The Meeker herald., 1893-09-23
Seeks Il Vindicati0n.
PACIFIC COAST, Sept. l, 1898.

iilIns against me IN the town OF Meekei
and surrounding country, and consider
ing you fair and just man | appeal to
you for small space in the columns of
your paper to partially justify my con-
duct and vindicate myself of at least a
portion of the accusations.
1t has been and continues to be the
custom and policy of mankind, from
time immemOrial, TO push the falling
man or woman and kick them still
harder when down. The good people
of Meeker are no exception to the rule,
and feel it their duty to continue the
time-honored practice 1t is with re-
morse and regret that | admit the ius-
tice and truth of a portion of the accu-
sations; yet, while part are true, many
of them are false, base, cowardly fabri-
cations of gossipers who would not dare
to utter them were | there to refute and
confront them.
As you well know have spent years
of hard work and thousands of dollars
in cash in the interest and advancement
Of Meeker and vicinity; and it is all
there. did not take it away; when
left | took few old clothes and less
that 500 in cash. The people and
country proiited by it; have not. The
loss l do not care for; mitch the
Hustler can make more where many
who are crying me down would starve.
As regards the charge of fraud, it is
I :
intention to defraud anyone. 1t has
been simply a cominatlon of circum-
stances beyond my power to prevent,
by which | have been unable to meet
my obligations. And | do not stand
alone; | am only one of many thousands
who in the past ninety days have been
swept down by the current of adyersity.
| plead guilty of having made mis-.
take, but that is no sin. Show me the
man who never made a mistake and |
will show you Il man who never did
For my part l would rather
suffer the inconvenience and blame of
an error than to be drone and pass
through life in idleness and gossiping,
and predicting all kinds of
evil and failures for my fellow man.
While have committed an error and
have been unable to fulfill my agree
ment and meet my obligations, am
not alone responsible for it. Others,
and indirectly, wifully disap-
pointed me, thereby making it Impos-
sible for me TO comply with the condi-
tions of my contract.
When 1 left there [ did so with the
not to return until |
could meet all obligations. / have done
in my power TO raise money
vo,d to do s2i haye tred e get loans 81
property for less than one-third its
value and could not sell. AS n last re-
sort traded for an interest in gold
mine, hoping in that way | might real
Ize. Have had trouble over that, but il
crate il if the creditors there will guar
lntee me that shall have reasonable
chance to realize. 1t is too valuable a
to risk under the sheritis ham
mer to satisfy judgment, and | will
say that unless can get that guarantee
they will have happy time to find it.
While / am not broke l cannot pay.
| have plenty of resources, but do not
propose to have them sacrificed to sat
isfY the small amount of my obligations
there. | still deny any intentions to de-
fraud and will meet every obligation
and reimburse so far as possible every
creditor for the inconvenience or loss
he may have sustained by any cause of
mine, rs soon as | can consistently do
so. AS regards my affairs there | eX-
pected and wanted my creditors to get
what they could out of any resources
they can find.
/ have provided homes for many fam
lies in Meeker that otherwise could
not have had them; have added thous
ands of dollars of taxable property to
the town and county, that, without my
could not have been done;
| have furnished employment to many
people there who could not othegwise
have stayed; l have paid taxes for
many there Tor furnished them the
money! when otherwise their property
would have been sold for taxes; | have
loaned money to men with families
there with which TO buy the necessities
of life, and charged them no interest,
taking my pay in anyway could get it
and no man in Rio Blanco county can
Il IL.
SO long as | could no man can say
that / owed him dollar and did not
pay it. And now, when fortune frowns
on me, they cry me down, call me a de-
faulter, rascal, and circulate false ac-
cusations, and those having the least
cause and who have been most obli-
gated to me howl the loudest. "
However, shall personally interview
some Of the gentlemen in the near fu-
ture. In the meantime l will say that
| travel on the vanished cars, eat three
meals day and sleep in bed at night.
The gold mines will win, and Mitchell,
the Rustler, Will be on top. l am not
hiding, neither am going under an as
sumed name. Ira G.. Mitchell. the sig
nature that has turned more money
loose in Meeker than any other man, is
the way sign it yet, and the people of
MeeSer will again, hope in the near
future, beg me for a lob and come