The Brookhaven leader., 1891-07-09

tOIHOtJOU, VI llau CNCA HS"iu NdttS
say, but Supt. Smith assured me in the
most solemn and earnest manner, that
he had never made any such PROPOSE
ton to any book firm in New Orleans
or elsewhere. told him that was
highly gratitied at such an assurance,
as | had believed and hoped from the
first there was nothing in the charge
He declared that so far from his hav-
ing ever made any effort to get the
books of q New Orleans publisher
adopted in this county, he had been
i'm favor of the American Book Co. s
books from the first, and called on me
to witness if this were not true, which,
according to the best of my recOllec-
ton was n fact. went on to say that
| did not know whether he then an
ticipatcd becoming a candidate for
any Office in the county or not, but
that if he did, was sure from what
had heard that he would have this
charge to meet in his canvass and that
he ought to be prepared to meet and
disprovc it, which was one of my OBJ
iects in speaking to him. He replied
that he had about decided to become
candidate for reelection as county
superintendent, had heard some little
talk of this charge against him before,
and that he would act on my advice
and be fully prepared to prove the
falsity of the charge at the proper
time. With this assurance we parted,
| feeling very much gratified at the
result of the interview.
In less than a week after this, Supt.
Smith came into my office one morn
ing in II rather eXultant manner and
told me he wanted to show me some
thing, and produced a postal card
from +. f. Hansell & Bro. of New
Orleans, i'll answer to u letter from
him, making denial of their ever hav-
ing received any illegal proposition
from him and completely generating
him, so far as they were concerned,
from the charge.
Still not knowing that Hansell &
Bro. were not the New Orleans firm to
which he had made the proposition, |
accepted this as conclusive of his in
nocence and heartily congratulated
him on his vindication. | further adj
vised him to carefully preserve the
card from Hansell & Bro. and not let
the party who was trying to injure
him know any thing about it until the
canvass fairly opened and the charges
against him were made public and
then he could publish it i'll connection
with personal card and explode the
whole thing. This he said he would
do and left my office apparently III
very high spirits.
Shortly after this | went to New
Orleans and when started back, the
train had scarcely left the depot,
when DR.. Watts came to my seat in
the car, in pretty much the same spir-
it of eXultation that Smith exhibited
when he showed me the Hansell card.
He said he now had the original of
abOut-that there were two of them
at the same time producing them from
his pockets and handing them to me
to read. The letters were as publish
ed and described above, and the read
er may easily imagine my surprise and
regret, after what had occurred be-
tween Smith and myself, and of which
Watts was in utter ignorance. Dr..
Watts went on to say he had secured
the letters for the purpose of using
them against Smith, and that he in
tended to show them to State Super
intendent Preston and have Smith
turned out of office. Badly as ! felt
Smith had acted, could not help but
sympathize with him, and told Watts
| thought, in view of all the circumr
stances, that would be an extreme
course; that though Smith had mani.
testify been willing to ignore the best
interests of the people of the county
to advance his own, he had evidently
failed, so far as this particular effort
was concerned, and that as the text
book question was settled for the
time, it was not likely that he could
do very much damage i'll any way be-
fore the close of his present term but
that if Smith went ahead and tried to
get the Office again he would be justI-
fed in exposing him, and that so far
as l was concerned, l would consider
it duty l owed the people under
such circumstances to publish the
facts. He further said he had been
badly treated by the Smith crowd,
and he was determined to have him
out if he could accomplish it.
finally said to him that Smith was a
young man and this probable his first
mistake, and that | thought if he
would consent to get out of the way
and not be a candidate for reelection,
he ought to be satisfied with that. i
Il