St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-19
SOME SLY SARCASM.
The Bottom Suddenly Drops From the
Alleged Bribery of Certain
Aldermen,
And It Turns Out, as the Globe De-
nominated it, Wild Kind 6
Joke.
Aid. Sly Punctures the Bubble in
Very Characteristic Sors
of Style,
And Freeman Lane Turns ol al
the Little Bribing Joker
Disguise.

1t transpires, as the GLOBE iiitimated
yesterday morning, that the case of bribery
to which Aid. Sly was supposed to be
party, was 1.-THE widest kind of joke"
after all, and that great Republican ace,
Freeman p. Lane, was at the bottom of it
all. Aid. Sly came to the GLOBE Office
last night, and pulling a type writer from
his pocket, printed the following state
ment:
To the Editor of the Globe:
You say in this mornings GLOBE that "a
sensation of very pronounced type was
created yesterday by the statement from Aid.
w. w. Sly that he had been offered $500 for
his vote for low license, which he of course
refused, ETC." Then follows general state
ment duplicating several members of the city
council, who are abundantly able to protect
themselves, and quotation from that "ora-
Gle of WISDOM j. Newton Mind. That no
injustice may be done anyone. | will explain
all there is to that $500 deal. One day. just
before the council was to vote ON the license
matter, met on the street a friend, who is
an attorney and a high license man. We nat
urally discussed the probable outcome
of the license matter, and he urged me
to stick to the $500 limit, adding
at the same time (and, as 1 have since
learned for the purpose of bull-dozing me),
that 1 could get 5000 or $500 to vote for the
$3.50 license. Soon after this conversation
met party of gentlemen on Nicollet avenue
and laughingly told them had been offered
two or three hundred dollars to vote for low
license. Now the facts are that the gentle
man who made the statement that / could get
from $500 to $500 for my vote is high license
man, and made that statement solely for the
purpose of frightening me into supporting
the $500 license. He, or no one else, ever Of
fered me cent Except i'll the manner above
indicated), and no one criticised me more Sc
verey for my vote than he. [ do not claim
to be u politician, but l have always been
taught to believe. that the majority should
rule. AT the spring election the peo-
pie of this city said by a majority of over
5000 that they did not want the high license
or patrol limit, and in my own ward, which
has been VIGOROUSLY Republican for many
years, the voters one year ago elected Aid.
Morse, low license Democrat, and this year
Aid. Cloutier, who is also low license Demo-
crat. Up to the reading OF your article, had
supposed it was my duty TO represent the
majority of my constituents. If my position
is right in that, then l was in duty bound to
vote as did. You say in your article that
s'Ald. Sly seemed to regard the entire affair
as the widest kind of joke 1 should never
have regarded it in any other manner and
would have let the matter drop had the waste
basket instead Of the GLOBE caught the fol-
lowing:
~. Newton Mind tearfully says: why,
brought out Sly for alderman, and now look
at him. l am his political father, but he is a
changeling. 1 disown him and cast him Off
forever. Oak Lake repudiates him, and the
Fourth ward casts him up
Those acquainted with j. Newton Mind will
be as much surprised as l was when they
hear that he is or ever was the political ~
father of anybody. I have heard many
strange things in my life, but this claim of
Minds that he is a father, even of such a
miserable cuSS as he says 1 am, SURPRISES
them all.
He further says that he brought me out for
alderman. A glance at the files of the Pho
neer Press at the time | was candidate will
disclose the fact that the paper was silent as
to me. Why? Because my friends went to
Mind and assured him that if he Mind sup
ported me / was sure to be defeated. When
he says that Oak Lake (meaning the addition)
repudiates me, it must be that he labors IN
der the delusion that he is Oak Lake. Come
to think of it, that is not such bad COM
parison after all. They are draining Oak
lake, and just now there is but very
little visible but mud and slime. How tragic
he is when he says, II am his-s-s-s-s-s-s
father, l dsown him and cast him Off for
ever Wonder If he intends to disis herit me
in his will; hope he won't forget to leave me
his gall; 1 don't care who gets his other
property. In conclusion let ne say, that /
have faithfully and diligently tried to repre-
sent the interests OF the people of the Fourth
ward in the city council; that I have not al
ways pleased eV6rysone, goes without saying.
But 1 believe a. rza5ority of its citizens still
have condolences in me. Notwithstanding ]
voted for $3.50 license. w. W. SLY.
May Is, 1885,
81 don't give anybody away. you see he
added. But Freeman p. Lane has come to
the front and innocently remarked that he
was the man who offered Sly the bride and
he simply made tine proposition to stiffen
his upper lip on the high license question.
So endeth the great bribery case for the
present. When the thirteenth vote is Sc
cured and the license is reduced its ghost
will be resurrected.