Arizona republican., 1897-12-16

presented. Whether Dr. Hughes had
 a grievance at all, whether there ever
 was such a picture ns is desc ibed
 above, even whether there, was an is-
 sue of The Republican on the date
 alleged, July 13, 1897, A. D., are mat
 ters which rest wholly upon hear say
 evidence. Many persons claimed to
 have seen it in a remote period of an-
 tiquity. Some of these pa.sons are
 now dead and others have moved to
 distant lands. Still others have Suc-
 cumbed to the advance of old age 1t
 was further claimed that a copy of the
 paper, yellow with age, had a place
 among the sacred relics of the district attorneys office but when in the course
 of it's deliberations the grand jury was
 read to inspect the work of art ii was
 found that it had unaIccountaIbly d S.
 appeared. Appalling as the loss was,
 it was not wholly disheartening for
 there were many other places in Phoe-
 nix where files of The Republican a 9
 religiOusly preserved. Emissaries
 from the district attorneys office vis-
 ited these places one after another, found the files of The Republican, but
 also a monoitonous gulf yawning be- tween the dates of July 12 and July IA of the aforesaid year and era.
 Suspicion was first directed against a French gentleman who visited Phoe- nix early last fall gath hering specimens of American ant for exhibition at the Paris exposition of 1900. Still she dis trict attorneys office and the grand jury did not give way to utter despair for there were not only the files in The Republican office, but by reason of a universal journalistic courtesy every newspaper preserves files of all other papers in the same town Every body connected with every newspaper was therefore officially invited to the court house yesterday morning. Hence the session of the previously men, toned Phoenix Press association Each delegation was attended by a
 representative carrying ahe files for uly of The. Republican. Each repre-
 sentative was called in and the files were inspected seriat;m, but in none of them was there paper bearing the
 date of July 13. This was bewilder- ing, but still the district attorneys cf- flee and the grand jury were noii With out hope though it existed now only in homeopathic dose. The smile of Harry Diehl, the usher, made capable
 and urbane by long service in the same
 capacity in church and Sabbath school. hadllong since been overcast. B. T.
 Gillette, w. F. McNulty and others sat
 about the inquisitorial table in vary
 ing degrees of dejection. The other
 members of the press association were called in and having been solemnly sworn, were asked: Do you happen to have a copy of The Republican of July 13 about you?" None of them
 had met with that sort of an accident. Among the members was a lady, the
 bookkeeper of The Republican. In reply to this oft repeated hypothetical ques-
 tion, she began hunting for her pocket. | The search was SO long continued that l the married members of the grand | jury understanding the compleXity of | the feminine garment, foresaw
 that by the time she had located
 the receptacle and even if F.
 should con.ain the long sought fer
 paper, an event extremely improbable,
 the action projected against MT. Ran
 dolph would be- barred by the statute | of limitations, moved that she be eX- cused and she was permitted to go. The deliberations of the grand jury
 after this were cut off summarily by
 hastening to the conclusion that all
 the almanac makers for 1898 had fallen
 into the same error and that in that
 year there was no July 13.