St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-16
WILL e CELEBRATED.
The Case Of Criminal Libel Against
Judge Walsh.
HIS LITTLE HOME DIARY
And the Serious Charges It Makes
Q Against Secretary William 2.
Vilas-.-The Case Opened.


4;
The case of The State VS.. William
Welch, indicted for criminal libel, was
called for trial before Judge Hicks yes
terday. On one side of the table in the
large court room sat the counsel for the
prosecution, County Attorney Davis, W.
W. Erwin and James E. Hutchinson,
son of Beuel E. Hutchinson, the
secretary of the old Madison
Fire Insurance company. Opposite
sat the defendant, a gray-haired man,
with M. Fl. Sessions, G. E. Matile and
vi. Welch, the defendants son, cOun-
sci for the defense. Before the case
was opened Mr.. Sessions asked Mr..
Erwin if he was not employed by out
side parties to aid in the prosecution of
the case. Mr.. Erwin declined to answer
the question. when an appeal was made
to the court to compel him to answer.
The court declined to interfere in
the matter, whereupon motion was
made that
MIR. ERWIN BE DEBARRED
from taking part in the trial. The court
overruled the motion and instructed the
clerk to call jury. The following jury
was then impaneled:
Philip Gorham, Leonard Lenzin, E. E.
George L. Wilson, +. Bernstein j. B. Wiggin,
Joseph Pepin, w. B. Henry, G. r. owen and
George FOrtwingler.
County Attorney Davis opened the
case by stating to the jury that they
were there to try man who had wrong
fully and maliciOuSly Slandered and Ii
beled public official, an official who Oc-
cupied prominent position in the cabi-
net of the president of the United
States; that this official was William f.
Villas, now secretary OF the interior. He
read the alleged libelOus article.
which was published Dec. 4, 1886, in a
small paper called the Home Diary,
which was printed and published by the
cuses William f. Villas, with others, of
wrecking the Madison Fire Insurance
company, in which he Villas was di-
rector, and dividing up the surplus
assets, without authority of law, among
the directors who had subscribed to a
bogus security fund. 1t says that such
distribution of the assets was gross
violation of a public trust and a robbery
of the old members of the company,
whose payments of premiums for inSur-
ance and special assessments cOnSti-
tuted the entire fund so appropriated,
not cent of it being the earnings Of
the said company.
IT ALSO ACCUSES Villas
and his cOnfederates with having VIC
lated the Wisconsin statutes in falling
to publish final report of the condition
of the company when its affairs were
wound up. David Atwood, the eX-presi-
dent, and Beuel E. Hutchinson, the ex-
secretary of the company, are accused of
refusing to give any information as to
the amount of the assets divided, or the
pro rata taken by each officer and di
rector, although requested i'll writing to
do so. 1t also accuses Villas of buying
off Seth Bartlett, who commenced an
action in the circuit court of Dane
county, Wis, to compel an accounting.
and says that the amount of the assets
divided amounted to $l75,000, which
sum was used in lining the directors
pockets and in purchasing immunity
from exposure and punishment.
Villas is also accused of concocting
scheme 10y which an assessment of $l5,-
600 was voted to be levied upon the tax
able property of Madison, nOminally
to aid the Chicago & Northwest
ern railway to build the Montford
extension, the bonds of the
, company to be given to the city
iii an equal sum. 1t claims that Villas
colluded with certain of the city officers
whereby the tax was levied only in the
sum of $500, the city in that way
making that sum gratuity and re-
leasing all claims fOt bonds, and that
Villas personally drew the sum of
$500 from the city treasury, neither
he nor the railway company giving any
thing in return. 1t states that Villas,
fearing exposure, before his cOntirma-
licly that he had no idea of obtaining
A CABINET POSITION,
knowing at the time that he was lying
and that by such coup he had fore
stalled objections to his confirmation,
which but for this lie, would certainly
have been made and his confirmation de-
feated. The article ends with the fol-
lowing:
OMNIBUS NUMBER
What queer story Here it is:
Proudft, Brown & Dudley, late directors of
Madison Fire Insurance company, dead!
Dempsey, Delacy and Sayles, New York,
Doodle aldermen,-In Canada!
Zahne,-In Sing Sing!
McCabe,-Insane!
McQuade,-On trial!
Atwood, At large!
Hutchinson, In Europe!
Fox,-Peddling pills!
Vilas,-Postmasterg general
The fayors of fortune are strewn with q
liberal hand-but clear conscience is the
gift of an honest life, bestowed by the gods.
The ''HOme Diary" in which this
article appeared, is small paper, which
has been printed and published by the
defendant since July, 1865. At first it
contained nothing but stories and moral
precepts that would interest and in
struct the minds of his children. Gradu-
allv, as the children grew to maturity,
things of more serious import were con-
signed to its pages, and of late years the
defendant has beguiled his leisure hours
by putting into type his views upon a
great variety of subjects. Up to the
time that the first article rejecting upon
Mr.. Villas was published the paper had
been run under the name of the chill
dren, but when he began to publish
these articles Mr.. Welch put his own
name at the head of the sheet.
The defendant, William Welch, is a
man in the neighbOrhOOd of sixty-seven
years of age and quite gray; he is law
yer by profession, although when a
Young man he commenced life as a
printer. He is well known among the
legal profession, and is noted for the
lively and fiery manner in which he de-
Il