Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-07-19

he allowed Porter adroitly to inter.
IJect repeatedly the name Of the gov
ernor, so as to make it appear thai
the governor and not Mr.. Sims was tc
get share of 1t. II any further evl.
dence Is needed that he was intoxi,
Gated at this interview it will be fur.
nished by Mr.. Paisley, the judge of the
city court Of Spartanburg, when he
went to Porter's room. Mr.. Paisley Ii
not a Blease supporter. There Mr.
Paisley left him, and Porter seated Mr.
Nichols in front of the dictagraph
The trap was ready and there was
Porter, squat like toad, close at the
ear of Eve, essaying by his devilisf
arts to instill his poison" Unfortu.
nately Mr.. Nichols remembers very
little Of what passed-none of the
vile suggestions made by Porter. Por.
ter swears that the dictagraph car
not falsify, and yet this record Is full
OF the mistakes of names of well.
known persons here contained in 1t
and hence other errors may have oc-
Cured elsewhere where the change OF
word or punctuation point makes
vital difference. I presume that the
stenographer copied the notes as &C.
curately as he could. But Is there
nothing in the record that the steno-
| grapher did not put there? Most of the
vile suggestions made by Porter are
| on the last pages of the record, and
| we have only his word for it that he
did not add these pages to 1t after
| the typewriter copy was turned over
to him. He could easily have done so
When 1t Is remembered that this Por-
ter had found Mr.. Nichols incorrupt-
ible when at himself, and had delib-
erately made him drunk in order to
take advantage Of him, he appears
none too good to do that thing. A
man who would deliberately make a
| guest drunk in order to instigate him
in the condition to do wrong, and
while still in that condition take from
| him SIS which Porter confesses he
| did and never return 1, sitoenn ?fon
did and never return 1t, Is none toe
good to manufacture testimony when
he could secure it in no other way
and finds 1t necessary In order tC
make out his case and make his pay
Knows Nichols.
Mr.. Nichols only fault in this mat
| ter, as shown by the records, Is that
he associated with this fellow Porter
alias Reed, believing that he was an
honest man and gentleman, when he
| was not, and drank with him when he
| believed Porter was actuated by
friendship and hospitality, when he
was instigated by treachery. One OF
Mr.. Nichols most intimate associates
tells me that he never before saw Mr.
Nichols in such a condition as he was
| with Porter, and it is more than prob
| able that this man had drugged the
| whisky he gave his guest.
But whether all the alleged CONVEX
sation was taken by the dictagrapf
or not, this much is certain: When
Mr.. Nichols became sober and clothed
| in his right mind he had forgotten II
all, If it ever occurred. When subse-
quently he went to the governor to
present the matter in legal way he
| iound him too busy TO take 1t up, as
he had repeatedly told Mr.. Porter, &C.
| cording to the dictagraph records
that he feared it would be. He did not
bring the matter up before the gov
| ernor. This Is stated to be a fact
both by the governor and Mr.. Nichols
and If Mr.. Nichols says so, 1t Is true
l am his uncle and have known him
from infancy, and I know, as others
know, that he is incapable Of dis
honor as the hireling of Fielder is in
capable of honorable action. 1t Is
also certain that the conspirators
waited in vain for the telegram an
nouncing that the plot had gone
through. 1t had failed ANONYMOUSLY
| 1t is so stated in the records Of the
proceeding before the commission
that the expected telegram had not
| been received. Either Mr.. Nichols
never offered the governor the bribe
which the conspirators had planned
| or the governor refused to accept II
and. to sign this pardon, even for $780,
| 900 as a contribution to his campaign
fund.
After the admission in the records
| of the committee that no such tele-
gram had been received, T. B. Eel
der announces that he has received
a telegram announcing that Blease
had accepted the bribe Of $4,000.
Now we are on solid ground again
Reed has been summoned before the
| commission. If they have received
that telegram, they must have 1t. Mr.
Nichols denies 1t. Let them produce
1t, or stand convicted by their own
words of one of the vilest conspiracies
known to the history Of this country
| That issue is sharp and clear-cut. Let
| them meet it. People who fake tele-
grams would not hesitate to take die
| tagrams.
1t is fortunate for these criminal
| conspirators that they failed. Some
| detectives think it no dishonor to get
q man drunk in order to worm from
| him a confession Of past crimes; but
such practice Is regarded by the court
as so indecent that no respectable
court would allow 1t to be sufficient
evidence for conviction. 1t Is entirely
different when private detective be-
| comes the instigator Of crime for his
personal ends. whether those ends
be to blight a reputation or to secure
the escape of a convict. Had they
succeeded In bribing the governor,
either directly or indirectly, they
might have ruined him, but would
have ruined themselves with him, for
1t Is as great a crime to give a bribe
as to take 1t, and the fact that they
hatched the plot to further the re-
venge of Fielder or to crafty his mall
ice would be no excuse in morals or
justification in law. Private detec-
tives are not officers of the land. They
have no rights, differing from the
rights of other citizens. They make
their living by selling their peculiar
services to private parties. 1t Is q
profession in which deception, fraud
and lying Is a fine art, and this fellow
Reed admits that he has had 22 years
experience in it. There are doubtless
honorable detectives, but 1 am pre-
pared to prove that this fellow Reed
Is not one of them. If he gets on
the stand again as he promised to do
the only place we can reach him In
this proceeding-I am prepared to
prove that he is a thing without a
shred of honor or decency, a creature
who willingly sells his truth and honor
for a daily wage, an embryo GRIM
inal who, by no merit of his own,
barely escapes being a fugitive from
justice or a convict in felon stripes
in a common cell. This Is not mere