paper issued in the
afternoon. He said, You can make a
cheaper contract now than at any ether
time, because we want your advertisement in
order to go to other business men to solicit
theirs. He expected the circulation to be
from 5000 to so, 600 guaranteeing 25 600, I
gave him contract for 81 900 WORTH
Mr.. SWEET offered the contract in evidence.
1t was dated June %, 1882, and signed c. Fl.
Murphy, and called for SO, 600 lines of display
advertising.
II commenced by giving The Herald from
one to two or three columns day-from 500
to ], 900 lines-the same as The Tribune.
continued that for nearly month, and then
cut the ad. down to about fifty lines Muir
ply came in and said that hadn't used him
or the paper right-that hadn't given it any
advertising, when had promised to give as
much as to The Tribune. I said, 7 am not
going TO give you any large ads. any more
because the paper hasn't the circulation
that you told me- Murphy got mad,
said, You will hear from me again.
and left. That was during the latter
part of January. Up to that time none of
the libels had been published I went to New
York shortly afterwards, and while there nv
wife sent me The Herald Of Feb Sand Feb 4,
which contained libels. When returned to
Chicago l went to The Herald Office and saw
Mr.. Scott, and had talk with him ahaut the
articles | said to him, There must be some
thing wrong about this. Either you have
somebody in your employ who has hard feel
ings against me or some one has been telling
you lot of tales. There is not bit of truth
in the paper about me. If you ask some bus
iness men they will tell you entirely different.
Mr. Scott said he was sorry, that
he would rectify the wrong if he thought
it. was proper. I told him how I had
started in business, and tried to do what was
right-that had peddled, and then had a
| small store-that if didn't stand well ]
wouldn't do so much business, or st. Mary's
| Church wouldn't have presented me v'"h q
| $50 picture unless stood well, or mi ~.
i ployes wouldn't have given me present il
| hadn't treated them right Mr. Scott said i
would investigate the matter-that he didn't
want to hurt me or my business if he could
baI I toll ho
me and my family The next day another
| article was published.
| Two or three days after my talk with
Mr.. Scoot, Murphy came into the store and
said; lehman, don't say anything until
| give you an explanation You have known
me long time This is my bread and butter,
or something to that effect--that he made hi
| living out of it. i want you to excuse mt
| from everything. give you my word o.
| honor that didn't do it, | was opposed tt
| it, but the paper didn't pay any attention Il
me. had nothing to say They went tt
work and published it I came to straightel
| it out with you in this way: You give me
Dag ADVERTISEMENT and make out that TIN
| whole thing was an advertisement
| That is the way a man in St. Louis did. W,
will give you two or three personals an'
withdraw the charges, saying it was mis-
take, and it win be all right, and the peopl
won't know anything about it. 1t won
amount to much That is the way | look a
| it'n
"W. J. McGarigle heard the conversation
and asked him if it wasn't cheeky for mai
like Murphy to ask me for an 'ad after tn
| paper had abused me- and asked McGarigl
what he would do with him. McGarigle said
walked out as fast as he could, saying 'Yo
will hear from me again, and the next da
another article appeared"