Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-03-21
THE ALLEGED FIELDER LETTER
News and Courier Discusses the Mat
ter Interestingly and lntelIi gently.

That Is an interesting letter given
out by Governor Blease and which
Hub" Evans of Newberry, a client OF
the governors until recently, claims
to have received from Col. Thomas B.
Fielder of Atlanta, the attorney who
represented the winding-up commits
sion of the old state dispensary in i'm
portant phases Of its work. The letter
represents the writer Of 1t as explain
! ing to Hub" then chairman of the
state dlspensary board, that he, the
| writer, had framed up a company on
| such lines that IL Hub" would only
see to 1t that the company were given
the orders of the South Carolina state
| dispensary, both Hub" and the writer
| would he able to make a killing"
| which, 1t Is suggested, would have
| amounted probably to something like
quarter Of a million dollars apiece.
Col. Fielder asserts emphatically that
the letter Is an out and out forgery.
Governor Blease replies that the hand
writing is certainly Felder's handwrit-
ing, and Hub" says that not only did
Col. Fielder write him this letter, but
/ that he also wrote him other letters,
| offering to frame up a big DEAL" that
Col Fielder and the general manager
of an Illinois whisky house came to
Newberry to see him, that he told them
to put their proposition in writing"
and that "the letter that Governor
Blease gave out is the proposition Of
Fielder. which I turned down."
Hub" also volunteered to swear on
Fielder wrote him the letter, promised
to tell some hot stuff about other
deals that they tried to frame up," and
asserted that he could prove by liv-
ing witnesses that Tom Fielder wrote
the letter" You don't know half the
inside business" Hub" concluded
"and If you will come up here Ito
Newberry) I will tell you all about It."
To hear Hubs" narrative would be
worth a longer trip than is indicated.
The eagerness of the public to learn
that story Is not so keen as 1t was a
few years ago, 1t Is true, but 1t Is still
keen enough.
Moreover, we suspect that Col. Fell
der himself knows a thing or two OF
which he may he tempted to unbur-
den his mind. AS to whether or not
he wrote this particular letter we are
sure that an opinion from us would
be regarded as gratuitous. 1t would
certainly be valueless. We shall con-
tent ourselves therefore with remark
ing that IL the colonel did write the
letter, and he Is positive that he didn't,
then he knows a lot less about gram
mar than we had given him credit for,
/ and he Is also a fool, whereas we
had been led to believe that he was
possessed Of unusual sagacity Of a
certain order We have never before
heard of his using such an expression
as owned by you and l." and we
would respectfully suggest to him that
he avoid doing so In future. Nor
would we have believed that man Of
his reputed experience, as an attorney,
in dealing with crooked propositions
would have put such a proposition as
this in writing when he had the man
to whom he was making 1t before
him. a... ..'..'
| That, however, Is what Hub" says
he did, and that is what Col. Fielder
says he didn't do, and the public and
the courts must determine who Is tell
ing the truth. All that we have to say
on the subject is that with battle join
ed between three Of the men who know
as much as or perhaps more than any
three men living about the latter days
Of the old state dispensary we not only
cannot see how the public has any
thing to lose but on the contrary we
are led to imagine that there Is even
q likelihood that the public has In
store revelations which at the least
cannot fail to be interesting.-News
and Courier.