The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-12-27
Pays Respects to Town Topics
Man in Magazine.
GEoRe|A STATESMAN IN ANGRY MOOD
COMES OUT IN NEW PUBLICATION
SHOWING UP COLONEL AS
"GRAND OLD RASCAL"

Tom Watson is out with new mag
aZine.
1t is called Watson's Jeffersoniar
Magazine.
There is another publication bearing
the populist leaders name. 1t is Tom
Watson's Magazine, but it has nothing
of Tom Watson's but his name.
What is the name without the man
asks the Georgia statesman in the
foreword of his new publication, in
which he relates the ugly dream" OF
his New York experience.
The ogre of Watson's bad dream was
Colonel Mann of Town Topics fame
and the way Watson handles him in
the foreword makes interesting reading
The substance of Mr.. Watson's story
is that after getting him in to the mag
azine venture with his name as the
chief asset, Colonel Mann, with one
C. @. de France, fired him out and
seized the property. But tne spirit of
it fled with Watson, as Watson himself
declares, and nothing but the corpse
of the magazine remains in their pos
session.
1t was while he was bordering
whether to accept an offer to edit a
New York newspaper at large salary
that Mr.. Watson first met Colonel
Mann. Here is his description of the
colonel on that interesting occasion:
while in this uncertain state of
mind, Colonel Mann burst in upon me
at my hotel in all the glory and pom
posity of white whiskers, white hair
wine colored face, spotted waistcoat
gold-headed cane, baywindow belly
eyes that looked like hard-boiled eggs
constant use.
LAS l may have remarked before, he
looked just like a picture taken out of
a child's colored picture book.
while he talked to me 1 sat there
trying to make up my mind as to which
he resembled most an idealized por-
trayal Of Santa Claus or Of John Bull
or of John Barleycorn. 1 finally de-
cided that he would do for a composite
photograph Of all three.
This funnylooking old chap 1 mad
never heard of before. His Town Top
les 1 had never seen-didn't know OF
it's existence"
Mr.. Watson says that after the mag
azine was started Colonel Mann made
several propositions that caused him
to smell a rat and size up the colonel
as "a grand old rascal" but ne stuck
to the magazine because his word was
publicly pledged.
Mr.. Watson says that his salary of
$500 month was not paid, but that he
was willing to go on working for moth
ing, he loved the magazine so. But he
would not stand for the insertion in it
Of advertisements of Colonel Mann's
various publications. So he quit. Then:
How He Got the Magazine.
Colonel Mann rushed into court, got
a judgment against the magazine for
100000. and sold it at sheriff's sale to
himself.
He actually had the sheriff to sell
my name, and was ass enough to buy
it,
But he didn't buy me, along with
the name, and he didn't buy the spirit
of the magazine when he bought the
desks, the iron safe, and the trade
name"
Further he says:
Il wonder if these New York ras-
Gals really thought that l would quietly
sit down and twiddle my thumbs while
they were making off with Watson's
Magazine? l wonder if it never en-
tered into those heads, which were bent
together to plot and to scheme, that the
consequence Of their pretty little game
might be a revolt of Watson and his
friends.
Unless l am greatly mistaken the
subscribers to Watson's Magazine are
Mr. Watson's friends, and they are 60
ing to stand by him. We shall see.''
On the whole, Mr.. Watson thinks his
experience with Colonel Mann has done
him good. He explains as follows:
"They have put into me, once more,
that intensity of energy and purpose
which otherwise might never have been
mine again. WHAT the spur is to the
thoroughbred, what the bugle call is
to the cavalier, the recent attempts of
my enemies to compass my ruin has
been to me.
by the living God! Here is no
thought of surrender, no weakness of
doubt or hesitation, but a resolution
fixed as hardened steel, to march on
What! Be a gutter now? Falter
or flicker now? Lower the flag and
stack arms, now?
die