Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1890-07-18
A STATEMENT
For the Be neHi Of the DccrAcId Valley
Times.
AND FOR THE INFORMATION or OUR WHINING
TnN EnIENna-

I
TON FRIENDS.
Various rumors which have been anoat
ever since the Wilmington reunion, or ev-
err since last weeks issue of the Deerheld
Valley Times of that place, take form in
this weeks issue of the Times in an edito.
rial article which amounts to a charge that
Mr. French, the editor of The Phoenix, de-
lberately attempted, by unfair means, to
block MIR. Jones Of the Times in his efforts
to make report of the reunion proceed
ings The chief stress is laid by Mr.. Jones
on what was done with Col. Haskinss adj
dress the intimation being that we so used
the copy of it that Mr. Jones had no chance
to use it, The facts are these IL was sug-
gested by Mr. Davenport Of the RefOrmer
in Mr.. Jones's office on Friday evening,
July 4, after the reunion exercises, that
the three papers unite in publishing re
port OF the proceedings, including the adj
dress Of Col. Haskins in full. We answer
ed that we did not think this expedient,
the length of the address being such as not
to warrant any newspaper in undertaking
| its full publication We said we would ex-
anime the manuscript aud reply definitely
in the morning. We ut once got the man
uscript from Col Haskius, and examina-
ton Of it confirmed our previous opinion,
its length being about twice what had been
estimated or suggested. On Saturday
morning we told MIR. Jones at his office
that on our own part we should simply
make as good an abstract Of the address as
| possible, leaving the full publication 10 its
| proper place in the book form proposed.
| We certainly did not say that we should
make "a few extracts, or an abstract in
| Wilmington before returning home, for
that would have been an impossibility.
What we did do was to bring the manu-
script home and set to work on it at once
We gave one full days time to it, spending
nearly one-half day in dictntion 10 Mr..
| Hubbard, the assistant editor, upon "a type
writer, without whose willing and the work
could not have been done even IN this
length of time IL is a fact well known to
every experienced newspaper man that
work OF this kind is the most difficult,
| perpe king aud wearying which an editor
ever has ~ do. Our purpose was to 50 al
vance our own work as not to incouveu
| fence any other new suaper that might wish
to use the address aud in point vi fact tn e
last page Of the copy was out Of our hands
aud delivered back to Col. llaskius before
noon ON Monday
Meantime we said to ourself: Mr.
Jones is comparatively new to this work,
| he has only small office force it will be a
| great help to him to have an abstract fur
nished him. and We will offer him our own. -
| We suggested this to Col llaskins and he
| approving we wrote c. NJ Russell our
! Wilmington agent aud correspondent on
Monday that We would send proof slips OF
our abstract t. Mr. Jones on Tuesday BY
| Tuesday, mail we sent them with postal
card notification u Mr. Jones. Mr. Russell
promptly delivered the proof slips and they
were freely at Mr. Jones's service. This l.
the extent Of our offending against hun,
and the full extent Of our effort to prevent
his having "a good report of the reunion
If we ever performed an act Of neghburly
Kindness out Of pure good will, expecting
nothing in return, our treatment Of Mr..
Jones with regard to this address was such
an act.
His allegation in regard to Mrs Forbess
poem is foolishness We got the copy Of
her poem on Saturday morning and copied
it out with our own hand in Mr.. Russells
office So rs to avoid carrying it away from
Wilmington to anybody's inconvenience
Mr.. Jones could have had that original copy
at any time after 10 O'Clock Saturday
morning # he had ask ed for it, or hc could
have got copy from Mrs. Forbes herself
The essential point Of this whole matter
is that Mr.. Jones shows his weakness and
gives away his case toy laying 50 much
stress on the addresses so far as gen
eral report Of the whole proceedings was
concerned the address was the least i'm
portant part Had he shown his enter
prise and ability los making a good general
account and "A good report Of the excellent
after dinner speeches, several Of which
were delivered in manuscript, II paragraph
about the address could have been made T.
answer every purpose Failure ~ get the
address certainly did not interfere with
this part of his work
1t is ia all Kindness that We suggest to
Mr. Jones that if he found such report too
big a Job for him with his limited resources
and experience it would have been the
better and more manly way tn acknowledge
this than to have invented the way which
he has done
So far a. copies of The Phu.niN containing
the reunion account are concerned the fact
is that We did not print one extra copy for
sale or try to derive one cent of profit from
the occasion All that belonged II the
! I.r, =, ~ \nt a co,,,. h.. l..,, .,,t int,