Semi-weekly herald., 1911-08-31
THE LIBEL scIT.

The readers of The Herald know
that this paper has been sued, and
its editor arrested and taken into a
court charged with having libeled one
Samuel TRULY. The Denver Post is
also sued and the editor of this pa
per is named as party to the suit
OH the grounds that he is Durango
representative of that paper.
The fact that attorneys could be
found to take case for libel, when
the plaintiff is a man of Truby's repu-
tation, is significant and worthy of
deep thought but we suppose that if
Judas could come back to life, and
still retained any part Of the thirty
pieces of silver for which he betrayed
the Master, he could arrange to have
a libel suit brought against Mathew,
Mark, Luke and John, on the grounds
that his good name had been injured
by the publication of the holy Bible.
The bringing of this suit could only
have been done for one of two rea-
sons, one is that the attorneys for
that pure and innocent man, Sam
TRULY, hoped to scare the editor of
The Herald into line and convert it
irto second TRULY organ, the other
is that they court a full exploitation
of the Truby's court record in the
columns of The Herald so that they
can go into court and ask for
change of venue on the grounds that
so much newspaper publicity has been
given the cases against the Trubys
that it will be impossible to secure
fair trial in La Plata county. Now
we want to say to you that the TRULY
gang never saw the day, and never
will see the day, that they can scare
this old fat man one little bit and
the quicker they realize this fact the
better. We are no gun man, we carry
no weapon of any sort, but we are
not even timid so far as the TRULY
gang is concerned. We would not
deliberately walk out into the wild re-
gions Of Trouble mesa alone where
we might by chance run onto two or
three of the gang together for we do
not feel that our work is finished here
in this dreary vale of tears, having
lived for fifty-one years, we have ac-
Guired the habit of living and would
hate to stop in an abrupt manner,
but just so long as we grind along
in our regular routine and mind our
own business just exactly as we see
fit to mind it, keep in the lighted
streets and out of dark alleys, we
shall refuse to turn pale and trem-
BILE at the sight of any one, or all, of
the gang.
The other proposition has more to
commend it to the thoughtful read
er, The Herald surely will give Mr..
Samuel TRULY considerable space, not
for spite but because we want the
newer comers into the county to know
just exactly what kind of record is
possessed by the man who claims that
The Herald has libeled him by pub
fishing special report sent in by
responsible correspondent. A mans
court record is public property and
that will, we think, be entirely suffi-
cient to make our case as between
our readers and ourself and that is as
far as we care to go into the affairs
of the honorable, upright and noble,
Samuel TRULY.
The person who is conversant with
the history of the TRULY outfit, even
with their record for the past six
months, cannot but believe that the
attorneys in the case never did, and
do not now, expect to get any judg
ment for damages to the reputation
of TRULY but they are working up
the best possible conditions under
which to meet the trial of the Trubys
in district court and it is their inten-
ton, probably, to attempt to either
silence the press regarding the es-
capades of the gang or to get all pos
sible publicity given for the reason
hereinbefore stated.
AS for us we are proud to have it
publicly known that The Herald has
the undying hatred of such men as
Mr.. Samuel Truby Esquire, we are
proud to be known as unalterably op-
posed to outlawry in any form and
above even the suspicion of being
subsidiary of any gang engaged in
unlawful and illegal acts.
Wouldn't it be hell to have to go