Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-07-31
SOME ANCIENT HISTORY.

explanation. LaSt week l1e DfECIA-
TOR, in order to set itself right, pub
| lished an editorial from the Danville
Register and a reply to it from the d.
& n. This fact has caused the editor
of the d. Il N. to get very warm under
the collar, and take the SPECTATOR
severely to task for publishing what it
is any lie out, it is not our lie, and we
care little about that part of the con-
troversy. 1t says:
"The editor of the Dispatch and News
can point out with unerring accuracy all
the papers in the state of Virginia, few
in number, likely to copy and give
currency to 4 falsehOod of this sort,
and frankly we expected the SPECTA-
TOR TO do it,"
| The SPECTATOR may unwittingly or
otherwise give currency to falsehood
told by some one else, but the editor Of
that paper has never acted falsehood,
such as further on the editor Of the d.
d n. admits he acted in 1896 when he
voted for Palmer and Buckner, but
wanted Mckinley. Nor has the SPEC
TAToR ever been afraid openly to do
what it secretly was trying to bring
about. In the article mentioned the
editor of the ID. & N. says of himself
in 1896:
'sHe was gold democrat and sup
ported the gold democratic ticket, and
voted for it,
Using his own language as nearly as
possible we desire to say ''The editor
of the SPECTATOR can point out with
unerring accuracy to all the editors in
the State of Virginia who acted that
falsehood, and frankly we expected the
editor of the d. & n. to be one of them. +"
| During the campaign of 1896 the ac-
tual responsible people editing the
News were unknown to us, and unas-
certainable. The SPECTATOR made
various efforts to uncover them, and
now for the first time in twelve years
the fact is before us that the present
|
perpetrating the political rottenness
of that period, or in writing the edito-
rails of that paper.
When the News had been well sup
piled with campaign Doodle and made
its summersault and landed gracefully
in the Republican ring, it began flood
ing the country with its issues. Per-
sons wrote the SPECTATOR to know
what to do with it, and the following
advice in part was given in our issue
Of August 5, 1896:
The paper of which the writer speaks
will not, in our opinion, hurt the cause
of silver, first because few will read it;
second because it is not convincing, and
| third because the average man picks
his own newspaper, and does not care
to have his home polluted with cast off
rubbish, Or noXiOus or effete matter
thrust into it possibly with sinister
motives or evil design. The paper may
answer some purpose. Try it for light
ing the kitchen stove.
On August II, 1896, when trying to
ascertain who and what the Staunton
Daily News was, under the head '.To
the Staunton Daily News" we said in
part
1t has been our misfortune never to
mention the action of our neighbor,
the Daily News, without calling down
upon our heads the ire of that journal
We may have spoken irreverently of
it at times, but we did not think it
treason to do so. Our readers will re-
member that the News was the off
spring of the boom, that blight or our
city, that it has lived a chequered life
that in the brief life it has led, it has
changed hands and views several times,
that in its four and half years of ex-
istence it has been blessed with four
and half editors, that it could not
long advocate any policy, because of its
Kaleidoscope transitions.
So long as the News remained in the
! Democratic party we were, we thought,
on the best of terms, but when it bolt
ed, whilst we might credit it with hon
est intentions, we could no longer re-
main quiet locker on at its actions
When it turned upon the people, and
aimed its blows at the very heart of
the nation as we believed,-the agri-
cultural interest-then we must be par
doned if we come to the rescue of those
who have always been the mainstay of
this government, but who have been
and are now being Systematically rob-
bed, by the very people and institu-
tons in league with the principles of
| the News.
We suppose nobody will deny, that
the directory of the News, which so
long floated proudly at its mast head,
has been hauled down.
Why, we will not pause to enquire.
We suppose nobody will deny, that
that directory so proudly fOated, was
almost entirely if not altogether COM
posed of bank officials.
We suppose that nobody will deny,
that the News has recently been much
strengthened in it's general mechanism,
and ability to produce papers, without
any change in its directory.
We suppose nobody will denv. that