Bradford County telegraph. (Starke, Fla.) 1888-current, 1895-11-08
APLEA OF NOT GUILTY.

are to be filed at the next election.
This apparently useless occupation
is not III all cases without results.
For instance, an editor who favOrs
some man not yet mentioned an a
candidate tries To kill off a possible
rival candidate by starting a pre-
mature s'beom" for him. If his
assumed championship is well re-
ceived and is seconded by other
editors, he congratulates himself,
because he believes that the "boom"
will have ample time to exhaust
itself before the opening of the
campaign. If bis suggestion of
candidate falls fiat, be Is equally
well pleased, because he then feels
that the candidate has failed to
show any strength and cannot stand
in the way of his faYorite."
Upon this editorial utteranee the
TELEGRAPH in its issue of October
18th commented as follows:
"rhis sweeping charge of perfdy,
coming, as it does, from a paper
that aSpires to the leading place in
Florida journalism, appears 20 us
to be in bad form. 1t will not
jingle as merrily az the proyerblal
wedding bell in the ears of the
editors of this State who have
spoken IN complimentary terms of
the men whom they deemed fitted
to occupy the Offices in our State
government that will be made
vacant IN 1897 by the expiration
of the terms of the present iucum-
bents. The men against whom til :
Citizen makes this unsrounded
charge, or large majority of them
at least, have been engaged III Flor
ida journalism for long period of
years. They have, by untIring
effort, contributed much TO the up
building of the state and the de-
velopment of its resources. They
have BEEN prominently before the
people of their respective cOmmu-
mites, and this from the Citizen
is the first intimation that we have
had that they are cunning, PERTH
dous fellows, and not high-toned
honorable gentlemen"
Here the, TELEGRAPH gave a
partial list of the editors who, ac-
cording to the Citizen, have been
politically annihilating public men
in this state under the guise of
friendship, and continued it's COM
meDt as follows:
"These are some of the editors
who have at one time or another
expressed q preference of one or
more men among the many candi-
dates available for the various State
Offices. And these are the men
that are playing the role of hypo-
critic, who are pretending loyalty
and friendship only more efec-
tually to stab their victims in the
back, who have for many years
masqueraded before the Florida
public as loyal friends or honorable
foes, and only now has the cloak
of deceit been torn from them by
a discerning 'tenderfoot'. If the
press of Florida had descended to
suOh depths of trickery as the Git
Izen alleges it would indeed be n
sad commentary upon profession
that occupies most exalted place
IN the minds of our countrymen.
But, tor our part, we are not pre-
pared to accept the allegation with
out affidavits TO support it,"
Replying to the TELEGRAPH the
Citizen of October 3Oth makes this
brief explanation:
"The Interpretation given to the
article by the TELRGRAPu was en-
tirely unjustified. The Citizen
made no personal charges; it called
attention to the evils connected
with practice"
Upon even this brief explana-
ton we should have been disposed
to acknowledge ourselves sorry
and would have made
the amende honorable to the Git |
zen had the explanation have been
appended TO the paragraph which
appears at the beginning Of this
article, but the Citizen chose to
resort to the cowardly subterfuge
of lnisquoting, and gravely told It's
readers that the following para |
graph was the cause of the dis |
cussion:
"The practice of suggesting can
1idates year or more in advance Of |
an election is a bad one. The posi- |
bility of beng the first to name the !
man who shall prove to be the sue,
ceSsful candidate has a fascination
for many people, and the apparent !
opportunity to promote the inter- |
ests of a friend often affords great /
qualification. But the evils of the
practice outweigh its benefits; while |
the benefits, if any, are personal
only. Looking at the matter in its |
aSnact tn dirpot tba .t,o, {