St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-17
The Defense Reads From a
Pamphlet Entitled His
tory Of a Crime
Sylvanus Halls Mysterious
Disappearance and Myste-
rious Temperance.
The Seventh Annual Conven-
ton of the Minnesota Hos
pital College. mn
CLAIM OF THE DEFENSE
In the Criminal Libel Charged
Against Judge WEIGH.

The trial of William Welch, indicted
for criminal libel of Secretary of the In
terror William F. Villas, was continued
in the district court yesterday, the
hearing being confined to a statement
by the defense of what it expects to
prove. The state rested its case by
proving the publication, in the House
Diary, of the libelous matter,
and showing the bad feeling
that existed between the defendant
and Secretary Villas. For this
purpose they introduced Victor WEIGH,
a son of the defendant, and S. W. Bot
kin, his law partner. The remainder
of the day was occupied by the defense.
Victor WEIGH, one of the counsel, adj
dressed the jury. and after prefacing
with the remark that the case was not
Mr.. Davis or the war record of Mr.. Vi
las, said it would be tried upon the facts
as shown. 1t involved the history of the
Madison Mutual Insurance company,
and he proposed to show the following:
WHAT THE DEFENSE CLAIMS.
That up to 1871 the company did a
large business and was generally con-
sidered very successful. In 1871 an as
Sessment was levied upon all certificates
of p per cent, and in 1873 a second as
SeSSment OF so per cent was made. Both
of these assessments were pretty gener-
ally paid up and in this way a large
amount of money came into the hands
of the company, so that in 1877 there was
a surplus over and above all liabilities of
$4,000 In 1877 bill was introduced
in the legislature creating guarantee
fund of S250,000. At that time William
+. Villas was one of the directors of the
company. This bill was made law.
The committee appointed to solicit sub
scriptons for this fund received $780,
600. This amount, as the guarantee
fund, was accepted as security. By
this bill every pOlicy-holder was en-
titled to one vote, while every man who
was a subscriber to The guarantee fund
was entitled to one vote for every dol
lar that he subscribed. This gave
the guarantors control, whereupon
they elected themselves directors of
the $4,000 surplus that belonged to the
policy holders. They then provided
for the introduction of bill into the
legislature to wind up the affairs of the
company, Buel +. Hutchinson, the sec
rotary, steering the bill, but p. l..
Spooner. commissioner of insurance,
showed that SD, 600 in the hands of the
company, belonging to policy holders
would be imperilled, whereupon the
bill was amended to destroy its pur-
pose and allowed to drop. But the
company was wound up. nOtwithStand-
ing, and the policy holders got nothing.
One Seth Bartlett brought suit to re-
lN,,tx lDt tfNff ftnI
this proceeded the cOunSeD Mr.. Villas
HAD AN INTERVIEW
with Mr.. Welch. | was present and
will 90 ON the stand and state the sub
stance Of that Interview. Mr.. Welch
told Mr.. Villas at that time that he was
preparing an article upon the insurance
company, accusing the directors of
wrecking the company. Mr.. Villas beg
ged to be allowed TO explain the circum-
stances before the publication. That
explanation was never made. Since that
date Mr.. Welch and Mr.. Villas have never
spoken. No explanation was ever made,
and after the two weeks delay agreed
upon Mr.W elch published his history of
a crime This was in 1851. Some time
after this Mr.. Welch, in an honest effort
to get at the facts in the case, wrote to
Buel E. Hutchinson, asking him where
he could obtain information with regard
to the Madison Fire Insurance COM
pany. He found that all the official
papers with regard to the suit had dis
company had been burned, the records
in the Bartlett suit had disappeared,
and it was only after searching through
three states and the District of Column
bia that he was able to find the official
records in that suit. 1t seemed as if
the earth had opened and swallowed
them up.
Most of this matter came from one of
Welche'S pamphlets entitled "History
of a Crime" the salient features of
which atterward appeared in the Home
Diary. The prosecution objected to
this reading and quite legal tilt re-
suited. The state held that the nara
tive would preclude correlative matter
not charged in the Indictment and
which, if read, the defendant must also
justify. The court so ruled and adj
mitted the reading, which occupied the
afternoon until the adjournment.
SINGULAR STORY.
An East Side Man Sent to an Asy-
lum by a Mistake.
A very singular story comes from the
upper end of the Ninth ward, known as
New Boston, so singular, in fact, as to
be almost incredible ontside the pages
of Charles Reade's "Hard Cash" Last
August the papers were filled with the
mysterious disappearance of S. S. Hall,
of Northeast Minneapolis, and the pO-
lice made strenuous efforts, though use
less, to ascertain his whereabouts.
He was finally abandoned as dead,
and his friends united on the
theory that he had been foully dealt