St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-04-27

| III nan
their share in the reward for the con-
victiOn of the murder of Mrs. Frieze
This last assertion will scarcely fiud
credence anywhere, and unfortunately
for Phair the Globes statement in re-
gard to his counsel is wide of the truth.
The fact is that Phair had counsel from
the time he was arrested, more than
| three months previous to his trial. The
Court went through the form of assign
ing the same counsel to Phair in order
that they might be entitled to the fee
which the State allows to counsel as
signed by the Court to defend criminals
who have no money with which to OBJ
tain counsel. But they were the same
able counsel who had been engaged for
three months in his case. His counsel
petitioned the Court for Il continuance
on the ground of Phair's affidavit, that
he wante'! more time for the purpose
of bringing from Providence man to
whom he said he gave torn piece of
scrip in payment for his lodging. But
the Judge replied that the testimony of
this man would be much more valuable
to the prisoner at that time than it
would be six months later or in other
words that this man would be more
likely to remember Phair and identify
him at that time than he would be sew
eral months afterwards, and that this
affidavit was not IA good reason for
granting a continuance. As has been
stated, the sister of Phair, who lived in
Providence, had employed detectives
in that city to investigate the matter
and could find no trace of his having
been there. One of his counsel went
to Providence and returned with the
same fruitless result.
The Providence Journal says that
Hauley, the restaurant clerk above al
| luded to, thinks he should recognize the
man if he saw him, but he says that
Phair's picture, which was shown to
him, though it looks familiar, looks too
cross, and the forehead looks kind Of
angry, while this man lUU.Ied TO be
''kind of careless-going man." Hanley
has no way of fixing ihe date. except
that it was i'll warm weather, sometime
between March, 1874 when he went to
the restaurant rs head waiter and clerk,
and the middle of August, when they
were compelled to leave the building
The Journal adds:
! We are informed 10y Detective Swan
tiItil ou Gun vi 1919, OIHccIS
Stearns and Thornton, of Rutland, VT,
came here to look up this matter, and
i'll company with him visited every sa-
loon and eating house within il radius
of three-quarters'of il mile of the de-
pot, and could not find any place that
agreed with Phair's description, and
though they had his picture they could
not find any one who remembered ever
seeing any such person. He had a sis
ter living in the city at that time, who
was visited, and she said she had not
seen him for year and Il half. A few
days after that some one came here on
behalf of Phair, and could find nothing
to corrobOrate his statement.
Readers of the Boston Globe, alone,
might well be led into the deusion that
material testimony in Phair's behalf is
being secured but the Globes warns
do not stand sitting. Thus, it has in
sisted that one Sargent, IL photographer,
who it stated left Rutland suspiciouslv
the day of the murder and never re-
turned, was as likely to he the murderer
as Phair; but the Rutland papers say
that Sargent did return toIRutland soon
after and stay several days; that he
VAS Swallowed and the matter investi-
gated by competent detectives, and
that 1t was shown that Sargent could
have had no connection with the muir
der. The Globes story about woman
named Aurclia Brooks, on whom the
Globe strives to cast suspicion simply
because she had some bloody under
clothes washed, and had some money
three months after the murder, have
undoubtedly us little real connection
with the case
And in reference to this Providence
matter, 1t Is to be noted that even if it
should be proved that Phair was at
Providence, as he says, it does not es-
tablIsh an alibi. He says he went
back to Boston at noon, and Abrams the
pawnbroker, says that his books show
that 1t was O'Clock in the afternoon
when Phair offered Mrs. FREEZES watch
and opera glass to him in pawn.
GFrom Editorial in st. Adams Messenger.l
THE REWARD SYSTEM THE GOVERNORS
COURSE.
Besides, the reasons which we have
endeavored to give against the reward
system of detecting criminals are in
some measure applicable to the very
efforts that are now being put forth in
Phair's behalf He desires DELAY and a
new trial Il certain newspaper obtains
his statement and Immediately en-
braces his cause, not for the reason that
Its writers can try cases better than the
judges, jurors and lawyers of Vermont,
but that it can make money by the sen
sation, and make capital if it succeeds.
1t Is, therefore, just as much reward
seeker by espOuSing his cause as were
the detectives who, as he claims, perse-
cuted him at Rutland. Another writer.
stimulated by commendable spirit of
enterprise, enters upon the investiga-
ton and carries it even further than the
Original patentee."
These gentlemen obtain clues, forth
theories, marshal evidence and make
up case, just as much us the private
detectives did the only difference is
that their court and jury are the public,
nnrestrained by professional training
and the sanctions of responsibility on
oath, and unenlightened by the produc-
ton of all the evidence on both sides
of the case. 1t is quite unnecessary to
say that such Il tribunal is the one of
all others, most likely to be imposed
upon 10y reward seekers.
And yet, we cannot say that news
paper can never be the means of she'd
ding new light upon an adjudged case,
and when it does, the truth and not its
motive is the thing to be considered.
The course, therefore, that Gov. Fair
banks has pursued, III thoroughly ac-
quaintlng himself with all the evidence
adduced at the trial of Phair, before re-
fusing his reprieve some weeks ago