The Jersey City news., 1891-03-25
FAITH CURIS7S At LAW,
They Charge Mr.. Barnes of
Staten Island With AbuS-
ing Their Confidence.
DID he swIPE THEIR PROPERTY
Mount Zion Says II Sold Him Sixty
Feet and Mr.. Barnes Produces
a Deed for seventy-eight.

The good brothers and sisters Of Mount
the faith in their fellow men which the
tenets Of their religion have taught them.
The rock upon which their confidence in
mankind has been wrecked is Mr.. Barnes
Of Staten Island, who, the good brothers
and sisters charge, has done the Sane
tuary out of eighteen feet, more OF less.
Of valuable land. The circumstances of
this little transaction are infinitely set
forth in a bill in Chancery which the
Sanctuary has just fled through its coun-
sci. Mr.. Muugo ]. Currie.
The bill begins by stating that the Sane
tuary is duly Incorporated aud that in
September. 1852. it purchased from Joseph
W. Hancox and Eliza, his wife, abont two
acres Of land on the shores Of the New
York Bay. The land thus purchased was
most admirably adapted, the bill goes on
to say, for the purposes OF the Sanctuary.
II was intended for a gentleman's resi-
dence and the grounds were laid out in a
handsome and elaborate manner.
On June II. 1890, Reon Barnes, who the
complainants believe is President of the
Jersey City aud Western Railroad Com
pany, as the branch of the Lehigh Valley
Railroad from Newark to the Bay IS
technically known, proposed to the Sane
tuary people. that they sell his road
right of way through their land. The
SaDctuary's officers consented and agreed
TO sell strip in the rear of their property
220 feet long and sixty feet wide.
THE BOUNDARIES MARKED.
The westerly line of the Sanctuary
property was a fence built along the
canal tow path. While negotiating with
the Sanctuary's officers, the bill charges
Mr.. Barnes measured off the ground he
wanted, pointed out the boundary liues
and marked off the east line with PEN
Gil on the Tabernacle, which stood
partly on the ground he proposed to pur-
chase.
According to these measurements the
good brethren of the Sanctuary under
stood and believed that Mr.. Barnes uu-
derstood that the company was buying
sixty feet in width.
The foundation of the belief of the
Sanctuary people being faith. wnat was
more natural Than when Mr. Barnes re-
quested them TO allow him to have the
deed prepared they consented, and when
he brought the instrument to them they
signed 1t without question? At any rate
they did so on what they designate in
their bill as "the faith and reliance they
had in the said Barnes" and their treas
urer credited the company on his books
With S0OO0
THE sANCTUARY's AWAKENING.
The good brethren and sisters then
went on with their religious exercises in
the usudl peaceful way, only to be sud-
denly awakened one day some weeks later
when the railroad company's engineers
came on their property and coolly began
with gobbling up rs feet. In his usual
bland manner Mr.. Barnes said that the
officers wore mistaken and produced the
deed, which showed that the Sanctuary
had signed oway IS feet.
When the good people had recovered
from he shock which this abuse of their
faith and confidence gave them, they
departed sadder and wiser men. On Sat
urday. October 4, which the bill alleges
Mr.. Barnes knew was the Sanctuary's
Sabbath. a gang of his workmen went
upon the premises and began to tear up
the eighteen feet In DISPUTE, and on No
yember 20 the company began the con-
struction of the road across the strip.
Then the Sanctuary people sought the
Intervention of the Chancellor and de-
clared to him that If the description in
the deed was not by error and inadvert-
ance made wrong. then fraud Vas per-
petrated upon them and Mr.. Barnes took
advantage Of mis- peculiar knowledge and
the confidence proposed in him by the
eomplainants to induce them to sign the
deed. Testimony in the matter viii be
taken in few days and the case bids fair
to be interesting,