A Gambling Charge, a Judge, and a Libel Threat in Whatcom

WHATCOM, July 30.—[Special.]—The boldness and effrontery of the Tacoma Ledger in charging in its correspondence yesterday that Judge John R. Winn, of the superior court, and Martin Maloney, deputy collector of customs, gambled away hundreds of dollars of the Democratic central committee's funds two years ago in John Maloney's saloon in Seattle, has created quite a sensation here, and the paper will have a heavy libel suit on its hands unless satisfaction is speedily published. The correspondent asserted that the charge was made at a Democratic meeting Saturday afternoon by Charles McGee, but as a matter of fact McGee used no such language, and no one made any such intimations so far as Winn is concerned, though language of a similar import was used with respect to Maloney, but not by McGee. The sensational article was telegraphed by a traveling agent and correspondent of the Ledger, and in order to get it read a lot of extras were ordered and distributed free yesterday. Otherwise very few would have seen it. The correspondent is still here, and has promised to make a retraction to avoid a suit for libel and defamation of character. The meeting Saturday was a Kilkenny cat affair, and there has been no exaggeration of the bitter feeling existing between the majority Democrats and the Winn-Maloney-McGinnis faction, whose role has thus far knocked down all the patronage persimmons.