The Ottawa free trader., 1886-02-20
THE COURTS.
Circuit Court,
this city.

Bakers name IS appended as surety. This
will give Mr.. u. an opportunity to prove that
his signatures TO these notes are forgeries
rHE ARSON CASE.
Readers Of the PRRB TRADER will remem-
Der the account Of the partial burning Of the
old Exchange hotel, corner Of Columbus and
Madison streets, on the morning Of Nov. s..
1885. The circumstances by which this FIRE
WAS surrounded seemed to plainly indicate
that the building had been fred by an in
cendiary. Sad = few hours later found the
proprietor, Andrew Steinke, behind the
prison bars of the county JAIL charged with
the crime. He was subsequently hailed out
and left for parts unknown. His bondsmen
fearing that he would not return for trial
which Was clearly his intention, placed de
tectives on his track, who located him at St.
Thomas, Canada. fe-then left for Oshkosh,
Wis, where he was arrested by the chief of
police on instructions from his bondsmen
Chief Of Police Brennan went 10 the above
city some three weeks ago and brought
Seinke back to Ottawa. Rather than rs
main in Jail until his trial came off, he made
a deed of his property to his bondsmen.
Nearly year ago he bought the old Ex-
change hotel from Martin Kcim paying
therefor Si,s00, On this properly and con-
tents he afterwards placed an insurance of
S. 300. The morning Of The fire the fire
men found smoke issuing from half n dozen
different places at once. and after the fire
WAS subdued kindling wood saturated with
kerosene was found in the cellar and hall
way The hired girl. Miss Annie Seacop,
had narrow escape in her night clothes.
The bartender and boarder were also near
~ sutfooated by smoke ere they got out of
the Building, The efforts Of the fire depart
meut soon extinguished the blaze. The trial
began on Monday afternoon. a great mum.
ber Of witnesses were examined. among
ment, who testified TO the suspicious circum-
stances surrounding the case. There were
also seven witnesses from Wisconsin, who
gave very damaging testimony in rebuttal :;
in fact they clearly impeached the defend
ants testimony. 1t appeared from the tes-
timOny Of these witnesses that Steiuke some
two years ago kept saloon and board
ing house in the village of Dousman, Wis,
and that FIRE occurred there which bore n
striking similarity TO the Ottawa one. 1t
occurred about the same hour of the night,
and his wife had gone away the day before
as she had done in this case. The property
in both instances was heavily insured, but
the Wisconsin fire WAS success, the build
ing being burned to the ground, while only
a moderate damage was done the building
fred here. These witnesses also sw0re that
Steinke's reputation in Wisconsin was such
that they would not believe him under oath.
The testimony Of these witnesses materially
weakened the defense. the general opinion
previous 70 that being that the proceedings
would result in an acquit,al On Wednesday,
however, Steinke was found guilty on the
FIRST ballot, the verdict fixing ,he penalty at
two years in the penitentiary. Steinke, who
had been across the way TO saloon to get
glass Of beer, unaware Of the verdict, stroll
ed leisurely into court just rs the verdict
was being read, and was nabbed by depu
ty, haudcuGed and lodged in Jail. The
usual motion for new trial was entered.
TOO MUSCULAR FOR HIN.
Willis NJ, Clark, OF Utica, fled his petition
for divorce Monday in the Circuit Court,
asking to be separated from his wife, Lottie
S. Clark. lie has been o resident Of this
county for four years March, 1881, he was
married to Lottie s. Whifep Il; Unadillo
Forks, \. Y, with whom be continued to
live until July Let Of last year, when he
ceased TO cohabit with his wife on account
of i'll treatment. He alleges that Mrs. Clark
is a woman Of gres, aus,erity OF temper, and
that during the past two years of his mar
ried life she INDUCED in violent ssllies Of
passion, using violent and obscene language
toward her husband without any provoca,iOn
whsiever; tha; she frequently resorted to
great personal violence. particularly on one
occasion during the month Of August, 1884,
when she came upon him unawares and with
her clinched fist, she being powerful and
sthletic wopan, knocked her husband down,
having blackeued his eyes and face in true
Sullivan style. A few weeks after this she
came upon the scene armed with an iron
wash basin and struck plaintiff with it, the
edge cutting deep cash in his face, from
which the blood flowed profusely. Clark
also alleges ,ha, his wife frequently threat
eued to kill him and attempted to d:sfgure
him for life by throwing vi,riol in his face.
During the winter of 81 she attacked ter
husband with piece of board. and at an
other time with heavy iron stove poker.
Last May Clark was the victim Of another