The Durham Recorder

A FIERY FEUD NOW ON!

Harris and Brown Wage a Wordy War,

POLITICS DOUBTLESS IN IT.

The Suit Brought by N. W. Brown Against Mayor Harris, of Hillsboro, Creates Some Excitement and Much Talk in Our Usually Quiet and Peaceful Old Town.

The Recorder regrets that in its first issue in this city, after an absence of several years, it is obliged to yield space to a controversy between two of our most highly respected citizens and well known business men.

It appears that Mayor Harris failed to comply with the law in returning an itemized account of the expense incurred in his successful struggle to be elected mayor of Hillsboro. As the law was a new one, Mr. Harris forgot to comply with it, and his failure to do so was doubtless unintentional.

Mr. Nate Brown, who is a republican, and who was defeated by Mr. Harris, has attempted to bring a suit to oust, not only Mr. Harris, but the entire board of commissioners. Brown claims that the attorney general has not treated him with due courtesy, and intimates that politics had something to do with it.

We are inclined to believe, however, that as Mr. Osborn, attorney general, was off on a summer vacation, and not appreciating the necessity of immediate action, concluded to give the matter attention later on.

But Mr. Harris, who has done aldermanic duties in days gone by, and who has several times been mayor, takes the action of Brown seriously to heart, and in a half column of leaded long primer, accuses Brown and James A. Cheek of doing it all for spite work, concluding his screed in the following bold and fearless fashion:

Brown and Cheek are nice men to bring suit against others for not complying with a law which they ignored as well.

The whole thing is a small affair for decent people to engage in, and all honorable and unprejudiced people will see that spite work is at the bottom of all of it.

Standing as it does in the neutral zone, with an absolute horror of blood shed, the Recorder sincerely hopes that this feud will not be long continued.

If it is spite work, then Mr. Brown should in some way try to repair the injury already done, and Mr. Harris, unmolested and in peace, should be allowed to hold the dignified position to which a hilarious and delighted constituency elevated him. And he should be allowed also to use the princely salary which the office pays without having it consumed in defending himself in a court of justice.

But if, on the other hand, it shall transpire that Mr. Brown is animated only by a loyal desire to see that the laws of the country are enforced and sustained; if he has taken the action he has only to be sure that all the legal acts of the board of commissioners and his honor, the mayor, will be valid now and in after years, then it is not for us, as a great and fearless newspaper, to question his sincerity or to implore him to retrace his steps. Viewed in any light, no good can come from these little quarrels between neighbors and erstwhile friends. Life is too short and warfare is no sport. Mr. Brown has this week written a communication on the subject, and if the controversy is to be further pursued, we extend to Mayor Harris the unrestricted use of our columns and the advantage of our large and growing circulation to say whatever suits him. In the meantime and in the language of General Grant, Let us have peace.