Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, October 9, 1911, Page 1

T WINNESOTA HISTORICAL VOLUME 9. NUMBER 138. PUBLIC WEDDING PLANS ARRANGED Market Day Backers to See to it That Young Couple Are Giv- en Every Attention. GROOM PLEADS FOR SECRECY Says He Wants to Keep Identity Hidden So That He May Sur- prise Friends. | TWIN CITY PAPER ENTHUSES Commercial Bulletin Gives an Ex-| { tended Notice of the Plan Here | for Thursday. Final arrangements re being per-| fected for the public marriage which | is to feature Market Day in Bemidji on Thursday of this week. | Today the following was recened. by the groom: “Your's of the 30th inst. received and in reply would say that ] have not as yet secyred the services of an officiating officer and will leave that to you. Please find out if you can get Mr. Holden, interdenomination, and please give further advise, such | as to the hour of the marriage and as to where we are to go on arriving in town.” The groom also pleads for secrecy | as to the identity of both himself and his bride. “We want to surprise | our [riends,” he writes. All the information requested has been sent the young man and every-| thing possible- for the comfort and convenience of the young couple will | be provided. It now scems more than likgiy that Judge of Progite ™. A. Clavk will be the man who ties the knot. All other arrangemer ts for market| day are fast being completed and the city will be in shape to care for what is expected to be the largest crowd of trade visitors ever scen here. That the unique experiment is at- tracting unusual attention is shown hy the following from the Twin City Trade Bulletin, one of the most sub- stantial and representative trade per- iodicals published in the northwest: “The merchants of Bemidji, Minn., are fully alive to the advantages that may be secured by boosting their| town. On October 12 they are ex- pecting to have a maiket day that; will make things hum. | “Twenty-eight business houses have arranged to offer special induce- ments to visitors. Among the num- erous features that wil' be presented on that occasion, a market day wed- ding will occupy a prominent place. Practically every merchant has made special offers to the bride and groom as well as to the farmers who come to town at that time. Arrangements have been made to present prizes and premiums of almost every kind and description to those who visit the various stores. “It does not take much skill or dis- cernment to discover that Bemidji merchants have exercised extreme shrewdness 1n planning to accom- plish a great variety of desirable things that will help not only the several dealers to secure business, but that will boom the town as well. This enterprise is sure to succeed.” i MESSAGE DELAYED; WINS SUIT Man Gets $115 Because Relative Was! .Buried as a Pauper. Milwaukee, Oct. 9.—A verdict of $115.25 was awarded Charles Schnei- der iust the Western Union Tele- gaaph To., for an alleged unreason- able detsy in the delivery of a tele- gram wticn resulted in the burial of.his brother-in-law, S. A. Cohen, in a pauper's grave in Cleveland. According to the Jewish law bod- ies must be buried the day following death unless some relative is on the way to attend the funeral. Cohen died without funds and because of the tardiness of Mrs. Cohen’s message in reaching Cleveland, Jewish socie- ties buried the body. The Jewish law does not allow dis- interment. Ambassador Bryce today made the presentation of the cld “Mounting Stone,” which Old Hingham, in Eng- land, has sent as a gift to Hingham, Mass. The mounting stone, or horse block, stood in the village square of 0Old Hingham for at least 700 years. Today it was laid as the cornerstone of the bell tower which is to be built here as a memorial to the first sett- lers of Hingham. i1t is believed, ©6 6666 @ ® |© OUTSIDE NEWS CONDENSED. ¢ R R R R R R R The Weather: cooler Tuesday. Loca; showers and In winning the James Gordon Ben- nett trophy by traveling 468 miles in the international balloon race which started from Kansas City Thursday, Lieutenant Hans Gericke, pilot of the Berlin II was lost three times. After -complete idleness for nine weeks and running part time.for sev- eral months previous, the Fall River, Mass., Iron Works Company, the Bor- den print cloth concern, resumed op- erations in all of its seven big mills today. The plant gives employment to 5,000 operatives. B Every phase of war practice will be discussed by the military esperts ;of the regular army and militia who have assembled at Buffalo from all over the country for the annual meet- ing of the National Guard Associa- tion of the United States. The ses- sions will continue three days. A delegation will be appointed to urge upon Congress the passage 6f the bill providing for federal pay for both officers and enlisted men of the Na- tional Guard. Preparations are being made to dynamite the ruins of the dam and power house of the Black River Falls municipal power plant, in an effort to clear the channel of masonry and {cement which now .hrow the force of | the flood current against the city. if this ruin can be blown to pieces, the course of the river when the water recedes a few feet more, will be deflected back into | the old cltannel, and stop the cutting away of the huge sand bank on which i the city stands. The case of Charles W. Morse, the New York financier, serving a fif- teen-year sentence in the Federal penitentiary at Atlanta, came up| again today before the United States circuit court of appeals in A(lanta.} In the present proceeding it is con- tended that Morse should have been sentenced on but one count of his indictment and that he should have been sent to a New York jail in- stead of to the penitentiary, where| hard work - is Tequired. Federal Judge -Newman - vaked adversely=on| this contention some time ago, but an appeal was taken. The members of the Senate com- mittee appointed to inquire into the election of Senator Lorimer of Illi- nois are in Chicago preparatory to resuming their investigation, which was broken off at the adjournment of Congress this summer. The com- mittee expects to get down to work tomorrow morning. The courtroom of Judge Grosscup in the Federal building will be used as the place of hearing. The number of witnesses to be heard here is much larger than \during the original sessions in Wash- ington. Investigators have scoured | Ilinois, Wisconsin and Michigan and have summoned scores of persons who are supposed to have more or less personal knowledge of some of the circumstances attending the election of the Illinois senator. Official ~ dispatches received at Rome Sunday say: “Early this morn- ing the ships of the first Italian squadron entered Roadstead at To- bruk, in Bombay, where they found no Turkish warships. They sum- {moned the garrison to surrender, but the Turks replied with a flat refusal and hoisted the Turkish flag. The battleship Victorio Emmanuel ened fire. The first shots carried away the flag and made a large breach in the fort. Rear Admiral Aubrey, commander-in- chief of the fleet, then landed several companies of marines, who, after a short strug- gle overcame the resistance of the small Turkish force. The Italians occupied the fort and hoisted their flag. A few Turkish soldiers, who refused to abandon the fort without further fighting, were made prison- ers.” The fortieth anniversary of the great Chicago fire was observed to- day not only in Chicago and Illi- nois, but in many other states of the union, where the respective gover- nors set aside the day under the ap- pellation of “fire prevention day” to be observed in the interest of the in- terstate movement of reducing the enormous losses by fire sustained an- nually throughout the country. In compliance with the agreement reached by the governors of various states at their conference a short time ago, Governor Deneen had is- sued a proclamation setting aside the anniversary day of the great fire as “fire prevention day,” and had asked terest of the movement for the reduc- tion of losses by fire. Last year the property loss by fire in the United States was $234,470,650, of which Illinois bore its share of about $11,- 000,000. Between 1901 and 1910 the per capita loss to every man, woman and child in the United States was $2.71 for this fire waste, while in Europe the loss was 33 cents per head. In Germany the per capita op- 1 the citizens to co-operate in the in-| After a day consumed in burning oratory by both prosecution and de- fense, Judge W. S. McClenahan late this afternoon delivered his charge and gave over to the hands of the jury the fate of Dr. Delbert F. Du- mas, and it now rests with the twelve good men and true to say whether the Cass Lake mayor is guilty of plotting with Mike Davi¢ and Martin Behan in the presence of Robert E. Smyth, in the John Larson saloon, here last June, to burn the postoffice building at Puposky. Probably never before in Bemidji has there been such bitter invective or dramatic excoriation as marked ant Attorney-General Alexander L. jJanes for the state and Freeman P. Lane of Minneapolis for the defense. This is the first criminal .case of unusual prominence in which Mr. Janes has made an argument to the jury since he became a member of the attorney general’s staff, and both attorneys and the crowd which packed the court room were impressed with the manner in which he re- viewed the evidence, and the elo- quence which punctugted his re- marks. Mr. Janes began speaking about 10 a. m. and did not finish until 3 o’clock this afternoon. What Freeman P. Lane had to say in behalf of the defendant also will live as a marker in the legal history of Beltrami county, if not the state. Speaking in words of one syllable, he sought to riddle the state’s case, administering a terrific arraignment of those prominent in the prosecu- tian of Dr. Dumas. _ Mr. Lane charged that the Dumas cuse-had cost Beltrami tounty $20,- 000—*“a dollar for every person, man and woman, even to the nursing baby at its mother’s breast within the con- fines of the county.” Mr. Lane characterized the case against Dr. Dumas as “a dirty put- up, job,” and was unsparing in his denunciation of Assistant Fire Mar- shal Sam Fullerton, and character- ized the prosecution as “this is not the state versus Dumas but it is a survival of the gang against Du- mas” and he termed this gang “Bai- ley, Smyth & Co.” Attorney Lane branded Sheriff Ha- zen as an untruthful man, and one who is “an assassin of a man’s char- acter, and one who would strike you in the dark with a dirk.” He said “We pinned that sucker—we have him nailed, and you men knew when he was telling a falsehood.” But of all those who came in for Mr. Lane’s compliments none shared so generously in the expression of Mr. Lane's opinion, as did Robert Smyth, whom Mr. Lane referred to repeatedly as “dirty little liar.” Mr. Lane refused to use the name Smyth, referring to the young man continu- ally as “Bertie.” The remarks of Mr. Lane will be printed in Tuesday’s Pioneer as ac- curately as they could be obtained by a competent short-hand reporter. In his remarks for the state As- sistant Attorney Janes defended not only Robert Smyth, as “a man every inch of him,” but had some nice things. to say of his father, D. C. Smyth. He also upheld the state’s course in the case and all the men identified with the prosecution and said, “Beltrami county can well be proud of the man who had the nerve and honesty to go through with it, despite the temptation which was placed before him, and there were temptations, even as was shown in the testimony of Sheriff Hazen.” “Never before in northern Minne- sota and probably the state, has a case unfolded more criminal possibili- ties or probabilities,’ said Mr. Janes. i gress of the trial the mist has lifted and we have caught glimpses of oth- er things in the vista of crimes. What crimes may have been plotted in those midnight conferences at Cass Lake, Duluth, Supericr, and other cities!”” The Assistant Attorney-General was fearlessly eloguent in his de- nunciation of Dr. Dumas, whom he said was a man favored by fortune and the son of honored and respected parents; a man who has won the love of a noble woman, and who has able physician .trained by the schools| of the state, and one who has gained the friendship of gocd men, that with all-these favors he choose to be the worst type of a criminal. So far as is possible, the Pioneer reproduces verbatim the remarks of loss was only 19 cents. Mr. Janes, but owing to the inability the closing arguments of both Assist- | From time to_time during the pro-| been honored by his own people; an| to get the manuseript of what Mr. Janes salfi must wait un- til tomorrow’s issue. / In his remarks tp_ the jury Mr. Janes said: b “This case Das. re; le(l its conclu- sion and T presume ghat no man is better pleased with jthat suggestion and thought _thm_you gentlemen. for nearly two weeks you have been confined and closely confined. Dur- ing a part of that time you have list- ened to the produetion of evidence in this case and I fully realize that as men you have work to do in your several capacities and that there are many things you h&d had to forego {daring the trial of‘this case, a great many things that perhaps to you are of more immediate importance than this case but, gentlemen, you are the members of an . organized so- ciety. You are citizens of this coun- ty and you are citizens of the state of Minnesota. And as citizens of this county it becomes your duty under | the laws of this state-fhat when sum- | moned as jurors to axhwer the com- mand of the law a.nd appear here and, if accepted as jurors in the case, to take your oath and g0 into the jury box and do your duty as such laws will be given to you by the court. “You men have been selected, as you: well know, after a great deal of carefulness on the part of the state, and after a great deal of care- fulness on the part of the defendant in this case. You have been chosen because it was thought by the state that you could do the citizens of this state in this case absolute justice and because it was tljought by this defendant that you coyld do absolute justice to him on thegfscts as. they. ‘were presented here in open court, For that reason you have been chosen to represent this community in the trial of this case. “I come here with absolutely no interest in this case. It doesn’t make any difference to me personally, or to my home or private affairs or to my own family what the verdict of you gentlemen may be. To me it is ab- solutely immaterial. -Before me came Mr. Keller and Mr. Fullerton of the fire marshal’s office. To those gen- tlemen individually and personally what your verdict may be in this case is absolutely immaterial. They are not in any way parties to this case. ‘What you may decide will not effect their own homes or families nor the attorney general or his home or fam- ily. But what you may decide may ef- fect and long after will effect the wel- fare of the people of Peltrami coun- ty and the welfare of the people of Northern Minnesota who come in close contact and have come in close contact with this situation and. the situation these facts unfold to you from the witness stand. This, gen- tlemen, is not my case. This is not the case of Mr. Keller or of his as- sistant. This is your case. And you and no one else represent this com- munity. I have said these things to you to impress it upon your mind simply that idea that you, and you alone, are the representatives of this community and you, and you alone, are the pillars that support law and order in Beltrami county and you, and you alone, were chosen upon this jury because the state of Minnesota thought that you were proper pil- lars upon which to rest the fabric of society. “You were chosen because the at- torney general’s office thought you would fearlessly do your duty to this man and to your own community and for no other reason. “Gentlemen of the jury, this man is charged as you know by the grand jury of.this county. It is true that under our procedure the defendant’s side is not heard before the grand jury, it is true that it is a one-sided proceeding before - the grand -jury, but under our form of law in the opinion of those men who found this ‘md:ctmenl they thought that, unex- \nlamed the defendant was guilty of the crime which they charged and, I that you may-more properly have in {mind what the indictment is as found | by the grand jury, I will read it to you. Mr. Janes then read the entire in- [ tétmentiiwhidhc Bharses r. Diimiss with an attempted arson in the third | degree. Continuing, Mr. Janes said: | “That indictment charges that ‘Nartin Behan and:Mike Davis were wsent to Puposky. in this county for | the purpose of burning a store build- ing at Puposky and they were in- duced to do so by this defendant and that they took with them into the building nitroglycerine, matches and nto type, part| 1 candle wicking for the purpose of burning the building and before that grand jury that brought in that in- dictment I have read to you the list of the witnesses, and before that grand jury appeared all the witness- os that have testified here before you and the same witnesses. “Mr. .McDonald, in opening this case to you, outlined what the state would prove and I submit to you in all fairness, did not the state prove to you by good and competent evi- dence every single, solitary thing that Mr. McDonald stated to you thé state would prove? - And in addition to what Mr. MeDonald told you we have brought in additional evidence, the evidence of John Benner and George Stein. “Now, he likewise tcld you that the state would prove to you not on- 1y beyond a reasonable doubt, a doubt for which you might give some rea- sonable explanation, &nd told you that a reasonable doubt wasn’t any doubt but was such a doubt that you could not find a reasonable explana- tion, and I explain a reasonable doubt so that when you go into the jury box you go with one idea, so burn it in your minds that you will see nothing but the two words’ reason- able doubt.” “And I submit to you that the state in this ease has not only proved to you the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt but beyond the pos- sibility of a doubt, and that there is not in the minds of any of you men’ at the present time a shadow of a doubt that the state of Min- nesota brought before you the wit- nesses that have convinced you that this defendant is the criminal that thé evidence in this case has dis- closed him to be and the litfle side touches that have sifted through the case and given you just a glimpse down the avenues of other crimes as shown to you here and there by the testimony of witnesses. Only little side glimpses because he is being tried for arson in the third degree but here and there you could see in the distance other crimes of which this defendant was guilty. “This case, as far as the evidence shows, opened about the 15th day of April last in Cass Lake, Minn. Mr. Smyth, or Smyth as counsel calls him, went to Cass Lake for medical treatment and he had been going to Cass Laké since about November, 1910, for the same treatment and had been there, as he says, as I re- call it, some five or sir times prior to this, possibly more. “On about the 15th day of April he returns to Cass Lake for medical treatment and as he gets off the train he notices that two men get off with him. And these two men the de- fendant later had in his office. The defendant took them in a back room and said ‘T will be through in a few minutes and he did step out in a few minutes, saying, ‘Do you know who those two men are?’ to which Smyth answered no. ‘Well,’” he said, ‘they are two of the smoothest men in all this country,’ and then he took Smyth to his safe and opened it and Smyth says he saw before him two heavy revolvers, a dynamite cap and what the defendant told him was nitroglycerine. “There, before that open safe those two men stand, one of them this de- fendant and the other, the boy, Bert Smyth. This evidence stands undis- puted in this case, gentlemen of the jury, absolutely undenied and abso- lutely uncontradicted. “And there they stand and who are tirey? The defendant, the mayor of Cass Lake, charged under the laws of the state:of Minnesota, with the enforcement of the law, the defend- ant, a man whom fortune has given many, many things. Fortune has not ceprived him of anythirg during the course of his life, not one solitary thing. All that this world could give him this world did give to him. “From Minneapolis, educated in the high schools of Minneapolis, in the university of Minnesota, educat- ed. in other universities, trained doc- tor and able doctor that he undoubt- edly is. All these things were giv- en to him by the state. “All these things were given him and he learned from the lips of a lov- ing mother prayers to Almighty God and yet he stands there at this day, at this time, that man whom fortune did all that fortune eould do:for any man, and the other man—Bert Smyth. Fortune has not done as much for him. . He did not have the opportunities ~that this defendant had. He was brought up under con- ditions somewhat harsher, somewhat harder. He was the product of -this county. He has lived his life in this city and I want to tell you, gentle- men, and impress it upon your minds that there is in this case not the slightest bit of evidence against Bert Smyth except the insinuating re- marks of the counsel. Not one sin- gle thing that Bert Smyth should have done that he did not do. “He has worked for a great many companies here and in positions that required some responsibility. Has any one of his employers come in here and told you that he was mnot a man and a good, clean boy? Not one, not a single one, and he has lived his life in the city of Bemidji. And yet .the counsel appeared to want you to believe that Bert Smyth stole a half a carload of flour. How absolutely unfair! Mr Smyth ex- plained that ne had ordered a car- load of flour for himself and anoth- er man and that he had taken his half and the other man, his. “The counsel then asked him if he did not find a fire in his back yard and if he did anything to put it out? It flashed into my mind that possibly there might be somet] g to that— there might be. I didn't think ‘the counsel would suggest tmything that he could not prove. Yes, and what was that fire? That fire was a for- est fire that started over a mile away and was seen by the people of Pu- posky and it swept down on that town inside of three-quarters of an hour and burned some of the build- ings in the place. And what did Bert Smyth do that he should not have done? Where is this man Hodg- son? whom the counsel asked of Smyth on the witness stand, ‘Didn’t 1%1}#5:5' gnd didn’t you tell h fdn’t you' telt Hodg- S0f“You were trying w‘get thie ma- chinery out?’ “Where is the evidence in this case that proves or brings the slightest thing into evidence that Smyth did anything he should not have done? He did what most men would do. Where did he go with his team? He sent it down to this man Hodgson's place and took his belongings and his wife and children to the lake shore for protection, and, mind you, this fire{swept down there in three- quarfirs «of an hour from the time it started. ' 1 have never seen a forest fire but T presume you geftlemen have. Fanned by a fierce wind as it rushed through pine and birch trees, and smoke enveloping him -while ‘women were shrieking and children were crying, the counsel would lead you to believe that that boy Smyth did something in that moment of ex- citement that he should not have dome. . “We are-all fair men. I would rest my case here if their contention is to disprove Bert Smyth. If that is their contention I would rest my case here and send you men to your jury box at this moment. “Now, there they stand before the open door of that safe, two heavy re- volvers, nitroglycerine and dynamite caps facing them. And there he stands, the product, the educated product of the universities and schools of this state, honored mayor of Cass Lake, a man who has at- tracted to himself the friendships and the good words of Cass Lake’s best citizens and they have come upon this stand and told you that his rep- utation was good, a peculiar charac- ter, a man who could attract to him- self those men, good and noble men as ever went upon a witness stand, and yet at the same time stand before the open door of a safe “I would remind you at this point, gentlemen of the jury, that there is a wide difference between character and reputation. Reputation is what the world Knows a man to be. Rep- utation is what he can make his friends think he is. Character is what a man is and not what he is thought to be. This mau was thought to be a good and clean and noble man and he should have been such. The state did what she could for him and a good mother and father did what they could for him but character is what that man actually is and be- fore this jury there has been unfold- ed that man’s character and not his reputation. “We are not trying his reputation, we are trying him and what he is and you, gentlemen, know what he is. You know because you have heard the story from witnesses un- der oath. Those moble gentlemen, n.nd good gentlemen, who came here from Cass Lake only know his repu- tation. They do not stand, as you men in your imagination, have stood before the open door of that- safe. They did not stand there, they did not see two heavy revolvers, nitro- glycerine and dynamite caps. They did not hear the defendant say that those men go out and do a job and then come back and stay with me and rest up, but you, gentlemen, did and in this case that evidence stands ab- solutely undenied. Not one single | bit of evidence did they deny. With- out the evidence that you gentlemen have heard with the simple knowl- edge that this man is a product of the schools of the state and a learned physician and mayor of a town, and the only evidence the evidence of Bert Smyth that he saw those men there and told you that story, you would say it was improbable. Yes, but is it improbable? Doesn’t it con- nect itself into the testimony of oth- er witnesses? “Dr. Stanton, a dentist of this city, testified that he was with the defend- ant in a club room of this city on the evening of the same day that Mike Davis was in Bemidji and that the | defendant pointed out these two men to him. Dr. Stanton, a respectable citizen and the defendant stood in the open window without any screen on in the club rooms of the Commer- cial club and along the street there passes a man. Dumas shakes his hand to him and says: ‘Hello, Mike, how are you?' and Mike says ‘hel- lo’ Dr. Stanton saw and although the defendant said to Dr. Stanton, ‘There is gne of the smoothest yegg- men or safe crackers in all this north contry,’ thought nothing of it. Why should he think anything of the may- or of Cass Lake, 2 man who had the friendship of the gtntlemen who went upon this witness stand? Why should he think anythi: “Where did that friend nlup origt- - nate? ” “Where did this man beuiine the = friend of Mike Davis, the yeggman and the safe blower? “Where was that friendship form- ed? “Where did their intimacy become so great that he could shake his hand at him? “What was the occasion of that friendship "and where did it come from? “Upon how many, many nights when the darkness was dense and in what back rooms of Cass Lake, Min- neapolis, Superior, or Duluth, or any other city have those two men sat and conversed of their crimes? “What led to that association with a criminal? “When did it begin and we see, a little further on, what criminal acts lie behind that association. “Mr. Kirkhoff, the old German that went on the stand, whom the counsel was so much excited over, and I don’t blame them, said that the de- fendant came into his place of busi- ness and said there were two men he wished I would take care of. He said they bought a lot of goods of him and spent lots of money which was pleas- ing to him. They go and the de- fendant comes in and Mr. Kirkhoff said: ‘Doctor, T wish that you would bring me a great many men like those two men. They are very good customers.’ “‘Don’t you know who those two men are?’ said the defendant. ‘They are two of the best safe crackers in the country and something is going to happen in the next few days be- tween Bemidji and Crookston.’ “The old German said he had talked to a blacksmith in Cass Lake and the blacksmith told him he had lost his hammer and the hammer was found down at Shevlin where the bank was blown, and the old man said: I told him what the defend- ant, Dumas, had told me.’ “Gentlemen of the jury, in light of the testimony of these two men, is the story of Bert Smyth improbable? “Is there anything improbable in what he said? This man from Cass Lake did not hear the conversation in the Commercial club in this city and his connection with the case. “And there they stand before the open door of that safe, looking upon those revolvers and that nitroglycer- ine.” After the morning recess Mr. Janes said the case contained so much to argue that his remarks must neces- sarily prove long. He then again took up the revolver episode. “I wonder why the man who want- ed the revolver did not take it back, instead of Dr. Dumas?” said Mr. Janes. “Now, Martin Behan and Mike Da- vis were at the saloon with Dr. Du- mas, and it appears that the doctor was the one acquainted with them both.” (Continued on last paghy \