Omaha daily bee., 1889-10-31

about fifty towns 10 this state and thus ad-
vertise the paper and its editor. The writer
advises that you have your reporter ut
| David City or Tel,amah. where she speaks
next, to report verbatim what she says
| Yours J. II. BURY.
Immediately upon receipt OF the
above l wired to David City and TelSa-
was billed to speak. The response from
! Tekamah was to the effect that she was
to speak in that town the same evening.
Thcreupon I started for Tekamah on
the first train, accompanied by u short
hand reporter and Mr.. Griswold, u
member OF THE BEES regular staff,
who is one OF the reporters who had
visited the leading cities of Iowa last
| year under my direction to ascertain
and report the practical workings of
| prohibition.
In going to Telamah my object was
to assure myself that Mrs. Cougar was
making these criminal charges, and if
they were repeated to demand of her,
in the presence of her audience, the
| proofs for her accusation. This, in my
| Judgment, was the only effective
| way to refute charges that
affected the standing of THE BEE and
my own reputation as man and citizen.
The charges made at Lincoln were
substan TALLY repeated at Tekamah
within my own hearing. Few men in
my position would have been able to
control their temper while these false
hoods and imprecations were being
uttered. But I remained silent until
after Helen Cougar had finished her
TRADE against me, and then only arose
to ask her whence came the proofs for
her assertions in regard to my alleged
criminal Interference with the last leg
lslature and my acceptance of four
thousand dollar bribe.
Conscious of the fact that she had not a
scintilla of credible proof against me,
Mrs Cougar peremptorlly insisted that
/ must not be heard in that hall, and by
her persistence to evade a public expos
ure of the wrong she had wilfully and
maliciously done me, she has proved
herself to be unworthy of the respectin
which men hold every honest woman.
Her conduct has been as dishonorable
l ~ chor al al
and un-American. No man or woman
possessed of a spark Of decency and
honor would publicly charges man with
penitentiary offenses and when faced by
the accused refuse him hearing in his
own defense, much less refuse him a
chance to demand the source from which
his accuser has made up such charges.
No honorable man or woman and no.
body who has any respect for religion
would be guilty of publicly bearing false
witness against any man, however hum
BILE, and cap the climax of infamy and
cowardice by melting a credulous
audience to do bodily violence to the
victim of foul slander, and urge his an
rest under the pretense that he was Il
disturber of a religious meeting"
Mrs. Cougar has taken advantage of
the criminal laws of Nebraska, which do
not punish slanderers, and therefore
leave her free to roam about spreading
falsehood and calumny without incur
ring any other risk than suit in the
civil courts for damages.
My only recourse to set myself and
THE BEE right is to denounce Mrs.
Cougar as common slanderer, and her
charges that had cOnspired to corrupt
the legislature, or that had received
four thousand dollars or any other sum
for my work against prohibition or for
the collection of prohibition statistics
in Iowa, as malicious fabrication.
| / denounce Mrs. Cougar as falsifier
OF the legislative records, ana her will
full and malicious pervcrsion of testi-
mony taken before the last legislature
as an exhibition OF depravity that can.
not be too strongly condemned. She
has declared in the presence of hun
dreds of people that the records OF the
last legislature show that p. L. Iler
testified before the investigating COM
mittee that he had paid me four thous-
and dollars for work done in the inter-
est OF the liquor dealers, when as a
matter Of fact Mr.. Her testified that he
had never paid me one dollar for any
such work, and furthermore that he had
paid no money to The BEE for it's re-
ports or influence. AS matter of fact,
the sum total that THE BEE ever re-
ceived from Mr.. Her during and since
the legislative session was about fifteen
dollars for copies of the paper contain
ing the Iowa reports.
The charge that l sent disreputable
men TO Iowa to falsify the facts with re-
gard TO the working OF prohibition in
u