The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-08-06

In speaking of the Mayo notes and the
opportunities of the town officers for
knowing Hale's transactions, Mr.. Peaks
said:
If the court will listen to the criticisms
which have been ventilated in the news
papers, gathered from heated imagination
and reproduced by the jargon of gossips,
no doubt the defendant town can clearly
show that there have been strange tram
sactions aside from the one great crime
OF larceny by its late treasurer
As an instance, report gained almost
universal credence that certain gentle
man of Foxcroft, Hon. j. B. Mayo, held
notes against the town, given by its late
treasurer, which he kept to himself,
giving no notice to anyone, and that the
town authorities knew nothing about
these notes until after Mr.. Hale's DEATH
And it has been stated and re stated, it
Grated and reiterated, how very strange
it was that Mr.. Mayo should hold notes
of that amount, more than the town debt,
and never say anything about it when
the town officers knew nothing about the
transaction. But what are the facts?
Mr.. Mayo in 1883 held five notes against
the town of Foxcorft of about $1,000, each
for money loaned the town in 1868 when
the Bangor s. Piscataquis Railway was
built. Those notes were given on twenty
years and matured in 1888. The treas
urer paid Mr.. Mayo one note and some
thing on the others, and gave Mr.. Mayo
four renewal notes of $2775 each, or
81. 100 in all, which notes have never
been paid. This transaction is shown
just as have stated it by the treasurer's
report forsslSsS. approved by the selectmen
OF the town and the town auditor That
report was known to all the world, es-
pecially to the world of Foxcroft, and the
treasurer's reports for the suooeedin
years show that interest on this S1l 100
has been paid to Mr.. Mayo ann ually
since, and that this Sill 100 was outstand.
ing against the town of Foxcroft. So that
every man in Foxcroft had an opportu-
nifty of knowing, and the town officers
ought to have known, that they owed Mr..
Mayo 100. And yet the insinuation
has been made, even by some of the town
officers, that there was something exceed
ingly strange about this transaction of
Mr.. Mayo although the town records here
printed show the whole transaction, and
1T was an open book to every body who is
not too ignorant to be a town officer.
state this as an illustration of the
false reports that have been sent out to
prejudice the public mind that the town
OF Foxcroft should not be held liable for
these notes which they knew nothing
about
have examined the reports for the last
seven years before the treasurer's death,
from and including 1883 to 1894 and /
lind that according to the treasrlrer's re-
port submitted, which was examined and
approved each year by the selectnen and
town auditor, that the town borrowed in
seven years $59 347. 81. find that in
those years the town paid on those notes
only $22, 500. 81, leaving notes unpaid
which were given during the last seven
years of Mr.. Hale's life, amounting to
$36, Al. "a.
These figures were all open to the Sc
lectmen in 1895, when they reported to
the town, and the report was printed and
read by the citizens of the town that they
owed only IS, AL "a. Here is a discrep-
ancy of $28, 036. 10 in the last seven years
before Mr.. Hale's death, when the books
were open and approved by the seleetInen
and town auditor, and yet the town off
GERS set up that they did not know of
these notes and that the whole thing was
surprise.
Now, in justice to the town officers /
wish to state that do not believe that
when Elias j. Hale put that revolver into
his mouth on that dark day in April and
ended his miserable existence, one single
man in the town of Foxcroft had sus-
picion that the accounts of the town were
wrong. The fact is that everybody had
implicit faith in Judge Hale and that no
one thought of examining or auditing his
accounts. Every account he made was
assumed to be correct and was approved
and audited without any investigation
whatever.