Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1889 — SHIELDS REPLIES. [ARTICLE]

SHIELDS REPLIES.

In a late issue of the Republican John W. Powell takes exceptions te certain statements made in a communication over my name from the Indianapolis Sentinel of July 23d. He says that am a liar and a coward —a liar inasmuch as I knew the statemeuts to be false, and a coward because I waited until he was eight hundred miles away before publishing the the same, it certainly is not a verj great test of bravery on +he part of Mr. Powell to call a man a liar and a coward when he against whom those pithets are directed is eight hundred miles distant. He says he is perfectly willing to let the public be the

judge as to the charges made by me, and also to let the public printer be the judge as to his competency to fill the position to which Le has been ppointed. We believe Mr. Powell left his case with the public in 1884, and after six months of piteous pleading by himself and friends judgment was handed down which was not altogether to his liking notwithstanding his political friends cast a plurality of nearly four hundred votes. Repudiation No. 1 did not deter him from making another effort in 1 86, and that part of the public which are his political friends, through their representatives, ad ministered repudiation No. 2 when Dr. Washburn was nominated for Treasurer. Last spring he again bobbed up serenely and pressed his claim for the Roussel* aer Post Office, and although in a convention of “those who knew him longest and best”, he was repudiated for the third time. As fas as the question of his compe tency to fill the position to wliich he has been appointed is concerned it don’t require a very great am’t of ability, except as a vote manipulator or ward worker, under the present odministrntion, if the Indiana appoint™ ej its may be the criterion used, in judging the appointments at large. Taken as a whole, their corrupting influence is enough to poison the moral atmosphere from Boston to Chicago, and even Mr. Powell should be ashamed of such company. Mr. Powell does not deny having beat an old gray-haired man at Wheatfield, during last campaign, but says he did not beat him without provocation, as stated in my communication to the Indianapolis Sentinel. Ihere is an axiom as old as the pyramids, viz: “Strike not the aged or a woman,” which seems to have been violated in this particular case, for the old man who received Mr. Powell’s blows was James B. Graham, an old soldier of both the Mexican and Civil Wars. It does not reflect credit on Mr. Powell, or any man of his physical strength, to strike an old man under any provocation whatever, and in this case it has been denounced by persons who witnessed it, regardless of party

,• o J affiliation, as simply an outrage. — We will give ths facts a* stated by 'reputable citizens who witnessed the affair. Mr. Powell and another man was arguing some question pertaining to politics whereupon the old man ventured some remark which greatly innensed Mr. Powell, who answered him in language more forcible than courted ous, and told him that he could whip him. Mr. Graham stepped down from the platform, and per 4 haps made some hostile demonstration, whereupon Mr Powell landed a stinging blow on the old man’s face, and followed it with several others. The fact that Mr. Graham was fined, and Mr. Powell was not, is no justification of Mr. Powell, for it is veil known that in some parts of Jasper county justice is meted out with rigor or leniency according to the political affiliations of the culprit, and in this particular case it would have been striking a blow at the grand old party to have compelled Mr. Powell to contribute to the school fund of Indiana, as bis mission to that place was of a political nature,

and Mr. Graham’s friends, believing that justice would not be done, refrained from filing charges against him. And the fact that the bondsmen of & certain J. P. were successful in an action in the Circuit Court for re’ease from bis bond, detracts nothing from the wise conclusions of Graham and his friends to seek for redress in that quarter. Mr. Powell denies having said that he co Jd whip any Democrat in the county. Persons whose reputation for truth and veracity we have never heard questioned, state that Mr Powell made such a statement immediately following his difficulty with Mr. Graham. Hoping that the public will investigate and pass judgment upon the facts in this case, 1 am Very Truly, David W. Shields.

Just purchased 700 pairs slippers and children’s fine shoes at 50 per cent, discount ana 1300 pairs of boots and shoes at 33| per cent, discount. These discounts were taken <.ff the regular wholesale prices, and means some rare bargains in the best brands ever offered in Jasper county. Chicago Bargain Store. < . -+ We publish below the ordinance relating to the sale of goods, wares, and merchandise, by transient merchants within the corporate imits of the Town of Rensselaer, said to have been adopted at a late meeting of the Board of Trustees: