The San Francisco call., 1898-11-01
TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR GRAB
SOUGHT TO MULCH JOHN c. ERE.
 MONTS HEIRS.
Agreed to Put a $4O,oOO Claim Through Congress if Paid Twenty-Five Per Cent
 of the Whole.
Special Dispatch to The Call.


 LOS ANGELES, Oct. 91.-Congress- man Charles A. Barlow has in his cam paign speeches of the last few days denied that he ever attempted to se- cure 25 per cent out of a certain land deal he was to push through at Wash ington, involving $40,000.
 The following letter from J. V. Web ster, under date of Creston, and writ ten few days ago, shows Barlow In his true light. MT. Webster was the Populist candidate for Governor four years ago, and the letter is now printed with his consent:
 CRESTON, Oct. 23, 1898.
 J. E. Cliff, Paso Robles-Dear Sir: Your favor of the 20th inst, making 1n- Quiry relative to the assistance offered py Congress, amounting to S40,000, in favor of John C. F'remont's heirs, for a consid- eration of s10,000 is before me In reply have to say that during our State Ali ance session, held in San Miguel last October, l had a conversation with MT. Barlow relative to the matter to which you refer.
 l had previously received a clipping from a Los Angeles paper relating 10 some incidents In the Brooks vs Barlow lawsuit before the Superior Court or tha1 city which took place some time atter the last general election. In the clipping referred to the statement was made that MT. Barlow testified under oath that ne had agreed to use his best endeaVorS 10 secure patent for some land claim in Southern California valued at S40,oO0 Tor the consideration of % per cent or us estimated value. Seriously doubting the truthfulness of this statement and wish ing to do MT. Barlow exact justice in the premises, 1 handed him the clipping and asked for an explanation Alter care fully reading the extract he repned Tn substance as follows:
 This statement is not true, My testi- mony before the court related to an olq claim of John c. Fremont, contracted against the Government when he was in the State fifty years ago. The claim amounts to $40,000, and I agreed to put 1t through Congress for p per cent Of the amount"
 This conversation took place in my room in the Levinger Hotel, and there were present, If I remember correctly. the following named gentlemen: 5. 0: Pugh of Gonzales, Robert Shetterly of Spencerville, Mark l.. Iandrum of Peach Tree, P. w. Brewer of Creston, MT. Bar This seemed to me a serious matter, but, considering this agreement to com init crime and the testimony relating status, still felt kindly toward MT. Bar low, and upon subsequently receiving a letter from him, in which he gave me the chief credit for his election, l answered that I had acted conscientiously in his support, and that. under the circum- matters matters stand iu now ike efrcumstances m star g can never exist this side of the River Jor- dan, and since then the report reached me from Omaha, through. Donnelly' S paper, "The Representative, that Bar low and Castle, conjoined with other men, holding proxies, and drawing in the aggregate public salaries amounting to $61 900 annually, came all the way from Washington and other equally distant places, with an eye single to sustaining and abetting Marion Butler as chairman of the National Committee of the Popu- list party, when, in fact, Marion Butler had done everything in his power to fuse our party out of existence for small bits of pie and cottages skimmings for himself and the clique subject to his ruling.
 These unpleasant remembrances, coupled with MT. Barlows manifest manipulation of our Populist conven- ton at Sacramento, and the conse- quent destruction of the Populist party in this State, have caused our passing be- yond the parting of the ways to which there can be no return. Yours truly,
 J. V. WEBSTER,