Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-25
DESTROYED A NEWSPAPER Leading Citizens of a South Da-
 kota Town PUBLICLY Y BURNED THE PLANT A Story of Blasted Hopes and Ruined Lives
 Mixed Up.
MCBRIDE WAS NOT AT THE BURNING
He First Destroyed the Happ mess of His Own Home and Then Tried to Wreck the Home and Business of His
 Former Friend.

Mitchell s. D., Feb. A.-The entire Mitchell Metil outfit, paper presses, type and other paraphernalia belonging to a long established newspaper, was this morning taken into the street and pup licly burned by body of business men. The type were melted, the wood work went up in smoke and the iron presses were smashed into hundreds of pieces.
 This act is another link in the tragedy of this papers editor R. H. Mcbride. A story of blasted hopes, ruined lives and the display, 1t is said, of the malignant ef arts to ruin business is mixed up in ti.~ case. Mcbride and John D. Lawler, president of the First National bank, were number of years ago on friendly terms the former being editor of the democratic paper in this section and the latter prominent in the councils of the democratic party Nine years ago Law Ter married Miss Ella Sturgis, daughter of General Sturgis of the United States army, and came to Mitchell to reside. He became president of the First National bank and continued in that position to the present time. Mrs. Lawler's widow ed sister, Mrs. Dousman, of Prairie Duchien, visited the Lawler family and met Mcbride in a social way Mrs. Dous- man became attracted to Mcbride, he being a man of more than ordinary abili- ty. and married him. McBride's private character however, is stated not to be of the best. Previous to McBrides marriage to Mrs DouSman LaWler was requested by one of the nearest relatives of Mrs Dousman to inform her of the private character of Mcbride, and he did so. This was all that Lawler did in opposition to the marriage, according to relatives. Many happy social gatherings, trips to the seashore and winter residences in New York followed, until Mcbride, tiring of domestic life, went after other and more exciting pleasures.
 A detective soon reported the matter of violated marriage VOWS and other acts Mrs. Dousman separated from Mcbride and secured divorce. Mcbride then re- turned to Mitchell and commenced sys- tematic attacks upon Lawler, his family and the First National bank. Farmers who deposited in the bank known to Mc- Bride and those who were not known were hunted up and given tip that they had better take their money out of the bank, and in consequence the banks support has steadily decreased for the past three years. Every weeks issue con tained some illusion to the bank and it's president, based on falsehood but ap- bearing in such manner that no action at law could be taken against him.
 This career of McBride's was idly look- ed upon by the people until the news came a week ago that John D. Lawer
 
 plexy, whither he had gone on business. The full force of McBride's long contin- ued abuse then came home to the citizens and they resolved to rid the town of the editor. This crystal1ized into meeting of the foremost citizens Saturday night, and as a result a committee called upon Mcbride and informed him that they had come to buy his outfit, with the further proviso that he would have to leave the town. Mcbride assented to the prop position and stated that he would sell the plant Monday morning to the citi- zens. At the appointed hour the citizens called on Mcbride, but in the meantime he had been bolstered up by some of his friends and he purposely got out of the reach of the committee, and the latter appointed one of their number to be- come McBride's agent, gave him suffi- cient money to pay for the plant and then proceeded to destroy the whole out fit. The committee are now looking for Mcbride to impress upon his mind that his stay in Mitchell must be brief.