Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1909 — Speaking of Horses. [ARTICLE]

Speaking of Horses.

If a horse had been placed In your charge for four years and you were to be paid for its keeping, and at he end of four years there was a disagreement as to whether you had been properly credited with all matters relating to the keeping of the horse, and you were quite sure that there was more coming to you than the owner of the horse claimed, and you refused to turn over the horse until convinced that the settlement was final or that there was something coming to you that you would get without bringing a suit, Would you consider that you had stolen the horse and is it probable that you would appreciate having it published that you were a defaulter? And should it develop that errors had been made that represented to you some $1,500 or more, wouldn’t you feel justified in having kept the horse for awhile, say even a year? Would you expect fair treatment under such circumstances from a newspaper that has made it a practice to tear down reputations and if the Rensselaer Republican should say. you did the right thing and told the people the truth and overcame the effects largely of false and defamatory statements would you not think the Republican had done the right thing? % And if the man that had kept the horse had lived in a community for years and years and had a name of business honesty second to none, and had never flinched when misfortune enveloped him in financial troubles and if the man could face every voter and tax payer in the county and say that he had been ready for twelve months to turn the horse over to its 1 owners whenever he was demanded so to do would you consider that he was trying to steal the horse? The people are fair. And it takes some mighty mean work to cause them to centure a man for doing what 99 j men out of a hundred would do under the same circumstances. And suppose the barn door was locked, too, all of the time, the man who had the horse being bonded many times its value. What a joke these horse stories are.