Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-01-03
Mr.. CHOwNING TO MR.. CURLErT.
To THE Hon. JOHN CuRLErr:


attention TO the fact that | received
only two majority in the late election
Tor Supervisor? l have never boosted
on my majority or my success, nor have
| been'crowing over anybody: if had l
would not have been surprised at your
desire to remind me of my small ma
Jority. But since you seem anxious to
continue this mud-flinging which is
distasteful to mel will just remind
you that when you ran for the COM
missioner of the revenue, the number
of votes cast for you was forty-three
LESS than those cast for any other
candidate.
You concluded that have no cause
for congratulation, as you see it; will
show it up, as see it, and let some
others decide whether or not have any
cause for congratulation In the first
place challenge you to find two men
whom 1 asked to vote for me, or
two that l asked to help me. |
may have asked one Indirectly, but /
am not sure that the gentleman under
stood it that way. Some of my friends
insisted on my doing some electioneer-
ing, but did not. for reasons of my
own. On election day heard an old
man-who l was confident wanted to
vote for me-teh one of the judges that
he wanted him to be there when he
voted and mark his ticket for him; and
l asked the old man if he did not know
that the judge whom he asked would not
mark the ticket for me unless he told
him to do so. His reply was that if he
did not he would ''bust" the whole
thing up and vote like they did before
the war. That is all the electioneering
that have done.
On the other hand, sir, my opponents
who were among the smartest poll
ticians in the county and probably in
any other county-were making a can
vass from house to house, night and
day, and telling what they and their aids
had heard about me; one of which was
as l have been informed by reliable
gentleman, whose word I have no rea-
son to doubt-that they intended to
have men at the trial of the shell case
who would prove that | made a bar
gain with Mr.. Landlord for those shells.
When the case came up, those men
were noted for their absence. Now
sir, under those circumstances l think
| have done well to get a majority at
all. But / do not mean to boast of it.
The combinations in this election
made il very unfavorable to my success;
for one mani do not know how many
more there may have benin order to
get the Office he wanted, made a bar
gain with my opponent to work for
him at Ottoman if he would work for
him at Litwalton; but i do not think
that man had any fault to find of me,
but wanted an office.
If you could only in some way rid
yourself of some Of your conceit, you
could probably see these things in a
different light; but as il seems you can
not, you have-by making one of those
circles you had in your first and second
letters gotten back to the main point
in this controversy when you try to
make the impression that l have ever
denied that / talked about shells
with Mr.. Landlord; but under
what obligations could have put
Mr.. Landlord by discussion?
have proved by circumstantial evil
dence, by the testimony of two wit
nesses, to the satisfaction of a jury of
twelve men the truth of my side of the
case, but in your unprecedented onceit
you appear to know better than all of
us. Your conceit has led you TO believe
that YOU know better than anyone
else, but the idea of you knowing bet
ter than anyone else as to the truth
in the main point in this case is pre-
posterous and entirely beyond COM
prehension.
In answer to the question, do these
shells belong to the county?" will say
that since the shells are actually on the
road, do not feel competent to an
swer the question, but deny ever hav-
ing said that Mr.. Landlord cannot take
them off, Notwithstanding what you
may have heard. When certain party
said ''the shells would be taken up'
said tell them not to carry away any
dirt, the reply was that would be i'm
possible, ," then / said ''get them to
wash the Shells"
Now for the road questions which /
am perfectedly willing to answer.
AS to which is best to use, mules or
oxen, there are advocates of both, and
/ am satisfied that if we had mules
there are some who would want oxen.
l am not anxious to have my choice,
whichever it may be, because I think
it much more important for the man
who is doing the work to have his
choice, as any man who goes to do a
piece of work wants the tools with
which he can work best; but / cannot
say that we would get fair days work
if had mules, for as far as I know
mules can stand still as long as oxen.
and when the mules have pulled that
machine as long as those oxen I don't
know that they would be any faster.
Can you say that you often get a fair
days work on your farm? and is it as
easy to get fair days work for the
county as it is for the farm We have
not found it so.
Oxen will eat more long food, but
mules may require more grain. AL
though we had to pay very high price
for the oxen, do not think we could