The Alaska prospector., 1904-04-07
Citizens Object.
HOPE. Alaska. March. ,n4

IS contains an article signed "Tbe Tattler," making statements which we, as citizens of hope, wish to correct.
 First, wish to state that The Tattler is most vicious prevari- cator and liar, and will prove the statement.
 He says there is gang of van dals who terrorize the town.
 As citizens of Hope We most en- phatically deny the existence of any such gang.
 That the clique year ago ma liciously mutilated the bull belong. ing to $. c. Collins.
 The facts are $. C. Collins raised the bull and taught it to fight. When the animal attacked differ ent people he was warned to keep the animal up, but boasted he would let 1t run, and as a result it was served as all such animals are serv- end, and without danger to its life. The animal never received a min ute's care and is still in the town. though the present owner, Charles Peterson, keeps him up even at this date fearing for the safety of women and children.
 When the commissioner investi- gated the matter he acknowledged the bull should have been shot and warned Collins to take better care of the animal in the future.
 The article further states that the gang stole six cases of dynam- ite from J. o. Buzzard's cache, and made two explosions in blowing up public bridge, burning a cabin, tearing down fence and breaking windows. and last, and by far the most vicious statement, that the explosions caused the death of Mir. A. l.. Howard.
 The facts area charge of dyn- amite of much less than a box. judging from the noise. was set off as a Christmas joke away off on the flat, far from any house, which broke only one pane of glass in the town, and as for sinking a cabin there is not shadow of truth in the statement.
 A few sticks were placed under a private bridge-not a public one at all-and few logs of the approach was blown off. It didn't knock down one length of fence, which was nailed to the end of the bridge where the powder was placed.
 As to Mir. Howard being affected by the explosion he should have been the best judge as he asked the next day if he was disturbed by the explosion, and replied that he hardly felt the shock, and did not realize there had been an explo- sion until next morning.
 Such are the facts and The Tat tier must have known them to be SJ.
 The person who wrote the article must have known he lied when he wrote it, and it is bound to leak out in time who The Tattler is. Iven- ture to predict he will meet with the treatment all liars should re- ceive-the contempt of all respect able people.
 As to the respectable people of Hope fearing for their person or property we know positively that not d reputable person in Hope can be found who will verify a sin gle accusation made in the article.
 As citizens of Hope we are very sorry that any such stories should be published about any of our citi- zens and have the most extreme contempt for the sneaking scoun- drel while sharing our hospitality The fellow we'll knows that if the citizens knew the author of the article he would be completely ig- nored by the whole camp, for we imagine that person who would write such an aggregation of mis- representation is d greater hoodlum and vandal than any We have ever