Medford Mail, March 2, 1894, page 2


    The wormy chestnut and cuckoo of the Mail, who is following in the footsteps of every aspirant to journalistic fame, with which the people of Medford have been burdened since the city started, is attempting to elevate himself into notice by abusing the editor of the Times. We are accustomed to these pismires, and would not pay any attention to this one were it not to unmask the officious and very insignificant individual who lurks, as is his nature, in the background. Accustomed to a diet of sowbelly, hominy and sorghum and to warming his spindle shanks by a fire made from buffalo chips, this Mail importation from the blizzard-swept plains of North Dakota feels unduly inflated by the rich diet of southern Oregon and seeks to discharge his surplus excrement, like Gulliver's yahoo, upon those who happen to get in his way. Not content with this, he has become the mouthpiece of the most grasping lawyer who ever appeared at the bar of this judicial district, and forgetting that he cannot ally himself with a skunk without retaining some of the scent, allows the effluvia to assail the nostrils of his patrons.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, March 5, 1894, page 2


    Francis Fitch will not be an attorney in the Bloomer bond case, as reported a few days ago.
    The last proceeding in the Bloomer bond case is the motion made by the attorneys for the county in a new trial. It will probably be argued in Judge Hanna's chambers as soon as the March term of circuit court for Josephine County closes.
"Local Notes," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, March 5, 1894, page 3


    A subscriber writes: "I like your stand on the Bloomer affair. Dig 'em up." Subscriber need have little fear lest we will "dig 'em up," but the roots run deep and are getting deeper each year. However, we are going to keep digging.
    This paper has no desire for an attack upon the people of Jacksonville in general nor upon the town. There are a great many very fine people in Jacksonville, and the town is far from being a bad one, but it is unfortunate in being obliged to furnish shelter for the gang of rascals which is found there, and the citizens are most unfortunate in being compelled to associate with such contemptible curs.
    The Jacksonville gang's cuspidor and sewer--erroneously called a newspaper--is an applicant for public sympathy because that The Mail has dared to expose some of its villainous transactions. It is really too bad that its baby editor's moves should be criticized.
Medford Mail, March 9, 1894, page 2


    An open letter to the People's Convention March 10:
    FRIENDS AND FELLOW CITIZENS: As the time has almost arrived for the distribution of nominations, I wish to say, generally, I am in favor of letting the office hunt the man, but as I am living away up here in one of the rural districts on Evans Creek, where it is about all a sewing machine fiend can do to find me, I thought maybe I had better notify the office that I am open to propositions. Governor would be accepted and no questions asked, or, I was going to say, county treasurer, but as there is no treasury and the county away behind with Bloomer--and, by the way, Bloomer somewhat behind with me--I wish to be excused on that score. An M.C. would not be bad, or representative--if I only had to represent Jackson County, I think I am competent to do that, as it would not require any extraordinary brain capacity, witness the Bloomer hoax. But I am not going to be particular, if there is any vacancy and the people wishes me to fill it, I am at your service. I see some of my friends have me down on their primaries for assessor, Now that just hits me hard. I have a good horse and cart, and will soon be at liberty to go out among my friends to see who has the biggest mortgage on his farm, and how many are perfectly satisfied that the courts done just the square thing in the Bloomer bondsmen case. Then too, I want to see what kind of a set of fellows there is in this county who have voted that diabolical old Jacksonville ring in for, lo, these many years. There is certainly no excuse for them, unless it is, perhaps, that they wished to perpetuate the absurdities of their fathers. My friends, there is no politics in the panorama now before us, no more side issues will suffice to bring about the result that every taxpayer in this county and country ought to know needs to be. Candidly, my friends, it makes me tired to see a poor farmer work and toil from year to year with the single idea of raising enough grain etc., to barely pay his taxes and to eke out a scanty living for himself and family, and when you try to convince him of his error, to hear him say, "Oh, well, I guess times will change for the better before long." He might as well say, Hell will change while the Devil is still heaving in the brimstone, as to expect a change in the Jacksonville ring. I think it would be humiliating to the voters and taxpayers of this county when they seriously contemplate (if they ever do) the political chicanery that has been going on in their midst for the past twenty-five or thirty years, until the whole county is hopelessly in debt. Just think of it my friends! not a lucrative county office of any kind has been held by anyone out of the ring in the past twenty-five years!! Go to Portland or any other place in the state and ask any business man "Who is county or district judge?" he will say, "Why, let me see? Oh, I can't think who is this year, but it is either So and So, or So-So." Go into Jacksonville, court week, outline any case to Nunan, P. J. Ryan, Kubli, or any old resident there and ask them the result and they will tell you too quick. This is not a political speech, for politics cuts no figure in the outlook for the poor farmers and taxpayers of this distressed community. We are now left to the two alternatives, change or starve, either down political rings or go down with them; it does not (in this instance) matter what money is, as long as we have none of either kind; it is principle we are after. Think of the Bloomer bondsmen trying to shirk the responsibility they voluntarily took to secure the possibility of a failure of the county treasurer, and then think of a judge who would admit of a technical flaw to let them go. I ask all candid-minded people, if they all are not accessories to the theft? Those bondsmen said to the people of Jackson County, "Now, if Geo. E. Bloomer steals all the treasury of your county, we solemnly agree to pay every cent of it back." Now the court raises the question, "Did Bloomer steal!!" Of course Bloomer did not steal anything, he just took it! and as a matter of fact that lets the bondsmen out!! Now, I am not an office seeker, because as some of you know, I am only a common scrub farmer, not capable of holding an office, unless I could hold it by the tail (like some of the Jacksonville folks), but I will say this, if I should ever be the assessor of Jackson County there is some men I will assess for nothing and board myself, and if I ever am the assessor and I ever skipped anyone, it will not be the owner of one among the largest farms in the county (the owner being a rich man living in the East), as was done last year. My sight is not as good as it was, but it is not so bad but what I can see a little speck about the size of 1200 acres of land. No sir, if I skipped anyone it will be some poor fellow, living up on the side of one of these Jackson County mountains where he can hardly walk without the assistance of a Jacob staff, who has a wife and seventeen small children and nothing but a blind hog for next winter's meat. Hoping I have, in a feeble way, conveyed to you where I stand, and also hoping the people may for the time, forget politics and all join in brotherly strength, and once for all, do away with rings, I will begin to close. As I said before, this is not a political speech, and it is not published in a political paper, but that both are laboring in the interest of the taxpayers in this county, I think you must all believe. I should be glad to meet you in convention, but as I cannot, you have my best wish and my prayers also (such as they are).
Woodville, Oregon.
Medford Mail, March 9, 1894, page 4


    Theo. Cameron, assignee of the estate of Bloomer, Cronemiller & Co., insolvent debtors, has filed his final account as such, and gives notice in another column of the Times that the same will be heard during the April term of the circuit court.
"Local Notes," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, March 12, 1894, page 3


    Time changes all things. For example: Eight months ago, or a couple of weeks before Treasurer Bloomer made his flying leap to parts unknown--unknown to all save perhaps a few--The Mail learned that there was something not altogether straight in his accounts, and to substantiate this rumor our Mr. York was dispatched to the county seat to glean information regarding the matter. By the first official he was told that Mr. So-and-So would impart the desired information. This gentleman was visited and Mr. York was told that--"Why, yes; that is, why, yes; Mr. Bloomer has--why, ah--been given a month to--ah, get his books in shape--and--why, yes,--ah--." Right here The Mail representative concluded he had all the "why, yeses" and "dashes" he wanted and that was all the satisfaction he got. It is now only a few months this side of a county election, and our whole office force is especially invited to call at the courthouse and get all information within the officers' ability to impart. Allow us to [illegible] as well as [illegible] all things.