Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1894-08-27
STOLEN BULLION.
A Woman's Curiosity Involvesa Fam
lily in Trouble-Clever Work of
Officers at White Oaks.

Special Correspondence New Mexican.
White Oaks, Aug. 24.-The sensation of
the week developed here this afternoon
in the discovery of the gold brick stolen
from the house of W. H. Weed, who has
been interested in the financial manage
ment of the South Homestake mine for
the past year.
On August bar of bullion weighing
eighteen and three-quarter pounds was
brought up from the mill by E. W. Par
ker, manager of the mine, and turned
over to Mr.. Weed. The latter placed it
in the safe in his store and went to his
house across the alley in the rear and d.
rected Mrs. Weed to make a sack in
which to put it for shipment. From the
directions given, Mrs. Weed remarked that
the bar must be a very large one and
asked how much was in it. Mr.. Weed re-
Piled, carelessly, ooh, five or ten thousand
dollars" At the time
MRS. PHIL. SCHWARTZ,
a neighbor, was in the room and e1citedly
clapped her hands and said she you'd
much like to see piece of gold SO large.
As the two families were quite intimate,
the Schwartz's being daily visitors at the
Weed house, nothing was thought of dan
ger from her knowledge of the gold in
his care.
Subsequent developments show, how
ever, that Mrs. Schwartz went home and
informed her husband and a brother
named Rosenthal who lives with them
and the men Swallowed the brick. No
one was sleeping in the store at the time,
and Mr.. Weed after sacking and sealing
the bullion took it into his bedroom and
placed it between the mattresses. The
next morning he and his wife went about
the affairs of the store and house, leaving
the sack IN the bedding. During the day
some of the Schwartz family took ad-
vantage of the temporary absence of the
Weeds from their rooms and
ABsrRAoTED THE GL1TTERINa PRIZE.
They were soon suspected and Deputy
Sheriff John Preston was put on the
case. He Swallowed the parties constant
ly, sleeping days and watching nights,
until he gained sufficient information on
which to act. During his vigils he found
the family very restless, being up almost
all night every night, and on several oc-
casions he heard the men cutting up
something which he was convinced was
the gold brick. He engaged the assist
ance of A. Schinzing, who keeps hard
ware store next door to Schwartz, who
keeps millinery and notion store, living
in the rear rooms, and while the
Schwartz family were out they cut a
HOLE THROUGH THE WALL
at which Preston and Schinzing listened.
They got little information here, but still
enough to deepen their convictions of the
guilt of the parties.
Last Saturday Preston learned that
Schwartz and Rosenthal had hired horse
to drive to the Jicarilla mountains, ten
miles northeast, on Sunday. He believed
their object was to get away with the gold
and he resolved to follow them. They
started before daylight, and he was un-
able to get horse to 90, 80 Schinzing
went, but missed their trail. On Monday
Preston went to the rear of Schwartz's
residence and took the measure of the
horses tracks and started on their trail
anew. They had left the road and circled
on the prairie at many points, coming
back to the road again each time until
they reached the mountains. Here they
drove up small canon and tied the horse
to a tree. Fifty yards away Preston
| cd
He dug the object up and found it to be a
heavy clock-weight, marked with a cold
chisel, and with gold particles clinging to
it.
The weight was brought in and identi-
fled by young jeweler, who formerly
had shop in Schwartz's store, as belong
ing to the latter. The metal found on it
was tested and
FOUND TO BE GOLD.
Tuesday Preston procured the assist
ance of Constable Langston and Justice
Parker issued search warrant to Lang
ston to search Schwartz premises. The
officers thought best, though, to try and
get confession from the parties before
undertaking to find the metal by search
ing. So they arrested the two men, and
taking Schwartz to room alone pinioned
him down with the facts they had and
made him believe they knew everything.
At first he strenuously denied all knowl-
edge of the gold, but finally weakened
when they started to the Jail with him
and agreed to produce it. He brought
out all but $3.50 of the amount, having
shipped $40 of the remainder to Denver,
and probably lost the rest in cutting and
filing the bar.
He made good the rest by turning over
quantity of placer gold he had and lot
of goods from the store, and nothing
further has been done in the matter, and
no definite decision has been come to as
to what will be done.
The affair has created great deal of
comment, all parties being we'll known
and having lived here for years.
1t was known in quiet way to few in
town that "hen was on" but the work
was done SO cautiously by Deputy Pres
ton that the final announcement this
afternoon was surprise to even those
who had known something of what was