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Under the circumstances it is difficult to comprehend how such a vulnerable individual as C. A. Smith, for whom Kribs was at all times operating, should give expression to the sentiments attributed to him in the course of an interview with a Minneapolis newspaper man when it was first announced that I had been captured in Boston by Secret Service Agent Burns and had afterwards made my escape, as described fully heretofore.

I will be charitable enough to presume that he was not devoid of common sense, but. like Mays, when he refused to go on my bond, thought I was down and out, taking it for granted that because I was a fugitive from justice at the time, he could say what he pleased about me without fear of his lying- statements being contradicted.

In the Minneapolis Journal of March 27, 1906, published on the afternoon of the day following my escape from Burns. Smith is quoted in this fashion:

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