The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-10-24
The Lost Registration Book
Has Been Found.
ROGERS BRINGS 1T BACK
But He Refuses to Tell Where
He Got It.
MucH SPECULATION ABOUT IT
Carried 1t to Clerk Young Yesterday
ard Laid in Down Without a
Word of Explanation
About 1t.

A bold attempt at fraud has been
foiled and the would-be perpetrators
OF it. baffled and beaten, have now
practically come forward and plead
guilty without disclosing their iden-
tity.
Readers of the News and Observer
are already familiar with the facts
concerning the trouble over the regis
tration book in the second division
of the Second ward. The story of its
strange disappearance Rogers impro-
bable explanation, his subsequent ar
rest and trial. how the book kept by
the Democratic registrar was adjudg>-
ed the official registration book, have
all been told in these columns.
Now comes another chapter in this
remarkable transaction. The tsok
that so mysteriously disappeared has
just as mysteriously made its appear
anee again. But the mystery as to
who is responsible for all this Jug
Cling with the peoples sufRrages is
still unsolved.
Early yesterday morning George
Rogers, the negro registrar who claim
ed to have lost the book, walked into
the office of the clerk of court and
laid the missing book down upon Mr..
Young's desk. When questioned a
bout it he refused to give any expla-
nation as to how he came by it, and
up to this time he has made no state
ment in regard to it. The men who
work with him in the barber shop
on Wilmington street, from which
he claimed the book was stolen, know.
nothing of the matter except that
toll 3<ix
that the book was found.
This completes the last link in a
chain of evidence that shows that the
Republican conspirators have attempt
ed very bold trick and were beaten
at their own game. But it was not
their fault that they did not succeed.
Had chairman Holding not taken the
p11caution to have dlse DemtAxltic
registrars keep copy of the registra-
ton books it is probable that the 200
Democratic majority in the second
division of the Second ward would
have been disfranchised, the city lost
to the Democrats and the result in
the county possibly changed.
There is much speculation as to
where the book has been all this time
and why Rogers brought it to the
StClh Anu III l11S NOHuGJ-
ton it is an interesting fact that there
was secret meeting of the Republi-
can registrars in the Office of the clerk
of court Thursday night, said to have
been called by George L. Tonnoffski.
At any rate there was nothing to be
gained by keeping the book conceal
ed as it is no longer the official reg
istration book.
The book, before its disappearance,
had been in the possession of Regis
trar George w. Britt and late yesterday
afternoon he called at the clerks Of
fee and took it home.
1t seems that the News and 0bser-
yer was in error in stating that Clerk
ofCourt Young admitted knowing that
the book was lost before it was official
ly reported to him Monday morning.
Mr.. Young stated on oath, in the trial
of George Rogers, that he did not
know of the loss of the book till Rog-
ers and Britt came to him Monday
This statement was published in the
News and Observer at the time of the
trial in correction of the first.