The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-04-05
S. T. SISTRUNk FULLY EXPLAINS
LETTER PUBLISHED BY
p. n. NUGENT
Ocala, Fla, April /, 1912.

County:
On the 18th day of June, 1911, the
newspapers of this county published
a communication from me in reply to
letter published by Mr.. P. H. MI
gent, in which communication l stat
ed that it was too early to impose on
the people of this county political
differences which might be brought
out in the campaign of 1912; therefore,
/ have not replied to the various
communications from Mr.. Nugent, so
widely published in this county, both
in the newspapers and by circular let
tiers, but as the primary is now only
thirty days off, l feel it my duty to
explain to the voters the ORIGIN of
the letter published by Mr.. Nugent,
and upon which, it seems, he is max
ing his campaign.
Some time prior to January 4th,
1908, l met Mr. Nugent in Ocala and
The wanted to know who had a horse
for sale, and / informed him that
Mr.. H. c. Jones had one in my pas
ture, and Mr.. Nugent asked to go
with me and see the animal / took
him in my buggy to my farm to see
the horse. On the way home Mr.. Nu-
gent stated to me, in the course of
our conversation, that he did not
think he would be candidate for the
clerks office in 1908, as he had writ
ten several letters, and had received
very little encouragement, but had
not fully made up his mind. He also
said he had lost lots of money in min
| ing investments, and had but little
left, and that on account of the wrong
doings of party interested with him
in their gold mine property in Colo
RADIO, he had taken the party's orange
grove in Gambler. l stated to Mr.. Nu-
gent that | had two nice little orange
groves, and if nothing happened, and
my friends did not want me to run
any more, | would not, as my time
would be about taken up in caring
for these groves and farm.
Some time later Mr.. Nugent came
into the clerks office and wanted to
know if | had changed my mind. /
replied that / had not, and then he
MI cd RI 10 or a
my friends about the matter, and L
declined He then asked me if /
would write him a letter, and l said
no" He left the office He again
came to the office and approached me
on the subject and requested me to
put the matter in writing, which
again declined to do. Some time a
little later he came again to the
clerks office, and while sitting close
to the desk, took out of his pocket 4
letter written in his own hand-writ-
ing, and asked me to copy the same
and sign it, which l did hurriedly,
and without considering it's import
closely, and delivered it to him. He
then stated that he fully understood
the conditions (which | mentioned in
the conversation when returning from
my farm and would not show the let
ter, and requested me to destroy the
letter of his which | had copied, and
this is the letter he has so widely
published and circulated in this
county.
After the campaign of 1908, possibly
during the first part of the year 1911,
Mr.. Nugent advised me that he had
made up his mind to run for the Of
fee of clerk of circuit court in 1912,
and | informed him that it was free
country, and if he saw fit to begin
his campaign so early, he could do
so, and that in 1912, if nay friends
wanted me to run, / would feel at lib
erty TO do so. He afterwards came to
the office and wanted TO know what
had changed my mind. | told him
that a great many of my friends all
over the county were urging and in
sisting ON my running again for the
office: that he had shown the letter
that he had promised not to show,
and that the cold had come and
greatly damaged my groves, which
were the conditions referred to and
understood before the letter was writ
ten. He said to me: All right, but
let us have a friendly campaign. |
told him that | would be very glad to
do so, and shortly afterwards he be-
gan his present method of campaign
ing
If my friends all over the county
had not so urgently insisted on my
running again for the office. and my
groves had not been so greatly dam
aged, would not be candidate.
/ realize fully that / made two mis-