The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-05-21
Mrs. Lee Asked to Deny a Rumor
of Her Engagement to
"Guardy."
OFFERED PAY, BUT REFUSED,
Brother Frank Fails to Buy Her
Silence-Hundreds of Letters
From Eugene.


letters, letters! Ex-Mayor Gregory and
the widow OF Red Bluff are remarkable
correspondents. For three days Mrs. Lee
has been on the stand identifying and
commenting upon the tender billet-deux
received from old "Guardy," and when
she was excused this afternoon the stock
was not yet exhausted. When one collec-
ton is disposed of special venire is issued
and 10! counsel for the fair plaintiff stag
gers into the courtroom under the weight
of another armful. When the case against
the e1-Mayor, who is accused OF having
oefrauded his erstwhile sweetheart out of
$4,000, is ended, the court would find q
ready sale among the love-lorn readers of
fervid romance.
The prosecution occupied most of the
morning session reading letters from
Gregory to Mrs. Lee. They contained po-
litical gossip mixed with comments on
business and social events. The District
Attorney, in answer to a question from
Bruner, stated that he considered the let
tiers "a. B. r. NJ, which were explained
TO mean "answer by return mall" and
which occurred at the ending of many of
Gregory's letters, as expressing N ore than
mere business interest.
Several of the letters were written under
apparent difficulties-two or three OH
trains, one in bed and one at midnight
after the writer had returned from a BAN
Quet. In letter written in bed the ex-
Mayor said:
at is customary to take cake to bed to
produce ELUSIVE dreams, but could not
resist the temptation to eat the delicate
morsel you sent and took your letter to
bed instead. 1t is rather difficult to lie in
bed and write letter. using my knees as
desk"
Reference was made to meeting at the
Gregory residence. Mrs. Lee stated that
she was in the habit OF going to his resi-
dence on visits. One day when she went
there Frank Gregory met her at the door
lie was considerably excited and asked
her II she had seen an article IN the news
papers concerning her and Eugene. She
had not, and he sent out for paper. The
Gregory family then asked her to sign a
card for publication denying the state
ments made IN the papers, making her
promises of payments of $50 a month.
She went to Judge Armstrong for advice,
knowing him 10 be defendants attorney.
but considered him her friend. Arm
strong advised her not to sign the card, as
1t would lead to more newspaper talk.
Mrs. Lee stated that she had no remem-
brance whether she had told Judge Curtis
that Gregory wanted to marry her.
al told him what Eugene had said to
me-" she continued, but was shut off by
objection.
After short recess Bruner presented a
file OF over hundred letters to tie widow,
asking her to identity those in her writing.
This was objected to by the District Attor.
ney and stormy discussion resulted.
II made the statement that she wrote
three letters to his one and was contra.
dicted- now want to show that stated
the truth" said Bruner.
Mrs. Lee nodded her head vigorously at
this, but the District Attorney admonished
her not to speak on the subject The let
tiers were finally ruled by the court to be
irrelevant.
Louis SCHNEIDER, assignee of Gregory
Bros, who had been their bookkeeper for
several years, was put upon the stand by the
District Attorney this afternoon. Schind-
Ter was examined in regard to Gregory
Bros financial standing in 1894 and at the
time the insolvency proceedings were
commenced. Among the assets shown by
the schedule OF the petition in insolvency
were several claims on which lawsuits
were pending. These the District Attor-
ney pronounced dummy assets" and he
showed that without these the assets would
be over S35, 900 less than shown by the
schedule. The examination of SCHNEIDER
as to transactions occurring during 1894
was objected to by defense at irrelevant,
and hot argument followed
statement made by SCHNEIDER during
August, 1894, was introduced, showing
that the firm was at that time solvent.
The items of this statement were taken up
ore by one by the District Attorney and
compared with the books of the firm. and
several apparent errors were disclosed.
One of these, note for $4,000 owed to the
d. .. Mills Bank by the firm, was explained
afterward by the witness. The mistake
was due to charging the note to the bank
instead of to Mrs. NJ. f. Gregory, who had
taken the note mp. Mrs. Gregory is the
mother of the Gregory brothers, and is
named as creditor of the firm to the ex-
tent OF several thousand dollars.
BIG FIRE At SACRAMENTO.