Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1870-03-04

IVA So ~ piaNIf va
: produced immense excitement.-
Nothing was talked of but the bur-
glary. Surmise was rampant and
suspicion ran widely about, fastening
on parties Eere and there without
much regard to probability and with
little or no effort at logical demon
= stration. The fl st instinct of COM
munity in such cases is for n scape-
, goat, IL victim, and in the first par0x-
ism Of evaporation it matters little
whom. If party can be found bold
enough to first point the finger of
suspicion, the silly, the needless and
unthinking follow like flock of
sheep. We do not propose in this
article to mention any suspicious
: which were imagined or ventilated
against any parties except those in
whom we are directly interested, and
in justice to them we propose to de- |
tail fully the circumstances in the case
About Thursday morning, it APP
pears, the excitement reached head, |
ard n general search of the town |
was proposed. About noon, as the
writer hereof was on his way to his |
dinner, he was hailed by Sheriff.
Vennum, who informed him that the |
citizens of the town were to assem>
BILE in the Court House and submit to |
a general search, and asked us to ac-
company him. We asked him if!
after dinner would not do just as
well. He replied that it would be |!
better to go now and have it over
with. We accordingly accompanied
him.. We found the Court room
pretty we'll filed. As soon as the
Sheriff stated the object of the as
semblage, we arose with the remark
that as we were i'm hurry to get our
dinner, we hoped the Sheriff won,,ti
Ego through us first. TIE Sheriff
and his able assistants accordingly
went through" us. We waited un-
III the t"o hands employed IN our
olilcC and one or two citizens were
searched, and then seeing from the
number present that it would take
t Several hours to complete the job,
we started to go to dinner. There
was guard stationed at the door,
we presumed simply to prevent
/ parties going out before they were
I searched. He declined to let US out.
We remarked that we had been
searched, and there was no reason
/ for OBTAINING us longer. The guard
4 asked Justice Williams If he should
y
torily "No.n This "riledn us a little,
and we advanced towards the Squire
and demanded by what authority he
D detained us there. He answered,
by the authority of the town of
Palermo" SHOW your papers," we
exclaimed excitedly. The Squire
then produced document which we
found, on perusal, to be a search war
rant authorizing a search of the per-
D son and property of ourself and our
e two employees. A thunder-clap from
clear sky could not have taken US
more by surprise. We found that
the warrant had been issued on an
affidavit given by one Thomas Armit-
age, Il blacksmith of the village. As
soon as we had recovered from our
surprise, we cheerfully conducted the
Sheriff to our premises, and afforded
him every facility for search, but our
! anger and Indignation at the outrage
was rising with every moment. The
search over, we proceeded to the
: Court House and demanded an ex-
animation on behalf of ourself and
our employees. There was little dis
position to proceed further on the
part of the movers in the matter, but
by the employment of strong Ian
guage we at length succeeded i'm get
ting them 10 take some steps in that
direction.
Papers were drawn up-we didn't
examine them ut the time, and we and
our employees surrendered ourselves
prisoners without q warrant into The |
hands of the sheriff We then asked |
for an adjournment till Friday to en- !
able us to procure counsel. Next
day came, and with it our attorney,
Mr.. w. Moir, of Eldora. When |
he asked for the papers on which we
were to be arraigned for preliminary
examination, he was shown docu- |
ment that ought to be preserved as a |
curiosity in legal literature. No
charge was specified i'm it, and it was
supported by no affidavit. No one
could have told whether we were to |
be examined on a charge of murder,
arson, rape, or for threatning to pros
ecute Squire Williams for willful |
and malicious oppression uuder col |
or of judicial authority. Aud yet |
Mr.. Baker, the attorney retained for
the county, and Squire Williams
were actually about to proceed to the |
examination on this document! It'll
seems that, when IL came to the |
point, neither Mr.. Armitage nor any
one else was willing to make IL spe- |
citic charge and support it by affida-
Wit. They could retail ISLANDERS
around the street. They could pick |
up detached and prevented shrcds of
conversation, n-isconstrued circum-
stances, and weave, with a web of |
malice and wool of falsehoOd, q fab |
rio of accusation; but none could be |
found bold or reckless enoguh to |
support the fabric by solitary affi- !
davit.
When the hour foe the examina- |
ton arrived, Mr.. Barker arose and |
stated that none of the parties being
willing to make oath To any specific |
charge against the parties accused |
he could do nothing but withdraw |
the suit on part of the prosecution.-I
The justice thereupOn ordered the |
This was the end of the examina- |
ton. We exceedingly regret that
the parties who directed the suspi- |
cion lacked the manliness to come |
forward and afford Us an opportunity |
for full Investigation. 1t was pru-
dent on their part, however, to stop |
where they did, and we cannot but |
admire their discretion, if we con-
denim their judgmentand good sense.
A step further and they would have
''gotten their foot in it" so deeply |
that it wouldn't have been drawn |
out in hurry.
But as most of the parties have
since come to us and expressed con-
| triton for the part they have taken,
and acknowledged their error, we do
not care to pursue the matter further.
Mr.. Armitage came up voluntarily |
OH Saturday morning and acknowl-
edged that he had been deceived and |
| made tool and catspaw of by other
parties. He gave us their names,
| but we, with more consideration than
/ icy have shown to us, forbear to
publisi, them at this time. They
promised to back him, threw all the
responsibility on his shoulders, and
when it came to the scratch, they |
backed him by ineontinently back
ing omt and leaving him in tue iGrcb.
We will DO Mr.. A. the justice to say
tina he has exhibited a certain man.
| illness i'm the matter which contrasts
| favorahly with the conduct of those
who dece; we'd and duped him.
We believe Squire Williams and
M. Baker to be well meaning and
conscientious men, but can scarcely
commend them for their knowledge
of law and evidence displayed in
this case. Mr.. Williams took no step
but with the advice of Mr.. Baker.
Probably they thought they were do
| ing their duty. But men in respons-
ible positionsshou be more discreet.
| They should consider the awful ma