The San Francisco call., 1895-12-22

time of DR.. Merritt, and still lived there. He
was Mrs. Garcelons cousin, and had been
handed down to her from DR.. Merritt as her
sole agent and the exclusive manager of all
her property and business. Holding with heI
the position he does, he could not be under
mined and barred out as Judge Lawton and
Judge Hamilton were. He had to be reckoned
with. Besides, as he was an old bachelor and
as he hated Mrs. Garcelons heirs, often declar.
ing that 'if he could not have his way they
never should have a dollar of the doctors
money" he was most convenient instrument
John A. Stanly himself testifies: 81 was fa.
mll1ar with the whole household" From his
acquaintance with the family he knew that
DR.. Merritt and Mrs. Garcelon's deceased hus-
band had, in youth, attended medical lectures
in medical school in Maine connected with
Bowdoin College, and that each of them had
LOT time practiced medicine and bore the
title of doctor"
He was fully aware of Mrs. Garcelon's in
competency and that with Stephen w. Puring-
ton she was under something like guardian
ship OF the person and property" He had as
his friend and idus achates the shrewd Henry
Rogers, "that gopher always burrowing under
ground" He was lawyer himself and famil-
another State his ally. He could crafty the
natural vanity of the old bachelor, and his
natural desire to continue to manage the prop
erty, by making him (as he did, in form his
co-trustee and at the same time, in fact, merely
his own agent.
The gift of s25, 900 to Stephen w. Purjnpton.
expressly stated in the declaration of trust
that with which Jacob put spotted rods before
Laban's cattle at the watering -troughs-in the
nope that Purington, looking upon it, might
help Mr.. Stanly to take, or consent to his TAX
ing, $4,000 secretly In hand
Douotless the express statement there of that
SZo,OOO Tor burlington was what made Pur-
lngton-though he had to be pressed from the
10th or 18th of March till the 2Ist of April,
ana though he recognized it as robbery and
after II was done could not sleep for thinking
Oh od dtnconsent at last to Stanly's taking
in
''He told me not to tell of it."
The gift OF $600,0 for Stanly and two
physicians to establish and maintain in Oak
land a hospital for people OF moderate means
was likely to intrench the scheme. and could
readily be made to look plausible to Stenhen
w. Purington. The gift of S4OO, 600 for
Bowdoln College, In the State of Maine, could,
for obvious reasons, be made to look plausible
to Purington.
And Mr.. Stanly has COME ssed here. on oath
that he then expected the disposition of the
property he was making to be contested, and
at the very time foresaw that it might not be
safe to have it Investigated by jury of Ala
media County, and that, to guard against the
tended to tie the whole matter up-precisely
as ne has done-by suit in the United States
Circuit Court.
The gift OF s4oo, 900 for Bowdoin College
was likely to enable him to use its name and
Its status as citizen of another State (as he
has done) for such suit. The gifts of sums
1or relatives and acquaintances would crafty
PASJUNiNSo VI CLCpucn W. fuTlURIOQ, ana
at the same time interest the donees to help
sustain the entire scheme. AS for Mrs. Garce-
Ion, the owner OF the property, she was in the
condition indicated above
In another portion of the document Mr..
Phllbrook thus comments upon the secrecy
of the transaction:
Here, then, is the case of an aged lady who
never before had had any property of her own,
coming Unexpectedly, when rs years of age,
into fortune of about SO 600, 600, and we
have a dispositions disposition of practically
her entire estate-at time within few months
OF It's being cast upon her to her attorney at
law and her business agent in charge of all her
property, papers and BUSINESS disposition of
property in view OF death, supported bv what
is an agreement taken in her name and from
her heirs by that same attorney at law, cutting
on her heirs from questioning the disposition:
disposition obtained by that same attorney
at law and attorney in fact for their own per-
sonal benefit as well as for others whom
they represented and represent, diverting her
estate "from those who by the ties of nature