The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-12
TIE MERCENARY SNEAK.
He Is Not Sorry the Republicans We're Beaten,
and Attempts to Defend Himself.
Chicago Tribune.

Chicago Tribune.
John P. St John. Kansas" decorated the reg
istry at the Sherman House yesterday. The
Democratic annex at once bought a block of pa
per. took a room, and began to prepare q reply
TO Mr.. Clarksons letter in the mornings Trib-
une. The task proved a laborions one, and
the afternoon had become old before the letter
had become sufficiently polished. Numberless
pages, which had been written upon and then
rejected, were scattered about, and the room re-
sembled a country editors Office on press-day.
The ex-candidate, who received the handle of
Governor to his name at the hands of the Re-
publican party, had no regrets at its defeat It
had treated the Prohibitionists so c~ontemptihly
mean by not adopting their particular hobby as
its own that he was rather glad it had been pun
ished; but the Prohibitionists had nothing to ex-
pect from the Democrats.
Laying aside the political part of prohibition.
how do you figure out any advantage to the
cause of temperance by Democratic suceessW
Il do not figure it out" said he, and then he
branched out into a long disquisition on the Re
publican party being AS much of a whisky party
as the Democratic, winding up with a claim to
martydoms such as no man has ever experienced
IN this country. He had been burned in effegy,
boycotted. and had undergone Affections of var
ious kinds.
AS for the future of the Prohibition party, he
recalled the very musty comparison with the
Abolition movement; and could not be induced to
get out of the safe field of generalities. Ee
said he was going TO Minnesota to keep on
putting back the cause of temperance twenty
years"
Mr.. ST. John has sent tie following letter to
the editor of the Tribune:
SHERMAN HOUSE, CHICAGO, Jan. 8,
Editor of the Tribune:
Il have just read in the Tribune of this morn
ing what purports to be a letter written by j. S.
GARRISON. of Des Moines, Ia, in which MIR.
Clarkson says:
ITO my knowledge he ~[myselfl did have ~overtures
made, through a friend from his own State, by which
he offered, if paid $25, 600 in cash, to withdraw as q
candidate altogether or to stay in the field and
feather his speeches las it was put in the Kansas
phrase to the help of the Republicans. He was asked,
in order to prove the sincerity of his offor, to with
draw from Ohio the last week before the October cleo
ton in that State. He did this under the plea, which
he said he would give, of getting a sore throat, and.
with the friend | have mentioned. went first to Pitts
burg, next to Philadelphia. and finally to New York,
where he hoped to meet some one on the part of the
Republican national comm ittee who would be ready to
make the deal and pay the cash.
Now MIR. Clarkson has either been deceived
or he willfully lies. No human being was ever
authorized by me to make any proposition to
Mr.. C!arkson or his committee; nor did / with
draw from Ohio as stated, but I filled every
appointment made for me by the national
prohibition COMMITTEES and one more. Nor
did l get or pretend to get a sore throat nor do
l intend to get q sore throat, if | can help it, so
long as there is n dramshop in this country and
a political party to apologize for it. l closed my
campaign in Ohio at Oberlin, went directly from
there the next day to Adrian. Mich, where, at
2 o'clock. l addressed 10. 600 people, and then
went to Detroit and spoke to a larger audience in
the evening, and continued to speak in Michigan
several days, until | had filed all the appoint
ments made for me in that State by the COM
mittee. / have not been in Pittsburg for over
a year. l went from Michigan to Philadelphia
in company with my friend George r. Scott, of
the New York Weekly Witness-who joined me
at Oberlin and remained with me nearly
three weeks. My campaign was made
solely under the control Of the ma
tional Prohibition committee, and I filled
every engagement texcept possibly one, and that
not in Ohio made tor me by that committee. If
| had desired to have reached the Republican
committee or MIR. Garrison it would not have re-
quired the intervention of a middle man to have
done SO. Mr.. Clarkson has been challenged
time and again to produce his evidence, and
each time he speaks behind the plea of conf
Dental relations when he knows that he has no
confidential relations with me, nor has he formed
any such relations with anybody else at my re-
quest. Now. let Mr.. Clarkson give to the public
the name of this mysterious individual with
whom he has been dealing. together with all the
letters, kilograms, and other documentary EVIL
dence. including all communications from him
self and all other members of his committee or
its strikers relating to this matter, and thus
enable "a fair-minded, impartial public to judge
as to whether he or myself have been mixed up
in an attempt to bride somebody. Very respect
fully, JONI P. ST. JOHN"