THE HESPERIAN
A ROUND, UNVARNISHED TALE."
THEY WANT THEIR RECORD KNOWN.
first installment.
Much indignation was aroused among the
students of the University just before the
local contest in February by the announce
ment that someone, to the public unknown,
had secured in advance of the contest the
markings of one of the judges on manuscript.
Suspicion attached at the time to what has
of late become notorious as the "Johnston
gang." The "gang" denied all knowledge
of the matter, and went so far as to seek to
throw the blame on the friends of some of
the other contestants. But this was to no
purpose. Many of the students have long
suspected that something was wrong with
the inside workings of the Delian contest
of last year, and have believed that the man
who engineered his name through to glory
in that contest would resort to any means to
make his calling and election sure in this
year's local. They were right, as the facts
adduced hereinafter will show.
I make the following statement with no
desire or hope to conceal or palliate the
course I took in the affairs recited. The
matter has of late been made the subject of
frequent comment among the students and
in the state press, and it is duo the good
name of the general student body of the
University that the matters herein set forth
should come to light, that the facts should
bo stated exactly as they are, and the seal of
the disapproval of the students be sot upon
them. Furthermore, I believe it a duty to
myself to make this public statement of the
case in order that the other parties concerned
may not succeed in the attempt they have
been and are making to put off on me the
blame for all that was done and for much
more than was done. They have been un
sparing in their denunciations of myself,
simply because 1 did not see fit to support
Johnston for delegate in place of Fisher.
They have not hesitated to impute to me the
worst motives conceivable. They have
denounced mo as a "blackleg," and applied
to me the abusive epithets in which their
vocabulary so abounds. I believe that the
time has come when patience on my part
has ceased to be a virtue, and over against
their epithets and their insinuations I place,
the following:
AFFIDAVIT.
State of Nebraska,
Lancaster County. J
C. L. Tallmadge, being first duly sworn
deposes and says:
Shortly before the local contest Mc
Mullon was greatly worked up as to the
probable outcome of the contest. Day after
day he expressed fear that he might not
win, and insisted time and again that I go
out and see Professor Rakestraw, one of
the judges on manuscript, and an old
acquaintance of mine, and attempt to get
his marks. At last I consented, and on
Thursday afternoon, February 1,I went to
Rakestraw's house, Thirtieth and R, and got
his marks. Mr. Rakestraw supposed me to
be a party authorized to receive the mark
ings. He gave the markings to me un
sealed and not in an envelope but on a
separate sheet of paper wrapped in the
manuscript. I took the markings to Adam
McMullen the same afternoon at his room
at Fifteenth and O, and he saw them. The
same evening I returned the sheet of paper
containing the markings to Mr. Rakestraw,
told him they ought to be sealed, and it was
sealed up by the professor, who had given
it in the first place without asking whether
the marks should be sealed, supposing all
the time, 'that he was gizing them to a
proper person. I then took the sealed
envelope and mailed it to the president of