Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-10-31
CATRON'S APOLOGIST.
The Awkward Calciminer Of the Ctti-
zen PrOfusely Daubs Delegate
CatrOn with Whitewash.

The virtuous Albuquerque Citizen, ed
tied by an individual who was at one time
postmaster of Albuquerque and who last
winter solemnily swore that he did not
know the authorship of long editorial
article in his paper slanderously attack
ing the territorial supreme court, weeps
profusely and refuses to be comforted
over alleged Democratic "persopal abuse
and villification of Mr.. Catron," and then
proceeds to daub whitewash all over the
deleotable parsonage last named with the
apparent purpose of inviting his early
translation to realms above on account
of his exceeding purity of character, bea-
tific amisbility Of disposition and angelic
freedom from selfishness, resentment and
the various other sins that alloy the lives
of 30 many people in this sinful world.
Since Mr.. Catron is 80 sweetly "self-re-
specting" and $50 serene and cheerful
that he can not be prevailed upon to
strike back at his sslanderers," nor say an
unpleasant thing about his opponent, the
Citizen feels called upon to dedicate
nearly two columns Of its precious space
to the congenial task. Naturally it starts
out with the sweeping assertion that the
men who are spreading the charge that
Delegate Catron's conduct in connection
with the attempted valuation of the
fraudulent BriceColer railroad bonds
bears the plain earmarks of crookedness
and corruption, "are deliberately and
Intentionally lying about it," and thon
proceeds to support this conclusive ar
gument" with the notoriously mendacious
assertion that not one of these men "has
ever publicly explained the nature or
condition OF these bonds or how they
were issued"
As a rejoinder it is only necessary to
recall the earnest and vigorous protests
of the Santa Fe board of trade and a
largely attended mass meeting of citizens
against the proposed valuation of these
bonds, and to the exhaustive exposures
of the fraudulent nature of the bonds
by Gov. Thornton, Judge Downs and
other residents of Santa Fe, which have
been printed in these columns, supple
mented with elaborate editorial and local
articles, shedding all the light possible on
the dark subject.
These exposures were SO complete ano
conclusive that, while there we're prob
ably number of worthy people in the
city who originally believed that the
charges were creations, the New MEXICAN
is satisfied that not more than two or three
persons can tie found in Santa Fe who
will contend that the bonds have any
merit and Justify Mr.. Catron's action in
the premises. Indeed, even the Citizen
does not pretend to defend the bonds OF
the "combination" that was formed to
force their valuation, contenting itself
with the apologetio remark that the won.
derful man of "brains and energy" had
nothing to do with "this combination, but
found himself quite unable to withstand
it," Evidently!
The latter half of this wonderful article
IN the Citizen is devoted to a labored
effort to whitewash Mr.. Catron's connec
tion with the notorious Borrego case and
to convey the impression to the minds ol
tho cenfiding and uninitiated chat there
is no foundation for the strong suspicion
that he has deeper reason for shielding
the assassins of Frank Chavez than thai
of an ordinary criminal lawyer. The
facts concerning this case have been &c
fully and 80 frequently reoited in thes'
columns that it is needless to recall them
at this late day and the New MEx1oA,
will not waste it's space in replying to thu
Citizens unsupported assertions.