The sun., 1893-12-21
LARGE IDEAS IN A LOOKUP.
QUEER JEPHTHA WAGNER TRIED TO
HORsEWHIP A LAWYER

ne AuseNed CITY Judrs CoddinEto- OF
| PtsinneId Because He Had Brer EvIetsa
-some OF uts Magnificent Projects.
PrArNr1Etp. Dec. 2o.-Jephtha A. waeene,
| who horsewhipped City Judge William A. Cod.
| dineton last light was lodged behind the bars
| OF the Plainned lookup this evening vowina
"by tho dead body OF Abraham Lincoln" Ia
| send all the lawyers in the city to State prison
| for twenty-five years
| WAGNER is a short, arizzled old man with
| ragged gray whskers and bright blue eyes
| that fasten themselves with wild glare upon
milllonaIres whom he buttonholes for contrl.
buttons TO his schemes. He wears the same
shabby great coat the year round. and in sea.
son sports branch OF peach or apple blossoms
as q buttonhole bouquet His young wife s
the mother OF four little children. and step.
mother to eleven. He once supported them In
style, with the profits Of his fertilizer factory
up In Hotzville, N Y. but he has s1uandered
his money in wild schemes and foolish litlgA.
tion, and their chief garments are fertilizer
bags sewn together.
wagener became notorious three years ago
through his plan to reclaim the Newark
meadows. lie urged Sam Sloan Of the Dels.
ware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad to
furnish capital for the enterprise. which was
to rid the meadows OF their smells and trans
form them into gardens When he attempted
TO ride free on Mr.. Sloans railroad, on the
strength OF his belief In that officials interest
n conductor put him of, and he sued for slo-
600 damages. Another OF his schemes was to
construct a combination OF button, fertilizer,
and storage plant and bridge across North
River. In this he ATTEMPTED to interest Russell
Sage and John r. Mcpherson. His latest and
widest notion was a scheme to erect at Wash.
inGton Rock on the mountains back OF North
Plainned. a mammoth structure OF stone
and steel, forty stories high. to cost ten mill
Father % Of his Country and as a hotel Wagenot
importuned the editor OF the local newspaper
to boom the scheme and promised him villa
adjoining the hotel rs n reward. Heurged ex-
Secretary Jerry Rusk to Join him and secure
said the electric arc iiRhts proposed for the top
OF the towering hotel would confuse the hens
Wageners motto IL. Agriculture rules the
world, and fertilizinE Is the secret OF the
soil ai'Va to be t at the basis Of all prosresS He
claims TO be great inventor, and says he was
Gssd ,hs 81 ths hGs
ideas. He used to chop down his cherry trees
Climbing. eli He said his fertilizer would make
them grow, right up again.
cans. Some OF them are Prince Albert Edward,
jackson. abraham Lincoln. George Washing
t9nn, Martha washingt9n s n fW%{rIcs Henry
OnhfleS anu Dr. MARY NHikeT.
A short time ago he was evicted from his
OF New York. as result OF litkgat tion conducted
through City Judge William A. Coddin gton.
The old man. naturally excitable and queer,
was goaded into frenzy by the taunts OF neigh
bors. He called at the office Of the City Judge
several times yesterday. and caused a dis
turbancc 10y his abusive language. At night
when the Judge went to his office. Wagner
followed him on the street as far rs the door
and called him down stairs Judge Coddington
went down to quiet the man.
As Judge Coddington came out the door
Wagner asked him IL his name was Codding-
ton, and without any warning drew horse
furious blows with the butt. Mr.. Coddlngton
warded Off the blows as best he could, and
managed to strike Wagener once in the face,
The whip crushed in the Judges silk hat and
left it's mark on his neck. Meanwhile tho
wielder of the whip was swearing loud enough
to he heard a block away. The Judge finally
broke away.
This evening WAGNER returned to Plain.
field driving an OK team. He tied the oxen In
front Of Shaw's drug store. where Police Ssr-
Ceant Patrick Kiely found him.
Come. old man." said the Sergeant, Il want
YOU"
wagsner fOnSht bitterly sailed tn. p9S:
dead child and the rock OF Washington" that
he would die before he would surrender The
Sergeant coaxed him into the police station.
Wagener imagines he is being held as a wit
ness against Judge Coddington and the other
lawyers, and chuckles gleefully over tho PROS
poets OF revenging himself on them for his
fancied wrongs. An effort to send him to an
asylum will be made tomorrow