Omaha daily bee., 1897-03-12
INTEREST IN The FIRE SUIT
Many Spectators Thrcng the Court Room
During the Day.
THEORY OF THE PLAINTIFF IS OUTLINED
Testimony onered to show that the
Railroad Employees Were Care-
less I'm Putting out the
Fire that Day.

Inere was no nagging IN the interest tne
public has taken in the trial of the damage
suit brought In the federal court by Deere,
Wells G. Co. against the Chicago, Milwaukee
st. Paul Railway company. The court
room yesterday was crowded by prominent
business men and citizens. The plaintiffs
introduced a large number of witnesses to
show that the employees of the railway COM
pany were careless If not negligent in hand
ling the fire they had set to burn rubbish
on their right OF way across the street from
the Deere, Wells & Co. property. A good
deal OF attention was paid to the question Of
the direction and velocity of the wind. A
number of witnesses furnished their mem
ories and were able to swear positively as
to the meteorological conditions that pre-
vailed during the afternoon of December l3,
1896. All agreed that 1t was a windy after
noon and that the wind came in gusts and
squalls, chiefly from the south ana south
west, and at times the whirls would appear
to be coming from the southeast.
1t was evidently part of the plan of the
plaintiffs to show that the mere fact Of put
ting out fire on such day in the immediate
vicinity of large wooden buildings rendered
dry as tinder by a season of drouth was an
act of carelessness. The tendency of the
testimony showed that the plaintiffs were
| fact that the wind was blowing from the
| southwest as to make 1t clear to the jury
| that 1t was blowing strong enough to create
suction and whirls around the large build
| ings that would carry embers even directly
against the general direction from which
1t was blowing. Charles Straub, H. s..
| Blinn, William Reed, Chief Templeton,
| Charles Nicholson of the fire department, a
| lad named Blair and David Flack testified
| to these conditions.
In the opening statement the defense
| claimed that the weeds on the triangular
| piece of ground where the railway employees
set the fire had been moved during the
| early autumn and the debris consisted Of the
dead grass and weeds lying on the ground.
| To controvert this the plaintiffs introduced
yesterday a weed three feet tall, which had
| been taken from the lot on the day after the
| fire. 1t was also shown that the debris was
smoking as late as 6 o'clock in the after
| noon.
Lucus Wells was put on the stand at $50
| and gave testimony during the remainder
| of the day. 1t is expected that he will be
| kept on the stand for the next three days.
! He will be required to fix the value of the
| goods destroyed, and this will mean a re-
| view of the entire inventory and invoices of
| q stock exceeding 100000 in value.
GRAND JURY REPORT.
Tne federal grand jury yesterday surprised
the court by announcing the completion Of
| ltS Work ana ltS READINESS 10 make 1ts
| final report. The report shows that in the
three days of inquisitorial work twenty-four
| indictments we're found and four cases were
| Investigated and dismissed. The prisoners
indicted who are already under arrest are
Charles T. Cole, Thomas Carey, and three
counterfeiters from Appanoose county, Sam
Steele, Ed Searcey and "Biff" Betson.
Cole is a banker from Corning, who is
indicted on two counts charging the
falsifcatione Of tte statements of the Nationa
Bank of e, tg. He is indicted for fasi
! flying the stsssements of the banks credit
with the First National Bank of Chicago
and the Chemical National Of New York. He
is charged with systematically manipulating
the statements for years in a manner to show
that the banks credits were larger and its
liabilities smaller than they really were
the difference in the former reaching $6 600
and the latter from $4,000 to $12, 900. Cole
was president of the bank. His dishones
practices were discovered when the banl
was sold, and by the time matters were
Strengthened out the institution was destroyed
Cole was placed under arrest several months
ago, and has been out on bond. He has beer
one of the leading citizens Of Corning
Carey is indicted for embeZling $3.50 o.
the funds in his possession while postmaster
| at Modale. He has also been under arres
for some time.
The majority of the members of the grand
jury returned to their homes yesterday even
ing.