Slavery Question in Oregon. 249 Billy of the Airgoose," which contained a hint of Mr. Adams' peculiar religious notions and reform ideas concerning tem- perance, etc. While this caused a chuckle among stationary moss-backs, it meant no serious obstacle to the propagation of Mr. Adams' views as to what society ought to be. He, on the other hand, was too earnest to be humorous and when he attempted the role it was little short of abuse. The States- man gave much space to advertising the medicine of a certain Dr. Czapky of California, who recommended it as a restorer of lost manhood, and Adams dubbed The Statesman " Czapky 's organ," and went so far as to intimate that its editor took pay in medicine. Such a kind of humor would be called sav- agery in a staid Christian community. It might cause a grin on the face of a ghoul. Mr. Bush could counter any sort of a blow, and The Statesman contained a paragraph in one number announcing a law suit in Oregon City, concerning the owership of a horse, in which Editor Adams w^s inter- ested, and that he and a co-conspirator were seen pulling white hairs from the horse's forehead, to deface the mark of identi- fication. No published denial or reply was ever seen in The Argus, though watched for by those persons who took an interest in the newspaper warfare, and in a week or so The Statesman contained a correction which released Mr. Adams, and as no names were ever given as to the two hair extractors, it was plain that the incident had been manufactured from the raw material. Knowing Adams to be a man of un- doubted pluck as well as a high sense of honor and personal consequence, I knew that he would not let a charge like that pass unnoticed, so, happening to The Argus office soon after- wards, I pumped him as to the horse incident. Without a smile or reply, he took from his private drawer a copy of a letter he had written to Mr. Bush, threatening him with condign punishment if he did not retract that libel, which in fact it was. No doubt Mr. Bush had many a hearty, side-aching laugh when he fancied Adams squirming under the law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The so-called "Oregon
