The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-05-08

prisoner, being taken to Libby pris-
 on. Being partly deprived of reason by
 his wound he spent many years in
 southern poorhouses, moving on from
 one to another of these eleemosynary establishments, until at length he land ed in the almshouse at Taylorsville,
 III, where he came to himself again
 and remembered who he was.
 Now it was quite true that he was for
 time in the almshouse at Taylorsville.
 There he met an old man named Joseph
 Newby, brother of the William who fought at Shiloh. This aged pauper
 was rather garrulous and had many
 stories to impart about his brother Will
 Ham, the history of the family, incl
 dents respecting old residents of Carmi
 and it's neighborhood, &c. Incidentally
 it was made to appear that William, if
 he were alive, would be entitled to
 twenty thousand dollars In pension ar- rears. The new acquaintance listened
 until he was ehock full of information;
 then he declared to the astonished Jo- seph that he was in very truth his long lost brother, William Newby.
 This part of the story did not come out until later Meanwhile friendly cit
 izens of Carmi sent to Tennessee for William Newby's wife She came, but at first repudiated the alleged lost sol dier. Nevertheless he succeeded in per suading her fully of his identity, while his supposed mother recognized him al- most immediately as her son. Presum- ably there would never have been any further dispute in the matter, and the soi-disant Newby would have received the twenty thousand dollars pension money for which he at once applied, had it not been that he was accidental ly recognized by an ex-convict, who de- clared that he had met him in the peni- tentiary at Nashville, where he was known as Rickety Dan Benton, and was serving an eighteen-year sentence for horse stealing.
 This caused an investigation. Thom- as IT. Mcbride, one of the most expert officers in the employ of the pension of flee, was sent to look the matter up. He traced the history of Dan Benton back to his earliest childhood, account ing for every year of his life. He was born in Tennessee and was rickety from infancy. His wife and son were found and recognized him without hesitation In short, the meshes were woven about him so closely that there seemed no possibility of escape.
 Now on the other side the evidence was equally strong. It is alleged New by was recognized with as great posi- tiveness by his supposed wife and mother. Many of the best citizens of Carmi and it's vicinity were entirely satisfied of his identity, including men prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic. Great feeling was developed on the subject and actual hostilities were engendered. The dispute ran high and the press of the state of Illl- | nois divided on the question. A consid- l erable fund was raised to defend the suppositious victim of persecution and | the best legal advice was retained.
 The case came up for trial in the l southern district of Illinois. The pro- ceedings occupied eleven days. The de- | fence brought a whole train load of | people to testify in Newby's behalf, in- | cluding liberal sprinkling of the pop | ulation of White county, in which Car mi is located. All of them were ready to swear that the defendant Rvas Newhy | and nobody else. The defence used two | hundred witnesses; the government | about sixty. There was almost riot l in and about the court room. At tempts were made to intimidate the ju- | TOTS Nevertheless Newby, or Rickety | Dan, was found guilty of perjury and of making false claim for pension. When the verdict was rendered Me Bride was obliged to take refuge from the mob in the judges room. He and the jurors were hanged in effigy.
 Motion for new trial being over ruled, an appeal was made to the Su- preme court of the United States This was dismissed on technical grounds Again, on a writ of error the case was taken to the Supreme court, only to be again dismissed a few days ago, and re- manded to the lower court for the ac- of the sentence. Rickety Dan Benton has been clapped into jail by this time.