Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-01-17
The Trio of Mud-Slingers


number of clubs is always found under
| the tree which yields the most luscious
apples. If We are to judge from the
very great number of clubs and stones
which have been hurled at the REFLEC-
TOR during the past few weeks, and
which have all glided off as peas glide
off the mailed sides of a Monitor and
! now lie harmless under our feet, we
may be pardoned for the remark that
our efforts in behalf of the people, and
of the Republican party in particular,
have not been entirely unappreciated.
We should feel very sorry, indeed, if
our course during the campaign had
consigned us to an obscurity from which
We could only hope to emerge by the
wanton and malicious vilifcation of a
successful rival. The deplorable and
pitiable condition in which some of the
excuses for newspapers in this county
now find themselves admonishes us that
the manly and dignifed course which
the REFLECTOR pursued during the
campaign is the only course which can
command the respect and confidence of
the people. Any other course would
have stranded US upon the same break
ers where these unfortunate papers now
find themselves. After betraying every
trust, after bleeding" candidates,
Democrats and Republicans alike, to
the end of the campaign, they are
without patronage, without circulation.
without business, without readers,
without friends, without principle, and
with the vain hope of calling the atten-
ton of the reading public to their de-
servedly obscure and worthless exist
ence, make a concerted attack upon the
REFLECTOR with the venom of idiocy.
In their madness they wantonly eX-
hibit qualities which are The proper
objects of hatred, and they themselves
who are proper objects of con-
tempt preserve an absolute harmony.
There have been many as cOWardly as
they prove themselves to be, some as
INSCRIPTIONS, a few as mean, lew as
impudent. There may also have been
as great liars, though we never met
with them or read of them.
For three weeks the REFLECTOR has
been the object of attack from three of
these Insignificant sheets. One of them
is run by young Kentucky-hen, who,
when written to by the chairman of one
of the Republican leagues of this county
in the interest of Republican candi-
date, baSely and treacherously showed
the letter to the Democratic candidate
for the same Office; and whose $50 esca-
padesi still fresh in the minds of the
people and who now seeks to divert
the attention of the public from these
incidents of his political treachery by
the usual cry of his class-''stOp thief"
Another is run by a hot. blooded
Southerner, who sees nothing patriotic
in any man who is not firm believer
in the Jeff Davis style of patriotism,
and who has made moral and financial
wreck of not less than four newspapers
with which he has been connected, in
as many years. ..
The third is nOminally in the hands
of last years importation of the IN
savory G. w. G. Rohrer.
Such is the motive power which has
impelled the malicious and uncalled-for
attack upon the REFLECTOR and upon
every person connected with it.
These three distlnguished(?) editors
have doubtless called themselves to-
gether in solemn and motley conclave,
there to deliberate upon the merited
success and prosperity of the metropol-
itan iournal-the Abilene Daily and
Weekly REFLECTOR. With a great
deal of jealousy and much unrighteous
indignation, they have thoroughly dis
cusSed the unfortunate situation of
their respective papers. After due con-
sideration, and accompanied by a great
number of INCREASES, they collective
ly, unanimously and enthusiastically re-
solved that with one united-eoncerted-
altogether-fell-swoop the great trio
would rush down upon this giant
of a REFLECTOR and knock it out in
three rounds. Anything is better than
to be relegated to eternal obscurity.
If We can't crush it, possibly we can.
with our united effort, wound it; if we
can't wound it. we can throw mud at
it; if the mud wont stick, possibly some
body may see us throw and thus be in
duced to look our way. If we can
induce few Republicans to believe
our silly nonsense it will be far prefer
able to having no following at all. 1t
may, in the end, form nucleus around
which we may gather enough disgrun-
tied fellows to 'let in a Democrat into
some of our county offices. The chances
are worth the sacrifice"
Thus for three weeks have these three
pretended newspapers been hurting
their scurrilous and absurd utilization
at the REFLECTOR and its management.
They have only succeeded in making