The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-03-06
IN TROUBLE.

j. Q. Wing and John Finke, two attor-
neys in Davenport, who have been engaged
in the Hawthorne LeClaire damage suit,
have been arrested and placed under bail
for subornation of perjury. F. L.Hayden
and~H. n. Atherton were arrested forper-
jury.
The arrests were caused by the confess
ion Of II. L. Bottum, who is already in the
Scott county jail for perjury, who impli-
Gates the other persons IN the perjuries for
which he is under arrest.
Mr.. Wing makes the following statement:
In speaking of the confession OF Bottum
and Atherton he says:
have read those statements and I wish
to add that they are almost entirely false
in every particular. There is now and
then fact stated which Bottom has
shrewdly used to give color to his story.
/ wish to lay before the people at the out
set the true facts SO that it may not be said
that anything has been fixed up to meet
the case. | will notice some of these. We
did employ Bottum to look after the Parks
matter and | did give him an order fer a
team at Mr.. Hills to go out to Mr.. Bars,
but for no such purpose as they state--the
only object was to get some clue that would
lead to some legal evidence that would fix
the responsibility of the Barr detective
business on young Barr SO that we could
show the matter in court We never by
word or intimation insinuated that we
wanted them to do anything that was not
legitimate and honest detective work.
Atherton told us that he had converse
ton with Barr in Rock Island in which he
denied having population with the girl,
but in which he said he had promised to
marry her in fun. The rest is sheer false
hood
Mr. Bottom, at my suggestion, made a
copy of the sketch which he claimed he
had made in September, 1879, and this
copy did show to Mr.. Van Akin. and he,
Bottum, made some chang es that Mr.. Van
Akin thought were in accordance with his
but the original sketch was
never to my knowledge changed by any
one.
As to Mr. Atherton's statement, there is
hardly grain of truth in it. We will be
able to show arrangement between
Mr.. B. and Mr.. A. that in case they were
arrested to charge the whole matter upon
Mr.. Fink and myself. We little suspected
the desperate game these men were playing
against US. The pubic need not be alarm
ed at our situation. Right will surely
come about, and we shall show the facts
and our innocence to the satisfaction of
every man, woman and child. There is no
doubt that Mr. Bottum made sketch some
time ago of the steps at lie Claire. and
that he claimed to have fallen there. That |
Mr.. Hayden's affidavit is substantially Ger
rect. He was probably mistaken as tol
time, otherwise it is substantially true. |
The excitement of last night and to-day |
Sunday has brought to light facts that
show this beyond the doubt Of any one |
Already we have learned the motive of |
Bottum's villainy by his declarations and
hose Of Mr.. Athsrton's, which friends |
nave kindly communicated to u.s. and be-
ore the. work of this conspiracy is ended |
he public will know it all. / simply ask |
ny friends to wait till the proper time
Lrrives and then pass judgment; with that
Judgment we shall be content. We fully |
ealize the stain and disgrace of such
harge. but conscious of no guilt, we have
10 fears Of the outcome. The movers of |
his prosecution will yet ask public forgive
less for the wrongs they have done us.
j. @. Vine.