The Opelousas courier., 1894-06-09
The Parish Printing.

TIE Official Journal so-called, has
discovered a mares nest. In u pub.
lished proceedings of the last meeting
of the Police Jury was an item, among
the bills approved. for building
bridge over Kings levee, lat ward
which was Immediately followed by
four other items for lumber for 1st
ward, 1884," which the printer set up
as dittos Of the first item, instead OF
lumber. 1st ward, 1894" only-the
repetition of bridge over Kings levee,'
constituting the mistake.
We were put to much unnecessary
proceedings II the Police Jury owing
to several attempts to Illustrate us in
doing so. The clerk, Mr.. Stage, whose
relations with US in the matter have
invariably been fair and courteous, has
always cheerfully complied, as far as
his duties would admit, with the fol-
lowing resolution of that body (Which
has never been repealed or amended in
any manner):
Resolved, That the clerk be and is hereby in.
structed to give possession of the official pro-
ceedings, of the Police Jury to no one except
authorized, ho,ceuer, should he see ft, to furnish
to ne other papers a duplicate thereof, tcithout
~appending thereto his official signature.
As we had discovered an evident
intention, at the previous meeting, to
ignore or disregard the above resolu-
ton, We interviewd Mr.. Stage at the
beginning of the session of the last
meeting, and he informed us that he
could not give us a copy OF the proceed
ings as ne had been instructed not to
direct on the minute book and to give
file nn0k- ar q annu from fhn
book, to the official" printer
only. Mr.. Stage also remarked
that it was no more labor to him to
make two copies than to make one, as
we always furnished him with a copy
ing book for the purpose for our mutual
convenience, and free of expense to the
Police jury, but that he had been
ordered not to do so in future. Under
the circumstances we had to take a
copy from the minute book after each
adjournment of. the jury in order not
to interfere with its business, and
several attempts were made to prevent
us from doing even that. Much of the
copying was done at night and most of
it %hurriedly, and if the mares nestsdis-
covered by the so-called official journal
is the only error, We don't think there
is much cause for COMPLIMENTARY
vi tho OOdf "AlSH ~Uutu IIy ~
throw useless impediments in the way
OF a correct publication of its proceed
inRs. In the face of the resolution
quoted above land even in the absence
of any such resolution), the Police Jury
has no right to attempt to prevent the
press from obtaining the authentic pro-
ceedlngs of that body for publication,
and any move in that direction shows a
narrow-minded, intolerant spirit, un-
worthy OF the. representatives of the
great parish of st. Landry and we can
assure them that we don't o 10
tamely submit to any such Juggling,
and we don't believe the intelligent
people of this parish will tolerate it
either.
But the fact that such Inaccuracies
may sometimes occur in our paper does
not reuse the Clarion for deliberately
and Intentionally mutilating and short
ening the official proceedings of the
police jury, simply because it finds its
self-assumed task too onerous. That is
what we charged the Clarion with, and
to prove our charge we submitted such
complete, convincing and irrefragable
proofs that it attempted to deny
the absolute correctness of our charge.
Hence, when it attempts to mislead its
readers by its reference to our " boast
ed reputation for infallible accuracy y
and our !" belief in our "infallibility to
err it is simply engaged in a species
OF begging the question which is as
re~prehensible and more contemplate
than the lie direct.