The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-22
WERE THE STAMPS IN TIE
GOATS STOMACH?

1t is very tantalizing to read thrill
ing story on an ocean voyage, and, just
as you are nearing the closing chapter
and eager to see how it turns out, to
have the boat give a great lurch from
which you recover only to find that the
novel has fallen overheard. 1t is equally
provoking to be enjoying a good story af-
ter dinner, being told by a master in
story telling, and have the story I'M
ended at the most interesting climax
because of an imperative call for the
genial doctor who is giving a thrilling
page from his own experience. 1t is
provoking beyond everything to be read
ing story and just as you are breathless
with suspense to come upon those words
ito be continued in our next"
The Memphis newspapers have played
quite as shabby trick on their readers.
A few days ago they printed how an in
dealer because there were no revenue
stamps on the barrels of ''sowpaw'' he
was Offering for sale, how the saloon
keeper protested that the stamps had
been on the barrels until his goat licked
them off for his dinner, and how the reve-
nue. officer, declining to believe the goat
story, agreed with the saloon keeper that
the goat should be killed, and his stom-
ach examined to see if he really ate the
ago and every day we have scanned the
papers and read every telegram under the
Memphis date line to sec whether the
goats stomach had become a sub-offlce
where internal revenue stamps are kept
en- deposit But not a word about the
subsequent proceedings" appears in the
Memphis papers and no press dispatch
tells of the outcome. In the meantime
the public is in great suspense. 1t is a
revenue officers, saloon-keepers and breed
ers Of goats, and has run mad those who
permit curiosity to wear away their COM
posture.
Did the experts find the stamps in the
goats stomach? If so, is the government
liable in damages to the saloon keeper
for the value of the goat and the sug-
gestion of his endeavoring to swindle
the government? If not, is the saloon
keeper living under the suspended penalty
OF defrauding the government and adding
to fraud a SANDER upon an innocent
goat? These questions have been upper
most in the minds of ten thousand times
ten thousand newspaper readers for a
week. Every morning they have opened
their daily papers, given no note to the
great international race and other notable
events, and run down every column to
learn whether the goat ate the stamps.
And every day they have been doomed to
disappointment. for not word have the
Memphis papers and correspondents given
us to throw light on the question that
agtates the public mind. The silence
is as awful as Mt is profound. We begin
to suspect that the Memphis papers are
trying to shield the saloon keeper. He
doubtless, when it was discovered that
the goat had not eaten the stamps, went
to all the reporters and correspondents
and begged them on account of his limo
cent wife and prattling babes not to print
the story of his fraud. To accommodate
him. it may be that the whole American
public. hungry to know the result, Is
kept in suspense. Is that not showing
special privilege and discriminating
against the many? Or is 1T possible that
the goats stomach was lined with green
internal revenue stamps and the revenue
guager and doodler has begged the pa
pers to suspress that fact for fear the
snickersnee would decapitate his official
head?
How much longer will the American
reading public permit the Memphis
writer's to trife with them in matter OF
such great moment?