epistle from "the other
side:"

"To the Editor of _The Knowlton News_:

"SIR,--In regard to the communication in your issue of October
12th, over the signature of Fair Play, your correspondent says:

"'This whole Smith business has a "cheap John" flavor, which
makes careful men view it askance. Who witnessed the assault on
Smith? Nobody. Did his person bear evidence of murderous assault?
No. All who saw him in the early morning following the alleged
assault were surprised that he bore no marks of the terrible
struggle for life through which he claims to have passed. Shades
of Ananias and Munchausen!'

"Mr. Editor, here we have the substance calling upon the shadows.
As one who visited Mr. Smith on the morning following the
assault, I assert that Fair Play makes a direct departure from
the truth. I challenge Fair Play to give the name of a single
reputable individual who now will corroborate his assertion. Such
a statement is in direct contradiction to the sworn testimony of
our respected fellow-citizen, R. T. Macdonald, M. D. Mr. Smith
was visited on the following morning by scores of people, and
they saw upon his person the evidence of a violent and brutal
assault. Many of the visitors expressed their determination to
see fair play, and their willingness to subscribe, which they
subsequently did, to a fund to bring the guilty party or parties
to justice. Fair Play need not worry about the slandered
characters of the hotel keepers of this county. Their characters
are in their own keeping, just as the characters of merchants,
mechanics and ministers are in theirs. If the parties who are
accused of complicity in this affair are innocent, they will have
the opportunity of proving themselves so.

"And why should not your correspondent exercise that spirit of
fair play, the lack of which he so much deplores in others, and
not make the useless attempt to impeach Mr. Smith's veracity in
the case of this assault. Such an attempt is both useless and
senseless, for within an hour or two of the assault he was under
the professional care of one of the most eminent and reputable
physicians of the Province, who surely would at once have exposed
any imposture.

"Even Fair Play would be willing to see an assaulter punished,
but seems to hav