St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-18
TURNED OUT A FIzzLE.
Abrupt and Inglorious End Of the Wheat
Steal.
GOULD NOT PROVE THE CASE.
The Alleged Confession OF Mason I'm.
plicated D. G. Moak
& Co.

The great wheat stealing case which
agitated all Minneapolis business circles
i'll general, and the grain men in par
ticular, short time ago, came to sud-
den close yesterday when Charles
Mason and William e. Harley, charged
with stealing a vast quantity of wheat
from the Minneapolis Union Elevator
company, were discharged after hear
ing in the municipal court.
The examination of Mason was be-
gun before Judge MahOney shortly after
8 o'clock yesterday morning, with a few
spectators and large number of law
yerS present. Nearly all the elevator
men were also present, and &. n. Smith,
attorney for w. g. Harley, loomed up
Oh one side of the room.
THE DIRECTORS SIDE.
81. W. Holmes, of the Elevator COM
pany, was the first witness. He had
known Mason for two years, he said,
and had begun the duties Of foreman at
the elevator last January. The witness
went on and told that short time ago
he had discovered that some 1000 BUSH
els of wheat, worth 81 bushel, had
been taken from the elevator without
payment being made for it. He had
heard statements made by Mason in re-
gard to this missing wheat, and gave
what he had heard. Mr.. THAN, Ma
sons attorney, attempted to show that
q confession had been eXtorted from
Mason by telling him that there would
be no prosecution. Mr.. Holmes denied
that he had ever stated to any one that
there would be no prosecution.
did you not say in the Office of jackson,
Atwater d Hill, that you did not want TO
catch the small fish III this DEAL but were
after the big ones?'
Il can't say that did"
Now this is an important matter, urged
the attorney; You must tell us the substance
of what you said"
Well told him that we had discovered
that he was interested in this deal and we
wanted him to tell us all apoutit. Don't think
made him any promises
Did you or any of the others ask him to
turn over any property
IL heard nothing said"
After a consultation with the defendant
THAN asked:
AT this time did you have Capt. Pratt, or
any OF the directors or attorneys, make any
offer TO Mr.. Mason:"
Il don't remember any such offer"
WAS there not a tacit understanding with
Mason that he would not be prosecutor
NO"
''At that time what property was turned
over by Mason to the elevator company!
Mr.. JamiSon objected to this, and
Mr.. Than explained that he wanted to
show that the elevator people had
taken from Mason So 900 worth of real
estate, $500 in certified checks and $3.50
in cash. Mr.. Holmes went on then
with the following story:
MoAK & co. IMPLICATED.
Mason was brought into the Office and told
that we had information that he was i'm
pl!cated in the wheat steal and we wanted
til r0ll oh
while he told US. The stealing had been
carried on by overlooking cars, and the firm
implicated was D. C. Moak Il Co. He said
they had paid him money for overlooking
these cars The wheat then passed through
the hands of Moak d Co., who paid him a
percentages This stealing was kept up from
September, 1897, to July, 1883. Mason was
asked what he would do towards making
restitution, and he turned over 5000 IN Ger
tificates of deposit. $3.50 in cash and house
and lot on the East side. Mason said he had
received some $500 from this source.
A long discussion followed as to the
wheat inspection system, intending to
establish the theory that the wheat
shortage was due to the allowance for
dirt. In reply to questions, Mr.. Holmes
said:
II don't know how much Mason received
as his percentage. Sometimes he weighed
out the wheat and sometimes he ran it in
loaded out a car he would run in wheat from
an adjoining bin. He took this wheat from
various extra bins
After this conversation at the lawyers
office, you told him to go back to the elevator
and go to work and keep his mouth shut, did
your
"Tes, SIR"
"And you had him over there for some
little time before he was finally arrested:''
He was"
Samuel Hill, one of the directors and
the attorney of the elevator company,
was the next witness. Mr.. Than i'm
mediately protested that as corpus
deficit had not been proven, further
testimony in regard to the interview
would be irregular. Mr.. Jameson Of
fered to bring III the books of the COM
pany to show that wheat had been
stolen, and to enable him TO do so court
adjourned until O'Clock.
AN NOTORIOUS ENDING.
The books were not brought in at the
afternoon session, as was expected.
Mr.. JamiSon, as soon as court opened,
addressed the court and stated that the
state had expected to have Harry HOl-
comb present and to have Mason'S con-
feSslon fully proven. But" he con-
tinued, "as HOlcOmb cannot be found
and the court holds that the company's
books are only secondary evidence, l
move that this case be dismissed"
The motion was at once granted. AS
soon as the clerk had made the entry on
the blotter MIR. Smith, Harley's attOr-
ney, moved for dismissal of the case
against his client This motion was
also granted, and Harley and Mason
left the court room to receive the con-
CALCULATIONS of their friends.