Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-15

otSE
| pied with the fellow, took the bills awa ~
from him, counted them in the presen &c
of fifty persons. and then returned the
money to the witness. The incident Gre
| ated widespread excitement. In an edi-
torial, in which it refers to our Wash
ington correspondent as ''either a knave
or a fool" the Standard says:
The Inter Mountain published what
purported to be a special from Washing
ton. which for downright idiocy and self
evident mendacity we AVE seldom seen
parallel in print.
Instead of flying into an uncomfortable
rage over the mere non-partisan recital
OF an incident which took place in WASH
ington, why did not the STANDARD query
it's own correspondent in hat city-or, for
that matter. its three score and ten repr e.
sentatives who are on the scene-and as
certain whether the Inter Mountains dis
patch was true or false? 1t seems to have
entirely overlooked it's journalistic pre-
negatives in hat direction. 1t is motto e.
able that the Standard contains no spe-
Via NiSlolS IA AAo IA AANAASAt, AOA
does it attempt to editorially deny the
truth of the statements made BY a
dextrous manipulation of phrases it seeks
merely to ridicule and discredit the pc s.
sibility Of any such thing happening! 1t
tries to throw doubt on the story by such
arguments as this:
The dispatch does not even deign to hint
why that chump Of an Anaconda sup
porter chose to slip a roll Of bills into a
witness pocket in the presence of fifty
people, including a friend of Mr.. Clark,
instead of taking him into a back room
and giving it to him there.
True enough, our correspondent was not
in the confidence of the chump referred
to and does not know why he neglected
to follow the long line of precedents es-
tablished by the Anaconda democrat y,
and take the fellow into a back room in
the customary manner: To violate es-
tablished precedents and shove the money
into the pocket of the witness in the lob
by Of a hotel. when Washington is full Of
back rooms, is enough to arouse the in
dignation Of every s~elf-respecting Ana
conda democrat in the state.
The Inter Mountain cannot throw any
light on that phase of the incident, fur
Their thar to suggest the possibility that
the prosecution was waiting for the wit
ness to go on the stand, n time and OPP
p%ortunity were not afforded the chump
aforesaid to look up an available back
room. Moreover. he might have been
seen going into a back room with the wit
ness, and there might have been auger
holes in the room, or hot-tamale skins,
or other evidences Of a struggle with
ones conscience! The Standard knows
how tha is itself. The fact that the
prosecution announced to the senate com
mittee that it had no more witnesses VINO
were available before next WEDNESDAY Y,
Immediately after the incident publish
ed in these columns had taken place, the
hypothesis is a reasonable one that the
mar who is unprofessionally called a
chump by the Standard, diu not have
time to run the witness into a back room
on his way to the inquisition.
This, of course, is merely a surmise on
the part Of the Inter Mountain, and is
suggested in the hope of showing that the
Anaconda man acted just as honorably
in showing the money into the pocket OF
the witness in a retired corner of a hotel
lobby, as he would have done had he
taken him into a back room for thai pur-
pose. Besides, no chances were taken of
having the witness go back to the other
side again and tell what had been said in
some back room, and overheard by some
body with X-ray ears.
The potential energy Of the wad, as a
stimulent to the larynx Of the witness,
was just as great when silently transfe r.
red from the pocket of the Anaconda man
to the pocket of the witness, as if the
transaction had been embellished with a
chapter or two of back room pledges. The
experiences of the Clark wing Of the DEM
ocracy seem to ave demonstrated this,
according to the history of cotemporane-
Gus events, now running as a serial in the
Standard. 1t is, therefore, manifestly
unfair for that paper to call a faithful
Anaconda democrat a chump, merely be-
cause he chose h seemed to have been.
under the circumstances , a safer method
of doing business than that followed by
the other wing of his party-and acci-
dentally got caught at it.