The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-04-08
FRIDAY, APRIL 8.
This paper is democratic IN principles
ana is Independent IN its Vteips on all
Ocdl questions.

luis DQUCT 10 uCItOCI SotC /" thSSPeSo
ana is Independent IN its UtetDs ON all
ocdl questions.
The "Tribune's" Broadside-The
Work of a Jersey City Man.
1t is impossible to believe that the
long article on Jersey City which ap-
peared in yesterdays Tribune was
written in good faith. There was too
much knowledge, too much familiari-
ty with the subject displayed to leave
any doubt that the writer knew just
when he wrote the truth and just
when he set down wilful and malig-
nant falsehoods. Neither is 1t posi-
BILE to believe that the misstatements
are the comparatively innocent off
spring OF prejudice or error OF judg-
ment. Those who know the facts
with which the article deals cannot
but feel convinced that the writer was
Familiarity, If somewhat specifically
acquainted with them, that he delib-
erately juggles and conjures with
them with unmistakeable intent to
deceive, and that he succeeds with
great ability in weaving a fabrication
of the most atrocious kind, one through
which a single thread of truth is en-
woven, making fiat denial difficult,
and compelling the victim of the
calumny to resort to explanation and
argument for his defence.
We have wasted some speculation
on the question of who was the au-
thor of this strange tissue of malice
and mendacity. We are not ac-
quainted with any newspaper re-
porter working or even living in Jer-
sey City who would be at all likely to
have written it. 1t possesses consider
able literary merit in the matter of
style and arrangement. 1t displays
uncommon ability Of a forensic Sort
that power of distorting facts with
out absolutely classifying them, of de-
ducing monstrous conclusions by
plausible processes of casuistry, which
seem to be priced by some lawyers as
the perfection Of forensic method.
From internal evidence we would i'm
agine IL was written by a lawyer with
a good turn for scribling rather than
by a reporter whose mental training
was in the direction of straight pre-
sen tation of facts. This is, indeed,
our idea of the production. We feel
we'll satisfied that it did not emanate
from the pen of the 15ibune's regular
correspondent in Jersey City. OF the
other newspaper men in town, every
one who has ability enough to fall
under suspicion, has Democratic affili-
ations which make such suspicion i'm
possible.
Again, it is impossible to believe
that such q statement could be gotten
up by a reporter merely detailed from
the New York Office of the Tribune to
write up" the political stu alton
here. II such were the case, we
should like to know the man, for he
must have the most remarkable
power OF assimilating facts and feel
ings, prejudices, and passions of
any newspaper man now working
on the New York press. But we can
not entertain this theory. We know
just how far II good reporter can go in
gaining mastery of d strange subject,
getting the facts straight-or crooked
if it is his purpose to get them
crooked--and presenting an intelligent
and truthful article. All our ex-
perience compels us to believe that
this article passes human possibility in
that line. 1t is the work OF a man who
has lived i'll this community, who has
absorbed the knowledge Of events as
they t~ranspired, who knows ten times
as much as he has here set down on
paper, whose. mind has daily turned
over his store of knowledge and ming
led it with his own ideas and emo
tions, SO that when he sat down to
write the matter came from his brain
as "a complete, well rounded, evenly
balanced creation, as perfect and
vivid in it's way as IL Letter of Junius
or an Essay of Macaulay.
1t may be asked why we waste so
many words in specializing on the
authorship of this article. We reply,
it is because we wish to bring it home
to the public that this atrocious libel
on the State, on the city, on a great
party, and on a number of individu-
ais is the work of a resident Of
this city, acting under the
stimulus of party malignity. We
believe the article was written by a
member Of the Republican City Com
mittee of this city. We are certain it
was not written by a stranger, and so
what is false and malicious in it must
have been deliberately devised and
set down.
Having reached this point, we have
no hesitation in saying in cold blood
that the writer was a scoundrel of the
blacklist type-a moral cutthroat and