Amador ledger., 1902-09-05
THE DEADLY PARALLEL.

THE DEADLY PARALLEL.
For some reason the Ledger has of
late bumped up against some mighty
unreliable newsmongers, and when it
is given information it prints it with a
spread if, per chance, an opening is
seen for springing something detri-
mental to a democrat.
In the Hansen matter the Ledger
was away down wrong, notwithstand-
ing decidedly unfair apology of the
following week. Now, here is what
Mr.. Hansen says of the dirty and un-
fair article: Here follow signed ar
ticle.)
It is this style of dishonest and dis
reputable journalism which drives
votes to the enemy, and weakens the
party it attempts to befriend.
The display of more caution on the
part of the Ledger will be valuable to
the candidates of the party it so often
misrepresents.-
We beg to inform the Echo man
that he was simply talking through
his billingsgate hat when he peuned
the above. He was in the hands of
some monger Of different ilk to the
newsmonger, reliable or otherwise.
Talk about journalistic fairness and
honesty. These are characteristics
utterly foreign to his mental make
up. When the Ledger takes excep-
tion to the remarks of any of its CO.
temporaries (the Echo included) it
always produces the exact language
excepted to. But this dweller in
Athens is not that kind of an Athen-
ian. His style is to open the flood
gates of abuse, and leave his readers
to guess what he is driving at. For
his special edification we therefore
produce the two statements of
Hansen in parallel columns:
Hansen to Ledger. Hansen to Others
A few days ago he Neither of them re.
lHansenl applied to fused to register me
Inc registration of1cer Mr.. Surface sent for
IN that town TO get on me to be registered in
tne register. D. sur the first place, but
lace proceeded to make when went to regis
out the afidavit, and ter there was a donbt
while SO doing j. w; in my own mind from
Surface appeared and where should be reg.
told MIN he had better istered and Mr.. Sur
see c. L. Culbert, the face suggested that
county clerk, on the get legal advice on the
subject, conveying the matter l did so and
idea that he had no thereafter Mr.. Surface
right to register in that registered me.
precinct. He was not
registered. Hansen Is
Republican.
Now the first column embraces all
the facts stated in the Ledger in re-
gard to Hansen's first effort to get
registered. 1t is his own story con
densed as detailed orally to the
editor, who, hearing of the matter
by common rumor, went to him per-
sonally to get the facts, so there
would be no mistake. Furthermore,
we told him that we intended to pub
lish his statement, and to this he
made no objection, simply remark
ing that it would be all over the
county, but he didn't mind" The
other statement bears all the ear
marks of having been laboriously
prepared to avoid disputing any of
the Ledger's statements, and at the
same time carry the impression that
the story as first told was not
straight. The Ledger man, how
ever, has been too long in the busi-
ness to be caught by such chaff. We
defy the Echo to point to d single
statement in our article that is
contradicted or in any way impaired
by the written document. The So
called denial, is no denial at all. It
leaves the matter just where it stood
before. The two statements are
perfectly consistent. We are at all
times willing to retract when we are
wrong, but in this case we must
stand by the story as given to US by
Chris Hansen, unless Hansen him.
self comes forward and says that
what he told was untrue.
Furthermore, the Echo SAYS the
Ledger made an unfair apology the
following week. This is a deliber-
ate, malicious falsehood. We have
published nothing that could be
twisted into the semblance of an
apology. Here is what we said:
Chris Hansen, the stage driver.
was Informed that he could register
in South lone, where he has voted
for years, and where he made an in,
effectual attempt to register re-
Gently, as narrated in these columns
last week. He will probably cast
his ballot as of yore in his old home
precinct, all democratic demurrers
to the contrary Notwithstanding"
Again our informant was Hansen
himself. He had been told, as the
Ledger reported, to see the county
clerk. He did see him and others,
among them the writer, and was in
formed that there was no question
about his right to register in lone.