Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1893-08-05

After being widower for the second
time he met fascinating Mrs Bernard, a
belle in her youth and always beautiful,
but at that time living apart from her hus-
band. BY his legal assistance aud advice
she procured divorce, aud In no long time
he married her The people Of indiana did
not quite admire this proceeding. aud Sen
ator Mcdonald was thereafter not able TO
20 higher Ia politics. OF course his chill.
dren did not like H. He died, and, beholdl
will was found of later date than one he
had recently filed Il was typewrittcn
will and gave nearly all his property to the
widow, excluding his children and grand
children
Even George Washington would have
been suspected under such circumstances.
The first theory OF the heirs was that OF
undue influence" That was soon aban.
doned, and they declared that Mrs. MELON.
AIDS agent had taken some pages out Of
the original WIZ aud substituted others,
the signature being genuine. About this
time, however, former teacher Of Miss
Jessie Mcdonald wrote from Washington
city that she had had remarkable dream.
She said She seemed to he in lawyers
office which WAS not familiar to her and
there she SAW Mrs. Mcdonald and an un,
| known young man comparing some type
written papers about which they seemed
TO he in the most earnest conversation She
did not recognize the writing as any that
she was familiar with, but was impressed
| by the rarnestness with which Mrs. Mo
| Donald and the unknown young man were
noting its contents She said that the scene
was 70 photographed upon her mind thnt
she would recognize the surroundings and
the man engaged in conversation with Mrs
Mcdonald, although she had never seen
either before
| She was taken To indianapolis and recog
nized the Mcdonald law Office at once, but
there was no young man 10 fit the dream.
Then il was remembered that one Arthur
ilutchins, clerk in McDonald's Office at the
time the will was made out (the will flint
| fled, had gone insane and was in the state
asylum The teacher was taken out to the
asylum, and without suggestion promptly
selected Hutchins as the young man OF the
dream. And now lit began To look like
Queer street" as inspector Bucket, in
Bleak House" said to Sir Leicester Ded
lock.
Another and most singular fact was that
the shorthand book in which IIutchins had
taken down the notes when Mcdonald die
tated the will was missing from the Office
and could nowhere be found Hutchina
was visited at the insane hospital In the
hope that he might give some clew TO his
missing notes On one occasion he said
that the book wns In his trunk, and Nal.
colin Mcdonald went to his fathers resi-
denee aud searched his trunk for It, He
there found a shorthand book and took it
away with him. The book was presented
in court. and an expert who examined II
testified that IL contained no notes that
threw any light on the will
The father Of Hutchins, however. swore
with great positiveness that the book pro
dnced in court WINS not the one found in
the trunk Of his son. lie described the
book very minuteiy and pointed out the
differences iJetween the one Malcolm had
produced "a court and that which he took
from the trunk The theory OF the defense
was that the book Malcolm got contained
tho notes Of the will just as il was pro.
bated. aud that he had produced another
book for the reason that such notes by
Hutchins would substantiate the validity
OF the will beyond question, and IL was 10
his interest that such evidence should he
destroyed
IL was further shown that the key 10 the
senator's desk was lost for a few days about
the time the alleged forgery and substitu,
tion might have been perpetrated and was
found again apparently by accident Oh
course both sides had abundance Of expert
testimony, and equally Of course the "ex-
perts" iatly contradicted each other. On
behalf Of the defense two experts" testi.
fled that the signature had not been made
by tracing As sworn to by experts" fog
the plaintiffs, and submitted the instru.
ments 10 tests by superposing and by plae-
ing them under the magnifying glass bc-
fore the jury
The jury decided In effect that the will
Of latest date was forgery, the impll.
cation being, of course, thai Mrs. Nc
Donald WAS the moving cause thereof aud
the unfortunate IIutohins her instrument.
And as the teachers dream could not be
put in evidence We must refer the explana.
tion thereof 10 Dr. }. NJ. Buckley and othei
experts" in psychology.