The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1892-10-26
NA(VEAGH 7OEGAN.
A Very Spicy Letter to the
Exminister,
Satire Used Mercilessly-Mr. Reid
and the Tribune Cited as Making
Serious Charges.

AhS AVeVOl was Adnucu w inc AhSOCIaC-
ed Press this evening:
To the Honorable Patrick Egan.
DEAR SIR II am glad to see that
you intend at last, even after nine
years, to reply to. the attacks upon
your character, but am sorry to see
that your persist in calling them my
attacks, and this falsehood leads me to
fear that you may repeat the other
fasehood that my statement that your
appointment was an insult to Chill as
intended reflection on you because
you were born in Ireland. Now, if
you will abandon these two sheer and
absolute falsehoods, I give you the full
est liberty to abuse me to any extent,
or say anything about me you choose,
for what you say Of me cannot possibly
do me the least harm, and would real
ly be, to mind, a kind of eulogy OF me.
AS | furnished in my speech at Cooper
Union the exact dates when Mr.. Reid
and the Tribune made their very seri-
GUS and repeated attacks upon your
character, you will,I trust, see how
Necessary it is for you to treat them as
his attacks, not mine, and to anwers
him and not me. And if you answer
him satisfactorily you need not bother
about me, as you must pardsn me for
saying / nver even heard 3of you till
the Tribune gave me the information,
and have neither desire nor reason
to think i'll OF you except what is due
to the Tribune's denunciation OF you.
If you can convict Mr.. Reid and the
Tribune of falsehood in making them
| will accept your justification with
pleasure, but / must continue to think
you were rather tardy in 80 grave and
serious a matter.
And then, do abandon the false pre-.
tense that my objection TO you was be.
cause you are an Irishman. You see
that pretense is childish as we'll as
false, for / am a good deal of an Irish.
man myself, at well as a counselor
though regreat to say without pay,
of the Hibernian Society OF this city,
while some of the best friends OF my
life have been Irishman. My objec
ton to you was solely because Mr.
Reid and the Tribune said you were
not an honest man, and I don't like a
dishonest man, no matter where he il
born. If that accusation is not true
then | have no objection whatever tc
you. Whatever you may say now..you
must confess you had justified the peo
pie in forming a very unfavorablt
Judgment fyou. You remained silent
80 far as / ever heard for nine Ions
years under Reid's statement in the
Tribune thatyou were"a sham patriot,
and that you could give no satisfactory
explanation of what you had done will
| $4,000 which had been entrusted Il
your care for the Irish cause.
| And then, so far as I know, you re
| m aimed silent twelve long months un
der additional attacks upon you in th'
Tribune saying you were sure to be re
called and that 20 New American rep
resentative at the Chilian capital wal
urgently needed" and far worse, tina
YOU had once fled "to avoid arrest ant
trial on very serious criminal charge.
| Now, all the Irishmen / know and es
TEEN, and there are very many o
them, if 90 attacked would have called
Mr.. Reid and the Tribune to a promp
and stern account, requiring then
either to prove their charges or to re
tract them, but you, also, did neither
On the contrary, you meekly endure
: all these charges, and to my amaz'
ment, you appeared on Mr.. Reid
> porch week ago advocating his cleo
ton to the Vice.Presidency, thus,
my, mind, practically confessing th
( truth OF his accusation against yor
. On the next evening therefore felt
perfect liberty to call your appoir
. ment an insult to Chill.
: WAvND MAcVEAaH