Bridgeton pioneer. (Bridgeton, N.J.) 1884-1919, 1896-05-21
WHOLE NO. 25OS

mouse at night.
Ueo. b. Barnard, formerly agent for the
Chlted States Express Company, pro-
duced records of the office showing that
the express matter taken from McAllis-
ter's stables was sent to w. A Elbirn.
DR., Hammonton, n. J.
Constable Robt. F. Ayars was recalled.
and said that the warrant he had for the
arrest OF John L. Brewer. was issued
April 2, 1894, after Brewer had left town,
Mr.. Mcpherson was recalled, and said
that he had ascertained that SIT pigeons
only were found at 104 Mannheim avenue.
Prosecutor Logue announced that VIM,
>. Niles was his last witness. He said
mat he knew VIM. A. Elbirn, Jr., and
!! lived at his house. He remembered that
IN the Spring of 1894 the house was
searched by virtue of warrant. Brewer
and Elbirn were for years intimate
friends. When the search was made
| there was found some wearing apparel,
couple of guns and diamond ring. One
OF the guns Niles identified as one that
Brewer had had in his possession, and
that he, Brewer said cost $1,000 in England
The gun was afterward shipped by Ell
birn to New York city.
The diamond ring, Niles said, he found
under his pillow, and he thought it
did not belong there.
Just at this point the defense made q
vigorous objection. Mr.. Logue said that
the State had already shown that Elbirn
was visitor to Brewers house just be-
fore he left. Packages were removed
from McAllister's stable at night and
shipped to Elbirn.
The Court admitted this testimony.
! Niles then went on to say that he found
the rings under his pillow. He took
them and removed them. Elbirn then
took the rings to Philadelphia and de-
livered them to Brewer. This latter part
OF the testimony was striken out
The State rested its case, and Colonel
Potter opened for the defendant.
The Colonel took the precaution to read
over carefully the indictments to the
jury, and incidentally called attention to
the court to what he considered illegality
which he considered were fatal for a valid
indictment.
Then the learned lawyer said he de-
sired to go over the case at length, re-
suming something of the case presented
by the State, and showed what the de-
tense would attempt to prove.
While the Colonel was making his
opening, the Court announced that all
jurors and witnesses not in the present
case, were discharged until tomorrow
morning at ten o'clock.
The Colonel continuing his opening,
said that Mr.. Mcpherson in his testimony
was most grossly mistaken as would be
shown.
1t is further claimed by the defense
that instead of Mr.. Mcpherson or his
Furniture Company being defrauded,
was really large winner. 1t would be
shown that the sale was outrageous, high
handed and illegal. He bought in all the
goods himself.
The sale was begun fully twenty
minutes before the advertised. He gave
no opportunity for the people to inspect
the goods, and the goods were sold so
that Mcpherson alone could buy. All
this 5000 worth of goods were bought by
Mcpherson at nominal figure.
Outside of the house, Mr.. Mcpherson
bought the pigeons and lofts for S132,
which he afterward sold for over $500. In
summing up the deal the Colonel claimed
that Mcpherson secured goods to the
amount of $500 from an investment of
about $1,000.
Geo. w. MCGOWAN was the first wit
ness called. He said he was editor of the
DAILY and WEEKLY PIONEER. He said
that there was no advertisement in the
paper but locsd notice had been put in
by one of his reporters.
Wednesday Afternoon.
The Brewer case continued all the
afternoon and seemed to get tiresome to
almost everybody, and during the after
noon few people were in the court room
who were not obliged to be there
The first important testimony of the
defense was produced in the afternoon.
John W. Westcott, eX-judge of the
Camden courts, testified that he was a
lawyer. He said he had the unfortunate
distinction of being Law Judge for one
term.
| lie SAID he knew John L.. Brewer and
that his reputation as a wing shot was
that he was the best the world had ever
seen. Westcott became interested in
him, and as time wore on he loaned
Brewer certain sums of money. In 1892
Brewer gave Westcott as security, a chat
tel mortgage. When the list of chattels
were made up the goods mentioned were
made up as being in 155 Church street.
The mortgage was not made up for
some time, and then the goods were in a
house on Irving avenue.
After the mortgage was given Brewer
decided to go west and was short of
funds. He desired to sell some of the
chattel mortgaged goods and Westcott
consented.
/