Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-03-17
THE BURNS CASE.
Reynolds Again on the Stand-Testimony
of George Gale,

Reynolds Again on the Stand-Testimony
of George Gale.
The taking of testimony in the case of
the People VS.. D. NJ Burns was resumed
in Department One of the Superior Court
yesterday.
George Gale, who was deputy and book
keeper under Burns, was the first witness.
He stated that while acting in the capacity
of bookkeeper he kept the stationery ac-
count, the ballot-paper account and per-
formed certain other clerical duties.
| Thomas H. Reynolds, who had been sent
! for arrived at this time and took the stand
! In answer to questions by General Hart
| he testified that the little tag-book which
| he had kept from time to time, showing
! the amount of funds drawn from the safe
| by Mr.. Burns, was made up from the tags
| themselves. His monthly reports were
! based entirely upon the amount of cash on
hand and in the safe at the end of that
month The tags of each month repre-
scented the amount of cash taken during
! that month. His impression was that the
tags represented only money that had been
received as fees, but as 10 that he would
not be positive.
| Counsel for defense called the witness
attention to the month of May, 1881, when
he had said he paid to Mr. Burns on tags
! $5S7 GA, and when he had reported S439 IS
"a total of 81, 037 29-and asked him if
$73S % was not the actual receipts for hat
MONTH and if so, how did he account for
the discrepancy of 5000 04? Witness re-
piled that he did not know that he could
/ account for it.
The month of October, 1880, was next
/ taken up, which showed that the tags
| charged Burns and money reported to the
| Controller amounted to 81, $50 %, and wit
ness was asked if S643 were not the actual
fees received Tor that month, and how he
could get 81 800 out of S5i3?
Counsel for the prosecution objected to
! the question on the grounds that the books
were the best evidence and that the ground
covered by the question had te"n sr.ii
GENTLY gone over.
The Court sustained the objection. and
Mr. Reynolds was excused from the wit
ness stand.
Mr.. Gale then resumed his testimony.
He kept the accounts for the sale of stat
utes, Codes, California Reports, etc, in
separate bool, from that in which the sta
ftionery account was kept. He examined
the books placed il evidence in the Court
room, and said the book he referred to was
not among them. The last time he re-
membered of seeing it was on his desk near
the close OF Burns administration. Cash
from sales of Supreme Court Reports was
entered in what was termed the blotter
cash book. The fee book was written up
from the daily blotter. Witness said he
had exclusive charge of the sale of Supreme
Court Reports He did not remember of
having made a report to Mr.. Shattuck,
present Deputy of the Secretary of State. of
the number of Court Reports on hand at
the close of Burns administration, but he
might have done so. From July, 1882, to
January, 1888, he kept the ballot paper
account. He also had charge of what was
termed the appropriation book" Heknew
of Burns having made purchases of ballot
paper, and no entries made of it, In De
cember, 1852, 200 reams were 50 pur
chased Since witness before the Grand
Jury he said he had taken pains to fIeshen
his memory as to certain of the transactions
upon which he had been questioned. He
had called upon the gentleman who was
then ianitor. and they had hunted up his
shipping receipts. Witness said ! had
charge of the cash for the month of August,
1882. The rest of the term | accounted for
it to Mr.. Burns. Daily | would count the
daily cash receipts, balance the cash-book
and place the money in the safe. then
had nothing more to do with ii. | did not
make up the cash III the safe at the end Of
a week or month ] kept no private cash
book. Ny cash-blotter or daily cash book
was what is called a one-page
diarv-that IS a page dated and
ruled for each day in the year.
His cash-blotters were left in the office.
Witness was then asked to examine the
cash-book that had been put in evidence.
lie said the entries that appeared in the
cash-boJk referred to were in his hand
writing from July, 1852, to January. 1888.
He said he made the transcript for the
month of July from a memorandum in the
handwriting OF Mr. Reynolds and which
was handed to him for that purpose by
Mr. Burns. That month was written up
after the month had expired. He said the
memoranda Was in q small memorandum
book, which he infinitely described. At
that time Mr. Reynolds connection had
been severed with the Office. He did not
compare the memoranda with the blotter
and when nc made the entries as directed
the little book was returned to Mr.. Burns.
He had since ascertained that the memo
randa did not contain all the entries that
were on the blotter covering the same date.
He first asccrtaned this fact in September.
An investigation was Immediately insti-
tuted, when it was found that omissions
had been made III nearly every month since
the beginning of the term. We found
many items on the fee book that were not
in the cash-book All the reports that |
made out were made from the cash-hook.
During the time witness was deputy all the
fees collected came into his hands and were
turned over by him to Mr.. Burns.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Direct testimony OF George Gale re-
sumed: Mr.. Burns instructed me to keep
a true and correct account of all thesmon-
eys of the Office and account to him for the
same This was i'll the month of Septem-
Der The cash book from September 1st
to December was written up at one time.
Burns took the memorandum book OF
cash, deducted the amount received for
ballot paper, and the balance was reported.
The reason that there was no settlement i'll
| September and October was owing TO the
fact that Mr.. Burns had discovered that
there was deficiency in the accounts OF
the office dating back to almost the begin
ming of the term. Burns told me then that
he knew Of nothing wrong except thai
there was a large deficiency i'll the ballot
account. When he suspicioned something
was wrong, he remarked, {" will take care
of those books in the future Witness
stated who We're the clerks of the office,
how the fee books were written up, etc.
| saw all the blotters in the Office
after REYNOLDS left We finished our
investigation about the last Of No
, vember or the first of December.
+ The last time / saw the blotters they were
living on the desk in Mr.. Burns office.
While in the office with Mr.. Thompson
had no occasion to refer to them. Suisse
quently, at the request of Mr.. Dunn, l
looked for them, but failed to find them.
Mr. Carey examined the witness at length
regarding his testimony before the Grand
Jury, endeavoring to show that the evil
dence given then was in conflict with that
at this time Mr.. Hart objected to the
questions, saying Mr.. Gale was a witness
for the prosecution, and consequently they
had no right to badger or impeach him.
The attorneys had quite a wrangle over the
admissibility OF the testimony which took
up nearly an hours time.
: A portion of the fees for December was
used in thepurchase of ballot paper. Burns
had to use portion of his January money
to make up the December settlement. Ali
the money that he did not pay into the
State. ! understood him TO say, was used in