St. Paul daily globe., 1889-10-25
TESTING BLAISDELL.
The Old Gentleman Asked to Pick
Out the Forgeries.


Immediately upon the opening Of the
COllOm case yesterday morning the de-
fense recommended submitting docu-
ments of various kinds to Mr.. Blaisdell
and asking him if his signatures to the
same were genuine. At first he was
more cautious than he was the day be-
fore and would only say, 1T looks like
my handwriting" or an express
sion to that effect. but being pressed
by the defense he again became more
confident and admitted that one after
another of some seventy signatures sub
mitted were his. The prosecution be-
came somewhat restive under this pro-
cess, and once or twice eSSayed to have
the court fix limit as to the number of
signatures to be submitted, but without
avail.
During one of these discussions the
court intimated that limit might posi-
bly, be fixed, when Judge Shaw said:
1.-THE limit will be fixed when we get
through"
Judge Young thought this answer
hardly fair TO the court, and Judge
Shaw modified it.
Mr.. Wilson occasionally became rest
less under the time which Mr.. Blaisdell
in examining papers submitted to him,
and wanted to know if the witness
could not identify his signature without
looking the whole paper over, but
Mr.. BlaiSdelI was not to be
hurried, and 1t was nearly II
o'clock when the process was finished,
after which the state rendered to the de-
fense the five alleged forged notes on
which Colon is indicted, and they were
also submitted TO Mr.. BlaiSdell, who
testified that his signatures to the
waivers of protest on the backs of them
were genuine.
Mr.. Blaisdell was then shown note
to which he said yesterday that his sig
nature was not genuine and this time
pronounced ii to be his signature. He
said that if he had pronounced It forged
yesterday he had made d mistake.
This concluded the work of the fore
noon and the court adjourned until 2
p. m.
Mr.. Blaisdell took the stand again in
the afternoon and held it down until
$50. He said: 'I did not see G. w.
Patterson, farmer, the last days Of
June: Patterson did not ride into town
with me and tell me he had COLON
note with my name on 1t due that day,
L
wanted me to do so. At least have no
recollection of any such transaction.
When Chamberlain called my attention
to the S23, 600 of notes, he did not spread
them out before me. do not recollect
thatI said could not deny my sigma ture
on them. The note in this case was
in the lot. l think my recollection in
regard to what paper l indOrsed is
pretty good. l kept memorandum of
the notes | indOTSed for COllOm and
have il with me. did not tell Cham
berlain that / had no memorandum as
recOllect of. | do not know that l
told hiTa l did not know how much of
COllom'S paper was on. told him
that if there was more than $4,000 or
$4,000 there must be something wrong.
At the time l examined the notes in the
Security bank l was somewhat excited
and did not produce any memorandum.
| went with COllOm TO Merriam Park on
August 2 to look at some property which
he owned. He showed me some more
that he claimed was his, on the road.
l was with him in the Boston block
about twenty minutes on that day;
think | went to the lake that night:
perhaps l did not. COllom did not show
me lot of notes amounting to $200, 900
on which | was indOrsed. He did not say
he would have to show Chamberlain the
full amount and did not request him
not 10 do so. / do not recOllect that /
indorsed note for $1,000 for C0ilom
July l, and that he got it cashed and
paid me 1855 of interest on what he
owed on the land l sold him for S23, 900
when he commenced to build his house,
none of which has been paid.
On the redirect examination BlaiSdell
testified that he bought the five alleged
forged notes of the Security bank after
Colon had decided his property to An
derSon; that he did so because Frank
F. Davis said it would be necessary to
have it to send east to be examined by
an expert. He said his son-in-law took
the notes est for examination; that lie
had no knowledge of the exact amount
of Collom paper out with his indorse-
ment on 1t, forged or otherwise. but
thought it might amount to 1915, 900.
Continuing he said:
On August 6 l went to the Office of
Davis & Farnham. Davis, Farnham,
Chamberlain, Collom and others were
In Falnham's room. / was in another
room. ] was asked if l wanted to go In
and talk with COllom. went in and
said to Collom, "How is this?" He hes
itated, and then said: "You are not on
dollar of this paper. 1t is all forged,
and l did it. l am ready to take the
consequences, but 1 hope you will be
charitable towards my family" /