The LaCamas News
February 24, 1888

Mr. W.W. Proebstel, of Vancouver, who during the recent session of the commissioners court was refused a license to open a saloon in LaCamas, writes a letter to the Oregonian [in] which he denounced Rev. J.R. Thompson, and the proceedings of the temperance mass meeting here in very bitter terms. Mr. Thompson is not strictly a citizen of this town, and can probably take care of himself. The reflections on the meeting are of no consequence, and we would probably have passed the letter by unnoticed but for a very unjust and criminal assault on two of our most respected citizens. These were his words:

Mr. McMaster, the figure head chairman of the committee on resolutions, who offered Thompson’s resolutions praising himself certainty don’t want a competitor in the shape of a saloon, as he sells all kinds of intoxicating bitters from his store; while Dr. Humphery runs a drug store and as most drug stores do in “dry towns”, he do doubt sells more liquor than drug, and of course he is an uncompromising “no Saloon man”.

Every Person in LaCamas knows that these charges are utterly false and no man or no newspaper has the right to circulate them. If Mr. Proebstel has any proof to substantiate such statements he should report to the grand jury and until they are proven true by fair impartial trial no man has a right to circulate them, through a newspaper or by any other means. A great deal more might be said about the letter but it is not our “fight” and we will not meddle with it.