The San Francisco call., 1895-12-13

daring associate The death of that partner in lss7
delayed for while, but for hile only the accom-
| pishment OF Henry Miller's ambition. He paused
but Tor moment only upon the brink OF the grave.
| lie nesltated but for moment only before lne
| possible legal impediments standing in his way.
Then he boldly resolved TO plunge and keep on MS
rights, determined to brave down all obstacles.
| From that time to this period now of some nine
years, he has never for minute lost sight of that
| object.
| What mattered it to him that others had legal
rights in this property? They were TO be treated
as 1ntruders-to be caioed into subservency or
crushed into submission His partners ashes were
scarce cold, the tears of the mourners scarce
dry upon their cheeks, when he began to contrive
and conspire and to win and make subservient
to his purposes the widow and the stepson OF his
deceased partner His signature TO the petition for
the probate OF the will of that partner had scarcely
been written when he schemed to subject 10 his
control the whole of the partnership property by
nlmself naming and debating the appointment or
It's legal representatives. From that time TO this
he has managed the property regardless of the
rights OF others, as If he was its sole and absolute
master. by what means he has sought TO accom-
pilsh and has so far succeeded in accomplishing his
purpose the present proceeding and his attitude
therein sufficiently attest.
WHO IS JESSE POTTER?
who, on the other hand, is Jesse Sheldon Potter?
Mark, at the outset, how admirably fashioned by
accident or nature to subServe the purposes of
Henry Miller. He is the stepson of his deceased
partner. He is one of the three executors named
Henry Miller. He is his pupil whose char
acter has been nodded during mis- youth under his
as a man fond of pleasure, delighting in the COM
panlonship of the depraved and dissolute, having
no properly Of his own and yet needing vast sums
to minister TO his debauched appetites. The only
chlld OF widowed mother. who idolized 10 the
end her wayward boy and who, herself, incapaci
tafed by nexperience, the gentleness of her dispo
Stion, and the infrmities that bore down upon
her, only too gladly surrendered to him the abso-
/ Lutte management OF her affairs.
l. Miller saw at once that through him he could
manage the mother, and controlling him control
the estate OF Charles Lux. PotteT's fmprovdence
which TO
Mark now how completely Miller has ensnared
and fettered him-how his very improvidence and
dlssoluteneSs have been availed OF to bring nm
into the tolls AS early as 1891, when he was
being pressed in this court by the German heirs
IL became opportune to Henry Miller to hold over
the head OF Jesse Potter the terror OF his mlSdo-
ings. as they were revealed by the books OF the
Leading him TO borrowing, pledging, mortgagng
all he had, until at length. stripped of everything
IN IN the world, he stands to-day before his master
dependent for the very sustenance of his wife and
child upon Miller's bounty.
These being the characters before us, let
anime into the facts constituting cooperation
toward a given intent by them. Let us first ex-
anime whether the purpose OF Henry Miller be
what have stated it a moment ago.
From the very start. after the death of his part
ner. Miller assumed the attitude that he, and he
alone, was the architect OF this vast fortune the
creator of these more than princely possessions.
To his genius it due, in his conception that the
landed holdings of Miller & Lux threw into the
shade all inferior possessors Of the soil in this State
to his management and to his alone that their vast
herds, numbered by the hundreds of thousands,
States.
Remember what he told Judge Spencer in 1888,
that 'his Individual efforts had produced
nearly all the partnership property, and in Justice
it substantially all belonged TO him. Mr.. Lux had
done little or nothing to produce it, that in Justice
and right he should have it all that he had worked
for ii all and that Mr.. Lux had sat down there in
San Francisco and had done little or nothing
toward earning the property, while he had been
delvlng and exposing himself and working on the
outside and amassing this fortune"
LUX HAD DONE NOTHING.
quote the Judges own language as given upon
the stand. Miller says himself, in his testimony,
that not only he, but his wife "Had slaved and
worked to serve the farm, while Mrs. Lux had
had done | nohng.s He repeats this further --o on
when he states that by mig and by day, In sun
ioyment, he had devoted himself entirely TO the
expansion of the wealth and possessions OF this
firm.
cult task to persuade himself at the outset that
he had toiled to accumulate these acquisitions, and
as the others had not, they in justice at least be-
longed TO him. BE was reminded, Of course, that
the heirs of his partner had some legal claims, but
he wholly repudiated any moral equitable rights
on thelr part ana early resolved TO deal with the
property, in absolute ignorance of such rights.
This may seem an exaggerated statement, if your
Honor please, TO be made In court of Justice, and
yet may quote the very words OF Mr.. Miller.
Asked: Had you been the absolute owner of this
property and intending to enjoy it to its most bene-
tica extent during your lifetime and transmit it to
your own heirs would you have acted differently in
the management from what you have acted since
Mr.. LuxS death?' he answers: 81 have done it
with the impartial expectation to make this prop
erty valuable for myself alone"
Asked further, .'You carried your business
after Mr. Lux's death Just the same as yon did be-
fore?' he answers, "Just The same" Again, s'Y You
ryiDg it than you did during MIR. Lux's life
time?" he answers, mo SIR, did not" And still
further: "Y ou carried on the business lust you
did in Mr.. Lux's lifetime, without any changer"
he answers, .'fhat was my Intention
He claimed, and he ultimately made those who
listened to him acknowledge, that. under some
fancied power granted him in agreement with
his dead partner he, for seven years, at least,
could do Just exactly what he pleased with this
vast estate. It mattered not who gainsaid that
proposition, he held on to it with dogged and char
acteristic determination in spite OF ali obstacles.
Your Honor might admonish him of his position
as surviving partner and its duties. You did
admonish him with all the authority which be-
longs your exalted office, for you told him here
in this very court, ~ never believed that that will
conferred upon Mr. Miller, or that the will could
possibly be construed to vest in Mr.. Miller the
power 10 reinvest the income of that estate in
larging it. think it was the duty of the execu-
don't think that seven years contemplates
largement of the estate by any means" e heard,
but paid no attention to the admonition. His
lawyers, 1T Is true, might at first put in protest.
he HEARD BUT DID NOT HEED.
They did admonish him at the very start of the
necessary limitations upon his authority. Within
fortnight of his partners death his own chosen
attorneys. Messrs. Mastick, Belcher and Mastick,
advised him that he could no longer 'buy property
without it was absolutely necessary" These are
On the 29th of March, 1887, fourteen days after
Mr. Lux's death, Mr.. Miller's secretary after a
conference with these gentlemen. wrote him
follows: 81 feel sure that Mr.. Masticl understands
your position and wants to have everything done
so as to Interfere as little possible with your
ming the business according to your own Judgment.
lie says he told you that any small purchases of
la that were necessary to the successful manage
ment of the business he believed to be within the
meaning of the partnership articles, although that
article says not word about buying Mr.. Mas
tick thought you ought to be informed about this
lest you might make some important purchases
that might be objected to by the parties interested
in G. LuXs estate and so lead TO trouble
Did he heed the warning? We ind him within
a fortnight from that admonition purchasng-and
this was before his partners will was probated--
for the partnership $55219 worth of land: iusti-
fled upon other tenable proposition than that it
profitable speculation: and, within less than
month from the death of his partner he had in
creased his purchases in the same line to the
tent of $62, 900.
AS to his co-executors, Miranda w. Lux and
Jesse Sheldon Potter, they did not join in the adj
monitions of the court or the warnings of their
lawyers. They murmured not, complained
nor offered any obstacle. He took care from the
start to subject them completely to his power
Hence, with what he did, they entirely salts
fed So completely, so absolutely passive, were
they that, in May, 1892, your Honor was fully war
ranted in saying, and did say from this bench
"Whatever has been done in this estate =
has all been done with the approval OF Mr.. Potter