The Courier. (Genoa, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1903-06-19
Sam Davis Joke.


1t related how years before A. Liv-
ington ran for the position of County
Treasurer against man from the
East, who desired the nomination on
the ground that he could snow him
under with the saloon vote. Hearing
this, Livingston bought half interest
in several saloons of Douglas and
started five more along the road to
Glenbrook, and then led his opponent
a merry dance painting the country
red.
He kept showing piles of twenties
over the bars, only to slide around
next morning and get the same money
to use again, while his unsuspecting
opponent had to get a fresh supply.
He kept the entire country filed up
during the campaign, beat his man
several hundred and cleared several
thousand dollars ON the deal.
Controller Davis was visiting Mr..
and Mrs. Fred Pelham at the time, and
the day after the story appeared in the
Tribune, profusely illustrated, Mrs.
Pelham and'her daughter, Louise, met
the Tribune man on the street and
gravely informed him that Mr.. Davis
was not at all reliable and that the
story about Livingston was made up
of whole cloth and that, furthermore,
Mr.. Livingston was not in the liquor
business at all, but the pastor of a
church in Carson City.
Next day the reporter met Mr.. Davis
and took him to task for getting the
paper into trouble, and Mr. Davis, who
thought by this time that he would
take hand in the joke, expressed his
regrets to the Tribune man and assur-
ed him that it was indeed fact that
Mr. Livingston was the pastor of a
church, but that when he used his
name he did not suppose that he was
talking for publication.
The next stage of the joke was that
Judge Biff Hall, of the Chicago Record,
who got the inside of the joke from the
Pelhams, wrote the facts to law firm
in Carson and they thought it such a
good thing that they wrote to the
Tribune and demanded $50, 900 damages
on behalf of the First Baptist church
for aspersing the name of their pastor.
The Tribune people wrote back, lay
ing all the blame on Mr.. Davis and at
the same time Offering to retract the
article.
Then the legal gentlemen fixed up
the pretended record of vestry meet
ing of the church and forwarded it to
the Tribune, which was published as a
special dispatch from Carson:
Here is the dispatch:
vestry Justlfles the Tribune.
Carson City Baptist Church Explains
| Publication Which Reused Pas
tors Resentment.
CARSON CITY, New, May 4. -[Spe-
cial. AT the regular monthly meeting
of the vestry of the First Baptist
church of this city the following state
ment was made part of the minutes
of the meeting:
'The publication of a humorous ar
ticle in the Chicago Tribune in No
vember last, seriously rejecting on
the reputation of the pastor of the
church, the Rev. Albert Livingston,
came up. Said article, representing
the Rev. DIR. Livingston as being a
politician and saloon keeper and
owning a dozen saloons in Douglas
county, New, was calculated to bring
discredit upon the name of the pastor
and the church.
"Mr. Samuel Davis appeared before
the vestry and admitted having made
said statements to the reporter of the
Tribune, gentleman he met at the
Press Club in Chicago. He told story
at the club, which was wholly ficti-
tious, merely to while away an even
ing, and used the name of the Rev.
DIR. Livingston as the central figure,
not knowing that his anecdote would
be published.
"This explanation, which wholly ex-
onerated the Tribune, and his volun-
tary offer to liquidate the mortgage of
$500 on the church and the paying of
500 attorneys fees to Samuel Platt,
the attorney for the church, who had
been instructed to proceed against the
Ifwzr
Tribune for libel, was accepted in good
faith by the vestry, and he was by a
unanimous vote exonerated from any
malicious intent in his utterances in
Chicago.
1.-THE following resolution was then
adopted; Resolved, That, it appear
ing from the evidence that the Chica-
go Tribune published the story in
which Mr.. Livingston figured in abso-