The St. Johns herald., 1888-10-25
THCHiS g. BJXCEE, Republican Candidate fer Probate Judge, Please Explain.

cep ft tie nomination O. ine lie
 publican party for the important
 office Of Probate Judge, many vo-
 ters, in your own party, desire from you an explanation of a circum- stance which occurred at the coun- ty seat, when you were Clerk of the Board of Supervisors in 1885. You will remember that then, as
 now, the Clerk of the Board of Su-
 pervisors was provided with a fire
 and burglar proof sate in which all
 the books and papers appertaining
 to that part of the county govern
 ment were supposed to be kept. The
 same safe with which you were pro-
 vided when you entered upon your
 official duties, still stands in the room, in the rear of the court house,
 which is known as tkG office of the
 clerk of the Board of Supervisors.
 The safe Is of antique pattern, not peculiarly attractive as a work of
 art, in fact more useful than orna-
 mental.
 One morning, during your incum-
 bcncy of tie office of clerk, a DOT ton of the books of the Supervi- sors were found by GI early riser, lying in what is now known on the official map of St. Johns as Dog alley" directly south of Stover's building, sadly mutilated, num- Der of leaves having beer cut.
 Now, sir, We respectfully submit that before you can consistently ask the voters of your county to make you custodian of the records of tue office of Clerk of the Probate Cout. which affects the rights of widows and orphans, you should explain satisfactorily how the records of. the Board of Supervisors, which, at the time herehbefore nonsttiioS1IseedC were were, supnoseeti-tr tro be safely secured 'aidder lock and key, were found in q bag, under a table, ;n the office of the County Recorder. Unless you can do so, and shcw that by no fault or machination of yours, the records, of which you were thc keep CT, were taken from their place of security and promiscuouSly dis tributcd about St. Johns, we must conclude that you are not suita- ble person to be entrusted with the | records of acourt of record.
 It may be that there was nothing crooked in the transaction-we do not charge that there was-but it looks much that way, unless you rise and explain.
 And while you arg explaining, you might go further and show why, ! sometime before the records were found mutil&tcd. you took them from the safe and deposited them in the house of a private family in St. Johns, stating that you feared the safe would be bTglarized, and that shortly after they were return ed to you, they were found as here inbefore stated, some n Dog alley mUtilated, and others in a bls in the Recorders office If you were so jealous about ;hc safety of tie records, that you would not permit them to remain in the place pro vided by law for their keeping, how did it happen 5h&: you took them from the private house, above men, toned, just at that inopportune time?
 You have been a servant of the people, and dismissed from service because you did not render an ac- count of your stewardship. and yet you have the unbIushing tcmerity 10 ask the voters of Apache county 10 return you to official life-to cIothe you w.Jh judicial powers of. grave responsibility-to entrust you to disburse our school fund, and, to q great extent, control and direct the public schools 9: our county for two years, while your former of fcial honesty and integrity is en- yeIcp1d in a cloud of uncertainty.