St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-12-27
LOCAL AND TOWN NEWS
COUNTY COURT.

gate, for conspiracy and intimidatlng
non union stone cutters, was settled
Friday by each of the men paying a
fine of $40 without costs. Gen. Roger
A. Pryor of New York city appeared in
behalf of the stOnecutters.
This ends a long fought trial of a
case of more than local interest. In
April, 1885, Is stOnecutters were bound
over to the grand jury in $500 bonds
each and in June they were all ndict-
ed for conspiracy against the l::egate
Granite company and intimidation OF
non union granite cutters. Th, case
was not tried but went to the 81 ,reme
court on questions of law affect. G the
legality of the indictments, to be re-
turned to the county court tc determine
facts. The case has been in the courts
ever since. AT the last term of the
county court the case against the Is
workmen was mol pressed. Last Fri
day the case against the three officers
came up and was settled as above re-
lated.
The Cheney Calderwood case is still
on trial and may not be concluded this
week. The arguments will be made
by Messrs. Drew and Ide for the plain
tiff and Messrs Bates and Dunnett for
the defendant.
The plaintiff was kept on the stand
oil tho tIn,a from, Wednesday, affair."
noon to Friday morning. During all
her testimony and the searching cross
examination she manifested perfect
self control under the most trying cir
cumstances In her testimony she
claimed to have received constant at
tentiOns from DR.. Calderwood since
1880 and affirmed that a contract of
marriage existed between them. Va
rious witnesses testified in relation to
their intimacy and meetings. 1t was
shown that DIR. CalderwOod told her
that people knew of their meetings,
and that caution must be exercised !;
and he adopted Il shorthand method of
informing her when she could visit
him without detection. Other import
ant points of Miss Cheney's testimony
were corrOborated, and on Friday the
case on the part of the plaintiff was
closed.
The defense claimed that Miss Che
ney was of unsOund mind and that all
advances were made by her. DR.. ORA
per, superintendent of the BrattleborO
insane asylum, testified of Miss Che
ney's conduct in the asylum and of her
peculiar form of insanity which was
generally of a mild type and caused by
study and OverwOrk. The defense al
so claimed that DR.. Calderwood never
promised to marry her.
The Water Supply Question.
Although the town is just now agi-
tated on another subject, the great
question that forces itself upon every
thoughtful resident is that of water
supply, and this will continue to be
the live issue until some means are
adopted for an adequate supply. 1t
will be remembered that at the village
meeting in May, after this subject had
been quite fully discussed, Il motion by
E. II. Ide was adopted "that the trus-
tees be instructed to examine the sub
ject of improving the present water
system in all it's bearings and to call a
meeting to hear their report before
July L." This important matter APP
pears to have stopped right there.
Meanwhile many of the families con-
tinue to drink the sewage not only of
Il part of this village but of all the
buildings and villages on the river
frequently and for days together, the
pumps are as dead as Julius Caesar,
and the town is wholly without fire
protection, and all the water used for
domestic purposes is that obtained
from the much abused Fairbanks sys-
tenn turned into the village pipes. If
this question comes up at the annual
meeting next week, as it is most sure
to, the citizens should be prepared to
meet it candidly and intelligently.
Sometime they will discover that
water will run down hill by the force
of gravity much cheaper than it can
be pumped up hill.
The Cost of Electric Lighting.
In the present temper of the public
mind any facts bearing on the expense
or value of electric lighting are of in
terest. The city of Montreal is just now
agitated about the expense of her
lighting and w. II. Stephens, promi-
nent citizen, gives the following letter
in late number of the Star newspa-
per of that city. Let it be read care
fully by the voters of this place:
"To the Editor of the Star One of
your contemporaries this morning as
sumes the price of electric lights at an
average of so cents. This assumption
is based upon a statement furnished
by the manager of the Royal electric
light company, who naturally selects a
favorable set of examples to establish
his average. 1t is doubtless true that
in the infancy of electric lighting these
exOrbitant prices prevailed. Charles
Moore, editor of the Detroit Evening
News, contributed paper on the sub
ject of municipal public works before
the American Economic association.
He gives the following facts:
Bay City, Michigan, put in plant in
October, 1886, and supplied lights for
S42 per annum, whereas it had been
paying a private company 500 per