The Wheeling Daily Register

A CARD.

Expose of Bellaire Police Officials.

Editors Register.

If you will furnish me space in your valuable paper, we will promise, for your Bellaire readers, some spicy matter. We are always loth to cast reflections upon the character of any one whatever, but when we find persons so palpably scoundrels under circumstances that are peculiarly fitted for deceiving that portion of the Commonwealth not directly interested, we consider it a duty we owe our fellow citizens to place such facts before them at a time when they should know them, and just now is the time we have selected that we may be joined in ridding the community of one that is surely, to say the least, a disgrace to the city.

About one year ago the present Marshal of the city saw fit to arrest me without the shadow of a complaint having been made; the circumstances as were afterward gleaned by myself and friends with a great deal of persistent questioning, were as follows: Some gentleman from a distance had called at Police headquarters in an intoxicated condition, and complained that he had lost some money in the course of the evening then long spent, and upon being questioned as to where he had been, my place of business was mentioned among others as having been visited. No special grounds were given why he could have lost any money while visiting me. Armed only with his own suspicions, he (the Marshal) arrested me-of this, however, we do not complain, knowing well the authority of the Chief for examining any one at his office when he may suspicion him of any offence against a city ordinance. Neither do we complain that we were unjustly incarcerated in the station house, but we do complain—and only regret that we have not the vocabulary to express it as strongly as we feel it—that this dignitary blackmailed us to the extent of five dollars. After having been advised by a prominent member of the Council, who was not only acquainted with the circumstances under which the arrest was made, but knew the gentleman that had asked the assistance of the police, after being advised by the stranger that he would make no complaint with these limited suspicions, the Marshal saw there was nothing in the case for him, and explained that we would be released upon paying the costs-five dollars. This is not the force of our complaint; it is that the city never received a single cent of the costs (?) that were paid by us, and we dare to say there is no record of any such payment at the city building, and that the money went into the pockets of Wm. M. Dougan and his "heavy" assistant.

We complain further, that since this exposure has been whispered, Mr. Dougan has threatened us-in the "bulldozing" style-with some old scores that have long since been settled in the Common Pleas Court, without his knowledge, however.

We complain further, that after employing an attorney, Wm. H. Tallman, Esq., telling him in advance, within the past few days and since the late Spring Conventions to prosecute this official, by some means this profound lawyer after giving advice freely when first interviewed, was induced to return us the fee-something surely very extraordinary for a lawyer to do.

In conclusion, we will just say that we have given these facts fairly, and that we challenge the gentleman to a controversy. We have plenty of material for another article in which, perhaps, we are not so directly interested. We may have occasion to attack the gentleman's crookedness in the manner of some returns of executions that have been made by him as constable.

To the citizens of Bellaire we say, beware what characters you cover with official cloaks. Looks and actions are frequently deceptive. Shakespeare would describe our hero thus:

"With smooth dissimulation, skilled in

A Devil's purpose with an Angel's face."

THOS. J. LILLY.