00:00Five good men say if charges are untrue, says Az Collier to Colonel Felder, Atlanta Journal.
00:06Monday, May 26, 1913. A substantial portion of the beginning of this article is illegible with
00:13the PDF copy in our possession. If anyone has a copy of this newspaper, please let us know and
00:18we can complete the transcription of it. Thank you, Editor. If I did introduce you to my wife
00:24and you two words illegible make the remark that you had had the pleasure of meeting her in
00:28Chattanooga, and yet one of our alleged newspapers that has been very busy defending your good name
00:34and painting mine blacker than hell in this community has the audacity to publish in their
00:39Sunday morning edition a statement that my wife became so disgusted with me that she separated
00:44with me a year ago. This statement is without any foundation whatever, and an alleged representative
00:49of this alleged newspaper had the effrontery, fortunately for him that I was absent, to
00:54approach my wife in the hotel parlor on Friday night in the presence of another lady, and try
00:59to scare her to death with threats, which I would hate to believe met your approval. I wish to say
01:04to you, sir, that in any controversy that I might have with you or any other man, and I become
01:09so low
01:10and so prostituted that I forget my mother and your mother and our wives, are women, pure, sweet women,
01:16of this bright and beautiful Southland, and make an attack upon them. I want someone to shoot me as
01:21they would a mad dog. Nothing that you could say or do could cause me to forget myself so far
01:26as to
01:27invade the sacredness of your home life, and no man worthy of the name of man would do so. Yet
01:32I am
01:33not surprised that a representative of this alleged newspaper would do such a thing when they are so
01:38reckless in publishing what they call news. You talk and write about a frame-up, and about a conspiracy,
01:44but I wish to state to you that in my humble opinion, as well as in the opinion of many
01:48good men in this
01:49community. There has been a conspiracy formed against Captain Beavers, Captain Lanford,
01:54G.C. February, and myself, in the last few days, that would make the star chamber of King Charles
02:00I blush for shame, as to criticisms. I am really surprised in the bitter attack you have made upon
02:06me, when you start that attack by saying I am an irresponsible creature, in other words that I am an
02:11insane man. I am indeed surprised that a gentleman of your standing would make an attack of the kind you
02:17have made upon me, if you believe me bereft of my reason. There is not money enough in the state
02:22of
02:22Georgia to hire me, poor, moral, pervert, degenerate, and irresponsible creature, that you have seen fit
02:28to call me, to make an attack upon a woman, child, or an irresponsible human being. Perhaps, though,
02:34Colonel, you were in a desperate frame of mind over your experience with the dictograph, and forgot
02:38yourself. If so, you are excusable. In writing to you on Saturday night, I misunderstood your witness,
02:44Mr. Acheson's name. It had been told me as Mr. Atherton, and I did not know who your distinguished
02:49friend was until Saturday night. Poor Acheson, he started out in Nashville a few years ago with a
02:55brilliant future as a young physician of promise, but now he is in Atlanta, having deserted the medical
03:01profession, which of course he had a right to do, and is following another avocation, and according to his
03:07own statement, he has only been in the city since January 1st, last passed, and as I take it as
03:12a friend of
03:12yours he is catering to a little newspaper notoriety. In other words, he would like for the citizens of
03:18Atlanta to know that he has arrived. I haven't seen this gentleman in fifteen years, but I will
03:23explain in a few days, to the satisfaction of the public, what his grudge is against me. As for your
03:28other character witnesses, I would not dignify them with a reply, though I am exceedingly surprised when
03:33you started out in your denunciation of me that you could get one thousand people to swear that they
03:38would not believe me on oath, that you fell nine hundred ninety-six short of your number, and I
03:43think that this will conform with about every charge and statement that you have made in your great
03:48defense. Scores, Mr. Toby. I would suggest that your royal flunky, Toby, who evidently has got a sore toe
03:54over the recent exposure, go to a drug store and buy a corn plaster. If he can't find one, let
04:00him call on
04:00the Pinkerton Detective Agency to pilot him to the nearest one, and I am satisfied that Mr. Harry Scott would
04:06take great pleasure in prompting your royal flunky in his little drama, scene one, act one, called the
04:12mysterious hunt of the far-famed Burns Detective Agency for the murderer of Mary Fagan. The only thing that is
04:18the
04:19matter with Mr. Toby is that he arrived on the stage too late in the drama, as Lanford and Scott
04:24already had the
04:25evidence to indict Leo M. Frank, as the action of the grand jury has proven. I read Toby's attack on
04:31me in your
04:32afternoon organ, and I also noticed that he laid great stress upon the fact that he was here for
04:36business, pure and simple, provided, of course, that the citizens of Atlanta opened up their purses and
04:42responded to his call for money, as the Burns Agency, according to him, was not in business for their
04:48health. No one who is familiar with their recent past experiences doubts Mr. Toby's assertions, but in
04:54Mr. Toby's call he reminded me of a Pullman porter who had been on a long run all night with
04:58only two
04:59old maids for passengers, and he knew the tips were scarce, and he was going through the car making
05:04a last desperate call for breakfast. The people of this fair city have never failed to respond to a
05:09cry for help when it was a genuine cry, but they are not going to be gulled by a false
05:13prophet who
05:14pretends that he has come like a Moses to lead them out of the wilderness. Now, sir, if you want
05:19to accept
05:19the propositions I made, all right, they are made in good faith, but if you prefer to go ahead as
05:24you
05:24have started out, by abuse and vilification, all right. But remember, there is none of us perfect.
05:29And let him that is without sin cast the first stone. As Collier, Atlanta, Georgia, May 26, 1913.
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