Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1886-01-07
EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.
The Former Editor of The Chicago
Current Makes a Statement.

/
EDITOR SENTINEL.-Inr reference to
a most cruel attack upon me appear
ing in Chicago daily, on Sunday,
the 18th inst, | beg you will give me
opportunity to reply with statement
of exact truth:
l went to pieces in Chicago last
August, broken down in mind and bo-
dy completely and left there in a half
crazed condition, with the bare cloth
es on my back, less than $40 in my
pocket and with every resource in the
world swep from me- Until three
days since, when [ was enabled to
start for the East, ] have been-not
lurking around Chicago" but-at
three different Indian Missions in
northern Wisconsin and northeastern
Minnesota, in the Superior region.
With the rest Of my mistortunes came
2 stroke Of paralysis that has nearly
taken my life from me, and have suf-
tered enough TO protect any man from
newspaper assassination.
70 others who should have helped
themselves, and with desperate hope
to make a noble, clean and successful
publication in Chicago, [ became per-
sonly involved to the extent Of S17,-
600, besides loosing the entire earnings
Of my life. Without q home, in this
PROSTATE and physically crippled con-
dition, helpless, and without tangi-
BILE hope in any direction on this earth
[ did appeal to men I knew, in each
instance for pittance, for temporary
help to supply bitter actual necessities
of any human eng in my condition.
| would not have done this, and would
have been glad to work in the streets
Of Chicago as a common laborer, as /
have done in years past, had | not
been physical wreck. Because | did
not know where | might be from day
to day, | asked some of my old en-
ployes to get me box at the Chicago
post-office, box 2S9, being secured so
that my mail from all sources-com-
prising letters of inquiry on former
matters connected with The Current,
and hundreds of letters of regret and
sympathy from journalist and literary
men-could be held safely or forward
This and other thankless tasks have
generously been done for me by per-
sons occupying responsible positions
IN Chicago, who themselves suffered
from my ruin, and whose sympathy
for me grew out of the relations for
years Of loyal employees to struggling
employer, and deserves credit rather
than censure. Several weeks since an
old college friend, q Brooklyn physi-
clan, sent word to me if / could come
there he would keep me at his home
and endeavor to restore my health L
am now thus far towards that kind of
help, having for my supremest aspir-
alton the longing and hope to get we'll
so that [ can work as no other man
ever worked to pay every creditor |
owe, and show 4 mans true gratitude
to them and those who have recently
aided me. From the latter | have re-
ceived s143. which has kept me alive
and is assisting NE i'll getting where [
pray God my health may be regained
SO that | may yet be Of some good in
the world-and | shall-although a
few seem determined that | shall not.
| have led life of sacrifcial labor
and economy for no bad purpose, 1t Is
matter of record that | have been
worth something to Chicago progress,
years before [ established the Current:
| have done as much as | could iii my
life for my fellows; and it IS true that,
to the extent Of my ability, | have
been generous and helpful 10 those OF
my profession Those things entitle
me, in my present pitiable condition,
to the kindly sympathy Of, or merei-
ful silence from, the press, until have
committed crime--or attempted to
create another literary publication,
which, God helping me, | shall never
do. EDGAR l.. WAKEWAN.
Detroit, Dee. 10, 1885.