The Portland daily press., 1895-05-18
AND THE LAWYERS MILK THE cow
Mechanic Fall Woman Brings Suit fo,
sIander Against Buxton Parties.
lBiddeford Journal.N

A suit for alleged SANDER, which is agitat
ing the residents of Bar Mills will be one of
the most notable cases o be tried, probably
at the coming term OF court. Many of the
most nrominent people of West Buxton are
involved in it, and the defendants are men
of high standing in the community. The
events from which the alleged slander grew
occurred some time ago. but the suit is of
pretty recent origin, and as the time for
bringing the matter into court draws near.
the whole town and. particularly some of
the attendants at the Free Baptist church
ara all agog over the case.
Rev. j. D. Waldron, pastor of the Baptist
church, LEROY McCorrisoR, Cyrus Il. Davis
and f. A. Smith are the defendants.
Some months ago number of anonymous
letters began to go through the mails in
Buxton and Hollis, directed to various well
known people of the two towns. All the
letters assailed the Ieputatlon OF prominent
citizens, usually some near relative of the
person to whom they were written. Wives
were warned to look out for she comings
and goings of their husbands. and the latter
were similarly cautioned in regard to their
wives. In one instance, a wife was told TO
be at the bridge on particular night when
she would have the pleasure OF seeing her
husband enjoying the view of the moonlight
on the falls with annther woman. One par
tieuIar thing about these anonymous
epistles WAS that they hit too near the truth
IN some cases, and the indignation of the
citizens increased as each fresh batch came
to light.
All sorts of rumors were started about
their origin but after awhile, the story
went bout that clergyman was the author
of the seandalous missives. Finally there
was meeting of members of the Baptist
church. and some of the letters were ex-
hibited and compared. 1t was decided that
the writing bore a curious resemblance TO
that of Rev. j. d. Waldron. the pastor.
Mr.. Waldron. however. emphatioally de-
MED the accusations, and put little stock in
the ability of these self-styled experts in
chirography to ind any resemblance be-
tween his handwriting and that of the
anonymous letters. At length it was de-
eided to refer the matter to Postmaster
mith.
Mr.. Smiths long service sorting mails had
made him familiar with the ha nd writing OF
nearly every one in the village. and when
he was shown the mysterious epistles he
uoCldItu ludI tuoy W0io WEltL6u ny
wo4dan who had once acted as housekeeper
for the village barber, but who had since
moved away.
The postmaster was SO sure of his ground
that he determined TO confront the woman
with the letters. He went to Mechanic
Falls, where she was then living, and OBJ
tanned from her so-ealled confession in
writing of her authorship Of the missives.
Armed with this doc ument, he returned to
Vest Buxton and laid the result of his in
vestigation before the committee of ciIi-
zens. As far as they were concerned that
settled the matter. They had the alleged
written statement Of the young woman ami
there was no apparent reason in their minds
to doubt its CORE ctness.
The excitement over the anonymous
letters had nearly died down. when the
woman suddenly revived it by bringing
suit for defamation of character. She
alleges that the alleged confession was
obtained through a misunderstanding on
her part. and that she led TO sign it
through Misrepresentation as to its con-
tents. She denies that she wrote the letters
OF had anything 10 do with their compost
10. E. G. Ambrose of West Buxton is her
attorney. and fled the writ alleging slander
against the four defendants already
mentioned.
Hamilton and Cleaves of Biddeford are
the lawyers for the defence.