Denver labor bulletin., 1915-03-20

Recently the Fort Lupton Press print
ed little paragraph about the time the
sheriff of Nebraska county cleaned out
my country printing office several years
ago. C. w. Wildly, member of Denver
typographical Union and now travelling
representative in the West for the Mer-
genthaler Linotype company, who was
working for me at the time, let go of
the yarn on one of his visits to Fort
Lupton, but it was SO badly twisted in
the printing or in the telling, that l am
going to give the straight of it.
1t happened 80 years ago. was a
bud" at the time, and an almighty
green one in the newspaper game. l was
running weekly in county seat town
about the size of Windsor, in Nickolls
county, Neb- The only Democratic off
cial the county boasted was the sheriff,
Tom Jones, I'll call him, but that isn't
his real name. Tom was about the rank
est official that ever kept the peace in
prohibition county. He ran a drug
store that was a cover for a booze Joint.
His prisoners for various petty crimes
had regular habit of beating it,
whenever they got tired of staying in
jail And there were other things that
shocked the good people of Nelson even
worse So the church people and the
W. C. T. u. ladies', good souls all,
thought it was my duty as Democrat
ic editor. to clean up the sheriff's Of
flee. Kid that | was, fell for it, and
here is about what printed:
Our sheriff, Tom Jones. is disgrace
to the county and he ought to be re-
moved He is running a saloon under the
guise of drug store, and he accepts
bribes to let county prisoners get away.
Besides all this he is running disor-
derly house in a neighboring town Some
body ought to do something"
Somebody did. 1t was Tom Jones. At
the time the paper came out I was laid
up at my boarding house with game
leg. Tom was up to see me about five
minutes afterward- He was d bad man.
was Tom, and had real notches on his
gun. too He told me that he was going
to stamp the life out of me. and grind
my white liver to sausage then and
there Honest, he had me scared within
an inch of my life. | begged him to
wait until ] got well, so that he could
make a clean job of it and give me a
little chance for my life. / was so
scared that l guess the cuss took pity
on me and let me live.
A lew hours after he left, / learned
that he was going to have me arrested
loI criminal lhei- Now / Knew n
vague sort Of way that there was such
q thing as libel. but that was all. And
smile. You knowing ones. but all the evil
denee that | had to back up my direct
published charges was Just street talk.
no more definite than some of the
charges that are banded about Creeley's
streets against men who are still travel
ing in respectable circles here today. 1
thought what everybody said must be
true Wasn't ! mutt
They got out a warranr late that
night, intending to serve it SO late that
l would have to spend the night in Jail.
! hired a lawyer and he got wind of the
proceedings and spirited me into a va
cant house at the edge of town after
dark and there | stayed until morning.
The sheriffs men hunted until near
dawn before they gave up. About nine
the next morning | came down town and
was taken in. hut secured bond without
going to Jail
Then | began the job of getting evil
dence to hack up my charges. For
learned pretty quickly that to fall down
with my proof meant a term in the pen
for me, under the Nebraska laws. Saw.
| never saw so many ignorant people in
my life as met in the next Two months
Everybody asked had heard things. but
nobody had bought liquor of Tom. no.