Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-08-20
THE BIG STEAL.
The Grand Jury Still waiting for
Major Furrey.

ne UTanO jury Stlll Wa1t1mR 1OH
Major Furrey.
Yesterday great developments were
looked for in the robbery committed on
the county through the late Auditors Of
fee. These expectations were based ON
the report that the Grand Jury WAS to
meet and get the confession OF Frank
Lauterio, the Ex-Deputy Auditor, before
it. The body in question did meet in the
James block, in Judge Shaw's court
room, but owing to the continued absence
of the Foreman, Major w. @. Furrey, and
the inability to get at the minutes Of pre-
vious meetings because of the absence
OF the Major, no business was done. The
members are understood to have talked
for an hour or so and then dis
banded until this morning, when
hopes are entertained for the ar
rival of the gallant Major.
Frank Lauterio was taken before The
jury, but, as no formal session was held !,
ne was returned to jail.
There is plenty OF work for the Grand
Jury to do, and the people rely on the
authorities in all the Offices to do their
full duty in bringing to taw every rascal,
high and low, who has been connected
with the steal. 1t is generally under
stood that the scheme was we'll planned
and deeply laid. From street rumors it
is generally believed that there are per-
haps half dozen rogues in the plot.
Whether Lauterio has the evidence to
convict ali his pals or not remains
to be seen. Every corner OF the
public offices ought to be probed to their
innermost recesses for proof. The Aud
itor's Office ought not to be the only one
thoroughly investigated. The people
think that warrant books and allowance
sheets have been tampered with, and
that only the best sources Of primary evil
dence are to be trusted, and that even
there the Investigation ought to be most
searching. There are the original de-
several jury lists in the courts, and there
are the stub books of the poll tax receipt
books to be gone to. These are the leak
holes through which the treasury is most
likely to be tapped. If the allowance
sheets do not tally with the de-
mands, there has been fraud practiced.
If the jury lists do not correspond with
the warrants drawn for jury fees, there
again is corruption and if the poll tax
receipt books should be found with no
end of blank stubs scattered through
them, there is good reason to suspect
crookedness. There are perhaps $4,000
poll tax receipts printed each year. When
a citizen pays his poll tax, he should get
q receipt for the same, and the stub
should show the date and the name of
the person who paid. Ii these stubs
should prove to be in blank, fraud is a
fair inference. Then see how much the
school fund got from poll taxes, and there
will be about the amount of the defalca-
tion in the difference.
One of the defaulters is reported to
have lost 5000 at "poker" at one sitting.
That would be nearly years salary for
him. But the matter is in the hands OF
the Grand Jury, and of the District At
torney, and the people await their action.
THE HERALD is trying to guard the
peoples interest in this grave matter. 1t
has no feeling of ill-will toward any per-
son, and will rejoice to learn of the inno-
cence of any given individual. Readers
will not misconstrue what is said, or
imagine that persons are aimed at
who are not distinctly named. Nor
will they think fraud is in
ferred where only carelessness is
charged. An instance of this sort is
reported in the case of j. w. Hinton, late
County Superintendent of Schools. On
his return to the city yesterday, he was
informed that an article in the HERALD
last week charged that there was a de-
felt in his accounts when he went out Of
office, amounting to over $4,000. The
article did not mention nor infer the
name of Mr.. Hinton, nor did it charge
there was any deficit in that Office under
any official. 1t did state that there was
Discrepancy between the debit and
credit sides of the ledger, and set forth
that the cause of this was careless way
of keeping the books, in some of the
public offices.