“A handful of our whiskers was seized and twisted away by this vile miscreant, with the supposedly funny remark that he wanted them for a disguise.
“We were forced to our knees on the dirty sidewalk and commanded to apologize for certain statements that have appeared in our paper.
“We were belabored with a rawhide whip and kicked into the gutter by this burly old brute.
“As humiliating as these things are it is necessary to mention them in order to properly lay before the public the frightful enormity of the outrage.
“It is, and always has been the policy of this paper, to hew to the line and let the chips fall where they may. The Index thinks before it strikes, and it never retracts.
“If editors are to be publicly assaulted—if their persons are not sacred—if the freedom of the press is to be trammelled and muzzled by supposed private rights of individuals, and their likes and dislikes—if publishers are to be beaten up or beaten down with impunity, or with rawhide whips, and are to be coerced into cowardly silence by fear of personal violence—then our republic, with its vaunted ideals, is a stupendous failure.
“Far be it from us to complain, or put forth our private wrongs, but we consider that we have been a martyr to the lawlessness of this community, and to the fearless and outspoken attitude of our paper.
“An attack upon the person of the editor of a newspaper is an attack upon the sacred foundations of human liberty.
“The public will be glad to know that the execrable villain and ruffian, who assaulted us, is now immured in the county jail, where he was sent by that wise and upright Justice of the Peace, the Hon. Mark W. Giddings.
“It is to be devoutly hoped that when the term of his just imprisonment expires, his presence in the county will be no longer tolerated.