The Critic and record., 1891-03-28
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HEARST
FUNERAL PARTY.

Mrs HrirN VI. GoucNR of Lafayette,
Ind, prohibition agitator notorious for
ianaticism and the recklessness of her
methods, has procured an interview with
u reporter and its publication in the New
York Times i'm which she made certain
positive statements concerning the HEARST
funeral party.
According to her statements the trip was
remarkable for its "disgraceful proceed
irgs' the baggage car was full of wine
and liquor and the Senators and Repre-.
sentatiyes were opening bottles every
minute of the night and day" and, not
content with simply opening them and
presumably imbibing of their contents
themselves, they at many stopping
places invited people into the baggage
ear to drink
That "every.minute-of-the
day story bears upon It's face its own
rcfutaton. Its very utterance stamps il
as falschood. The trip extended over
too many nights and days to permit Of
spending every minute in the monotonous
task Of opening bottles.
Again, Mrs. GouGNR says everybody on
there were so many accidents.
While we have no direct personal
knowledge of the condition of the engineer
Of the train we believe that Mrs. GoueAR
has wmtonly slandered him, careless as
10 the injury she might do him, in order
further to vent her vicious spite against
the funeral party.
The numerous accidents she speaks
ui are reduced to one. The baggage car
was derailod at FL Paso. That was the
one, sole, single, solitary accident of the
entire trip. The vivid imagination of
this modern and neither young nor fair
Helen so multiplied IL in her reckless as.
sertions as tolead the reader to think that
the accidents Of the trip almost equaled
the number Of telegraph poles passed.
Mrs. GoUGAE's story is, in short, a tissue
of misstatements conceived in malice and
uttered with a malignant purpose. OF
course, she was not wrought up to this
pitch without some cause. The cause, a
small one, was this: She was one of an
excursion party to Mexico which, re
turning, met the funeral party at El Paso.
The latter's train had the right of way
and would reach St. Louis twelve hours
ahead of the schedule time of the ex-
cursion train. \ deputation of the ex-
cursionsts waited upon the official in
charge of the train with the demand-not
request--that lie attach their car to his
train. They would thus save twelve
hours.
Mr.. PAEKE of this city, who was in
charge of the funeral train, explained to
the eNCursiOnists that ii was impossible to
do this because of his contract with the
railroad. Bat the excursionists, with the
manners of Doors, refused to receive the
'ysH sHplanatiOn, and went back to their train
with the remark:
you'll hear from us for this.n
The COUGAR fiction is the outcome
Could anything be meaner, smaller OF
more contemplate than this base and
baseless attack for so petty reason upon
Senators PrGH, STocKBMDGE, VANCE
FAUIKYER, BATE, BERRY, BARBOUR and
SAWYER, and Representatives McCoMAs
MlnIREN, SHERMAN, TUCKER, GIBSON
WASHINGTON and CATcHINGs.
In attacking them Mrs. COUGAR in
Volyed and villifed all the others accom-
panying the party, including the railroad
men in charge of and responsible for the
train. Her entire story is false in detail
and as a whole.