The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-15

They celebrated making one an
others acquaintance over the flowing
bowl, and when they had partaken OF
as many potions as their stomacns
could well hold, and more than their
heads could balance themselves over
and perform the additional duty OF ex-
ercising an ordinary amount OF COM
mon sense, they hied themselves to a
convenient place to make hot hnlsh
of the swift pace they had been going
One of them laid his money on the
green cloth, and when he went to take
il I'D there was none there. Then they
repaired to their couch to awake anon
to find an estrangement between them-
selves and a GOODNESS to have taken
the place of their former cordial rela-
tions.
The uDshot of it all was hat o. c.
McNear and Fred Laird, by Occupa-
ton railway news agents, spent the
latter half of Friday night in the city
bastile, and appeared in Justice Weng-
er's court Yesterday, the former
charging the latter with having per-
Joined the diamond ring his mother
gave him."
Justice Wenger listened attentively
to McNear'S story of misplaced confl-
dence; how he had come to Salt Lake
from Denver TO secure employment In
the railway news service, wearing a
diamond ring for which his mother had
paid S125, on the third finger of his
left hand; how he had met the de-
PENDANT and accepted an invitation TO
share his couch, and then, how he had
awakened in the midst of his slqmbers
to find the precious token gone.
Several other witnesses appeared for
ing any direct evidence that the de-
PENDANT, if he chose. could throw any
light on the mysterious disappearance
of the jewel.
Then came the defendants turn, and
he made some disclosures to the court
which put different phase on the APP
pearance of the case. He conducted
his own case and was plainly quite
unfamiliar with the procedure of
courts, but succeeded, nevertheless, in,
if not fully establishing innocence, of
convincing the court that so great a
doubt existed as to his guilt, that in
the end the charge of grand larceny
was dismissed.
Young Laird's testimony. corroborat-
ed by other witnesses, was to the eff
feet that himself, the complaining
witness, and a number of other young
gentlemen of the same avocation, had
started out Friday evening to have a
good time. and like many another mis-
guided youth, had become imbued with
the idea that TO accomplish their de-
sire in the fullest measure they must
gaze upon their surroundings through
wine-colored glasses. They had all
looked upon the rosy till there was a
great confusion of ideas in their minds.
When the others had fallen by the
wayside, the complaining witness and
the defendant had found themselves
in a gambling house, where McNear's
money was soon spent. Then they had
become separated and when they fin
ally got to bed McNear had stated that
he had again visited the gambling
house. AT midnight or near that time,
he had awakened the defendant and
demanded his diamond ring, and when
informed by the defendant that he
knew nothing of it, the police had been
summoned and the defendant and the
room searched but no ring found.
In making his plea the defendant
suggested that McNear might have
pledged his valuables to continue at
play, and said he thought the young
man had been too drunk to know what
became of them. He informed the
court that through his thoughtlessness
in going on the spree he had lost tho,
respect of one whose acquaintance he
had valued more than any he had ever
made, and thought as a consequence
that his punishment was sufficiently
severe in the lack of proof against
him.
Judge Wenger dismissed the charge
saying that to bind the defendant over
he would have to have the testimony
of some one who was at least sober
when the transactions leading IN to
the charge transpired.