EDITORIAL TROUBLES IN AMERICA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 557, 6 March 1858, Page 5

EDITORIAL TROUBLES IN AMERICA.

Mr. J. M. Fleming, editor of the ' Knoxville Register,' has published the following statement in a New York paper :— On Tuesday morning, while returning from the Post Office with my mail, I had stopped at the corner of Gay and Cumberland-streets, and entered into a conversation with a small company of friends who were there. While standing there, with my newspaper mail in my arm, John Mitchell (the soi-disant " Irish Patriot," but whom I choose to .call the " Irish Poltroon,") without having attracted the notice either of myself or any member of the company, approached and addressed himself to me. I turned immediately towards him, and not anticipating an attack from him, and recognising what I conceived to be his wonted smile, when saluting me, my first impulse was to extend to him the usual courteous salutation. He remarked to me immediately that during his absence a scurrilous article had appeared in the 'Register' in relation to himself. His manner impressed me, as it did those standing with me, that he called upon me like a geutlei man to call my attention to some injustice that -had been done him, and, still standing with my bundle of papers in my hands, I replied to him very courteously that I was not aware that any scurrilous article had appeared in any newspaper concerning him. He simply remarked that he designed answering that article, and instantly proceeded to make an assault on me with his cane, which, had it proceeded from one of the intimate friends with whom I had been' conversing, would not have taken me by more surprise. Instinctively I threw up my left arm, dropped my papers, and received his blow upon the fleshy part of the forearm. His stick having easily broken, without inflicting any perceptible injury upon me, the contest was continued as a "fist and skull fight," in which no one I presume, who saw it, will dispute that I would have threshed him most soundly but for the intervention of the police, for I repelled his assault so promptly, and in such a way that he found it impossible to use the arms with which he was provided. About the time we were separated, I believe Mitchell made a thrust at my face with the broken end of his stick, which penetrated the flesh near the inner corner of my left eye, inflicting an inconsiderable wound, constituting the amount of injury I sustained. For the truth of this statement of facts, I refer to Messrs. S. Williams, Stephen L. Cosby, and John F. Gills, who were standing with me at

the time Mitchell approached, and who need no other corroborative testimony in this community to establish their credibility. In the New York papers we read of another affair of the same kind. On Friday night of last week, a quarrel, resulting in the knocking down and severe beating of one of the contestants, occurred at the drinking saloon of Concklin Titus, No. 600, Broadway. The parties to the affray are two literary men, both of them connected with the newspaper press of this city ; the one being Mr. George Wilkes, of 'Porter's Spirit of the Times,' and the other Mr. Fitz James O'Brien, formerly of the ' Daily Times, 1- and now known as the "Man about Town" of the 'Journal of Civilization,' also a person of some mark as a poet and magazine writer. Two stories are current relative to the particulars of the affair, and that : there may be no " explanation," " corrections," or "cards " to print hereafter, we give the two versions. First, the veritable history as related by the Wilkes party. During the course of conversation in a saloon, on Thursday night, Mr. O'Brien, who was much excited by wine, took occasion to call Mr. Wilkes to account, in very impertinent terms, for certain editorial articles lately printed in ' Porter's Spirit of the Times,' saying that if James Wallack were twenty years younger he would thrash him (Wilkes) for his insolence. Mr. Wilkes, though very indignant at this interference with his sacred editorial rights, perceiving O'Brien's condition, and being himself alone, while the other had two friends with him, smothered his anger, bid the gentlemen a very short " good night," and left the_ precincts. The next night he went to a drinking saloon on the corner of Fourth street, in which he expected to meet Mr. O'Brien, and waited there for the purpose of having an explanation and a retraction or settlement. After waiting in vain for the advent of _ the " Man about Town" until two o'clock in the morning, the barkeeper, wishing to close his establishment, invited Wilkes to go across the. street, and take a parting drink. While imbibing this spirituous luxury Mr. O'Brien entered the room, and, perceiving Wilkes, came up to him and offered his hand to him. Mr. W. rejected it with an indignant slap, and addressed him as follows: " Were you drunk last night, sir ?" To which interrogatory he received a decided negative. He then propounded a similar question, with a slight alteration as to time: " Are you drunk now, sir ?" And the answer being still in the negative, he said: " You insulted me grossly last night, sir, and now take that," striking him at the same time in the face with his flat hand. O'Brien did not " sail in," but contented himself with saying: "You will hear from me in the morning, sir," and then he at once left the room. As he was leaving the saloon, he became engaged in a quarrel with a hackman, who knocked him down and pummelled him. This last fight was an entirely different affair from the affray with Wilkes, and that person had no knowledge of the hackman, and did not incite, or in any way encourage his attack on Mr. O'Brien. Such is the version of one of the high contesting parties.