, 1889-10-17
The Case of Peter Dueber Closed,
and Decision Withheld Until
Monday at 2 p. M.
Mr.. Grifiitts Devotes Most of His
Speech to the Subject of At
torneys' Fees,
And Charges the Review With Hav.
ing Stirred the Thing Up-Ar-
gument of Frank Graves.

euihotahSes icadlHb up W tHtS prOscCu-
tion, and said $500 of the relief fund
had been used TO employ counsel for the
prosecution and procure evidence. The
fund had beep diverted from the pur-
poses for which 1t had been appropriated.
This, however, did not constitute Il
crime neither did Mr.. Duebers action
constitute crime. 1t was simply an
unauthorized diversion of the fund in
both cases. 1t was shown by the wit
moss Cowell that he took few goods
down to Dueber's house. Mr.. Dueber
did not tell him to take them, and it had
not been shown that Mr.. Dueber had
any personal knowledge Of the goods be-
Ing taken to his house. They were sent
there by Gillespie or Inglis. Mr.. nuebcr
had never denied single article he had
taken, and he had told Mr..
Taylor about it. Whom Mr.. Ducber
ordered few goods sent to his house he
explained that people were calling there
for relief and his brothers family, who
had lost everything by the fire were
staying at his residence. Each and
every article was taken to his house in
broad daylight. They were taken as
all other goods were taken and there
was no concealment whatever The re-
marks made by Gillespie on his way
home with the load of goods from Due
ber's cellar, that the fellow
who took tho goods there had
done so by mistake, may have shown
guilt on the part of Gillespie, but there
was nothing to show that Dueber was
responsible in any way for GILES
pies conduct. If Gillespie and
the employees at the tent
sent Duobor more goods than he ordered,
and he made no conCealment of them or
fraudulently appropriated them to his
own use, there could be no evidence
whatever of fraudulent intent If Due
Der had wished to abuse his position as
member of the relief committee he
could have given an order TO his brother
upon the relief tent, instead of sending
him TO his own cellar TO get them. Mr..
Dueber had taken the goods to dlstriD-
ute To Others and he had done
so, retaining only small portion. Gil
lcspie had paid the eypressman three
hams for hauling the load from Dueber's
cellar to lis own house-a good price, to
DO sllre-but II was small matter com
pared TO the $500 taken from the relief
fund To pay lawyers. Mr.. Dueber had
in no way been connected with Gillespie's
action in being so liberal with the relief
goods. Mr.. Bueber had received nine
hams. six of which had been given away.
lie had also given away part of the
canned goods and tue sugar, aud the
balance of the goods were still at his
house. No one had ever demanded the
goods from Mr.. Dueber, no one had ever
objected to their being there, and no
concealment of them had ever been at
tempted. He had ut his home three
sufferers by the fire whom he was sup
porting, and he had used small portion
of tho goods during that time,
and the rest were still there 10 be
given to the distressed, or re-
turned to the committee, Us desired.
A newspaper In this city had spread
this alleged crime from one end of the
country to the other. These newspaper
reports had never been confined to the
truth. They had published all sorts of
groundless rumors, and 1t was on such
reports the prosecution insisted that de-
fendant should be bound over. Two
eliminating points were claimed against
Dueber--he had not reported to the COM
mittec that he had received the goods,
and he had appropriated the goods to
his own use. There was no evidence of
any intention on the part of defend
ant to appropriate the goods TO
his own use. He had re-
ported to Mr.. Taylor, the most hon
orablc member Of the entire committee,
that he had received the goods He had
also gone to Mayor Furth and accounted
for what he had received, but the defense
Ln.t II, J,nt
the proper person TO account to for the
goods. The prosecution would find out
before they were through with this thing
that Mayor Furh was the proper person
to account to for the $500 which had
been wonderfully diverted from the re-
lief fund to pay lawyers fees. The
only possible ground on which case
could be made against the defendant
was that he had taken these goods
to his cellar and that a
small portion of them had
been used by his family. The proper
thing to have done would have been ior
the committee to have gone to Mr..
Duebcr and asked him for an explana.
ton and for return of the goods If he
had received more than he was entitled
to. This would have been the manly
and proper thing to do by an honored
and respected citizen, and then il Mr..
Dueber had not Offered a satisfactory OK.
planation it would have been time
enough to resort to extreme measures,
Hut the traitorous little reptile who had
publications had not thought of this.
Dir. Hyde, in his speech, had paradcd
these newspaper articles as the only evil
dences of guilt. Was this man to be
bound over to satisfy the public
clamor, growing out of the
false representations Of those who
had created this conspiracy
against an upright and hon.
orable citizen? There was no cause for
all this effort to smirch this defendant
by causing his arrest and examination
before this court He was an old and
permanent citizen and everybody knew
he would be present for trial without all
this enormous and unnecessary expense
to the county. For six or eight years
the defendant had lived In this commu.
nity as a citizen and man secondto
none. He had served the public in an
Official capacity for seven years, and at
the time he is alleged to have appropri.
ated these goods he was serving as one
public servants, The sneers of counsel
would not break down these facts, The
fact that tho court had bound over
Waters and Gillespie should not in any
way influence his mind in deciding this
case, The circumstances were entirely
different. The court should not permit
himself to be influenced by billingsgate
or newspaper articles or any other infiu.
ences other than the facts IN the case In
rendering fair and impartial verdict.
ARGUMENT OF FRANK eRAvEs.
Frank Graves began the closing argu-
ment for the prosecution at 8:20 and he
promised the court that he would finish
his speech by 4 o'clock. He only de-
In the case was SO plain that he would
not occupy the time of the court in quot
ing authorities which had already been
brought to tho attention Of his honor,
One argument MIR. Griffitts had ad.
vanced in favor OF discharging this de-