Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1907-06-15
STRONG TERMS
IN ITS REPLY
TO U. S. SENATOR M'LAURlN
VICKSBURG HERALD ANSWERS
SENATOR'S INTERVIEW
Digs Up History of Mississippi Poll
tics for Past Two Decades and
Lays Bare What Is Alleged to Be
the Record of the Noted Gang,

Vlcksburg, Miss, June 9.-T. s. Nc,
Nelly, editor of the Vicksburg Herald,
made the following editorial reply this
morning to the structures of Senator A.
J. McLaurin, made on the Herald week
ago.
Senator A. j. McLaurin's attack on
the Herald through certain papers last
Sunday, and which was reproduced in
these columns Tuesday last, was in his
very best and most typical style. Its al
legged provocation was that the Herald
had INDUCED in unprovoked abuse of
him. As matter of fact, his distin-
gulshed name has scarcely appeared in
the Herald since he was Governor. In
recent years, by the outward signs, his
Senatorship has been a sideshow to his
criminal law practice; notices and inter-
views in the jackson papers when he was
going to or from the courts being about
the only evidence that he was in public
life. As he was notoriously cipher in
Washington, his absences from there
have called for no criticism in the Her.
aid. So far as we recall, the last men,
tion it had of him was of his engage
ment in the defense of the late Sergeant
Dave Puckett, who was indicted for cru.
city to eonyicts As this abuse was in
December, 1905, the fiction of his plant
is plain The sole specification he ad-
yanced in substantiation of the charge
OF unprovokcd abuse is the Hcrald's re.
production, April 2S, of an article from
the Southern Sentinel, which he says we
copied after having it published in that
subservient paper This slur is left to
the Sentinel to take care of. And as to
the imputation on the board of control
in said article, which the aggrieved Sena-
tor charges up to the Herald, it is thus
introduced: The following is an extract
taken from speech recently delivered in
Newton by Hon. f. ~ Thomas, candi-
date for Governor The Mississippi SEN
ator treats this extract as though insti-
gated by the Herald though originating
in the Sentinel; the fact that the real
author was Mr.. Thomas he suppressed.
The unblushing mendacity of this speei-
men of deceit is only equaled by its trans
parent stupidity. AS as to this extract, it
may be said further that the statements
and conclusions of Mr.. Thomas upon the
record of the board of control, with
which Senator McLaurn joins issue, are
derived from the official report of the
State revenue agent.
Having shown that the Senator's at
tack is, in its alleged cause, sham;
that he has, in truth, been given no PROV
ocation for the libelous falsChOods he has
lodged against the Herald, we will cite
to circumstances which betray his real
motive. Recently a jackson scribe
gave out that Senator McLaurin was GO
ing to butt in ON the canvass; warm
personalities were predicted between him
and Gov. Vardaman; a meeting was an
nounced between him and Scott, where
exciting scenes were to be expected. 1t |
was asserted by the clan positively that |
he was going to take the stump for
Truly. Doubtless such assurance was
given that protector of the State from |
Dago peril Notoriously a gutter, whose
courage, like that of Bob Acres, has the |
habit of 'oozing' away when the time of |
performance comes on, the Senator's |
Truly obligation has dwindled down to |
slanderous attack on the Herald.
Plain Dealing.
$50 much for the motive of the attack |
upon the Herald. As to the attack itself
we will be pardoned for dealing some
what plainly with accusations so widely |
published that seek to make the editor
of the paper infamous. So long as the |
falsehood of being owned by the CON
scienceless public service corporations,
the financial pirates who are robbing
the people, was only peddled out by
Truly and Brewer, it was not worth de-
nial. 1t was thought to be a deroga
ton, indeed, of a record that has been
an open book in this State for over forty
years to so dignity charges from them;
charges such as no gentleman and no
scoundrel had ever uttered before. But
when the libel has the Endorsement of a
United States Senator the case is differ
ent; albeit he simply makes three of this
pair of arcades ambo.
"A lie which is all lie may be met and
fought outright.
But a lie which is part truth is hard.
er matter to fight
at is our fortune to contend with
that which is all lie In meeting it
we have only to say that it has not
sing 2 filament of fact or a color of cir
cumstance ON which to rest. We are
charged with seeing everything through
the glasses of the Yazoo Valley Railroad
Company that we never support any
body the railroads oppose, and never OPP
pose anybody the railroads support, The
Herald readers will bear out the asser-
tion that we have criticised the Valley
road with more frequency and more se-
verify than any other paper in this city,
or we may say, in the State. In the
strictest and broadest sense neither this
paper nor the editor ever asked, or ever
received, dollar or dollars worth of
favor, or special consideration from any
railroad company or other corporation
Whatsoever; and, of course, no orders or
directions as to the men we have sup
ported for office. The late Senator
George was just man, but he did not
love railroads, as any one will perceive |
who reads the corporation article i'll The
State Constitution which he shaped, and
which, he said to lis, he had as much at