The San Francisco call., 1897-06-02
c. M. Setter Interjects Him.
self by Letter Into The
Fair Craven Suit.
Says He Loaned Fair the Money
That Purchased the Dis.
puted Property.
And Then Expert Ames Resumes the
Stand and Lectures All Day About
Idiosyncrasies in Handwriting.

He's not a common-l looking individual.
and with his portly frame, fiorid face and
short cropped brown beard would easily
impress one as being a man who had re-
tired from some speculative calling in
good circumstances. But his eyes-welI,
they tell the story. They possess that
familiar stare and glisIen that in dicat tes
the wandering mind. Those weird look
ing optics do not constitute the only con-
victing proof, however. He asserts that
the property from which the FAIR estate
executors are endeavoring to oust Mrs.
Nettie r. Craven belongs to him and not
to either the estate or the lady.
This man has been writing letters TO
the jurors now sitting in the Fair Craven
trial and signs his name as c. NJ. Setter.
He stands good chance to feel the strong
arm of the law if Judge Slack hears of
any more of his oings in this line. Jurors
Mish ard Martinoni both made COM
plants to lhe court yesterday and exhib-
tied the letters they had received from
Setter. These letters are similar in so far
as their contents are concerned, for they
both relate the same story. The writer
informs the Jurors that many years ago
he loaned Senator Fair $35, 600, and that
with this amount the multi millionaire
miner purchased the property at Pine
ana Sansome streets and at Mission and
Eleventh streets, which l. now in dispute
He considers that, inasmuch as the bor-
rOWed money was never returned to him
by the late Senator, he, and not the Fair
estate nor MIS- Craven, is entitled 10 the
property. And he wants these Jurors to
render a VERDICT IN his favor.
Through the courtesy and kindness of
the administrators and their attorneys" ="
says Seffer in his letter to Juror Mish-
and he resorts 10 lronical emphases in ex-
pressing the words courtesy and kind
ness-''I am not allowed to testify and
prove my claim. So l apply TO you, gen.
tlemen, TO help me in this, that the ex-
ecutOrs do not get the best of me with
their learned attorney" Then he sub
scribes himself as a Victim of Con-
spirscy," and says he has no fear OF get.
ting mixed up with the court because of
his communication with the Jurors.
Setter has been in Judge SlaCk's court
room ever since the Fair litigation began
and to the bailiff, the court and the law
yers-all of whom he has confided with at
various times-he has had but the one
story to tell. The principal is s35, 600, but
according to his computations the prop
erty now involved in litigation would
scarcely satisfy him, for the interest on
the loan amounts up into the millions.
La pCAL Odulcl i. LOOK the Witness
stand again when the trial was resumed
yesterday morning and, still giving direct
testimony. he held the boards all day.
He gives his evidence after the fashion of
a college professors lecture on mathe-
matics With him everything is extreme
technical and profound. he insists upon
Grating i'll his own style and wakes wroth
when be is interrupted. Throughout the
morning he analy Zed into its most in
tinitesimai parts the disputed pencil"
will. He picked out specks that could
only be distinguished under the most pow
erful microscope and said they were the
slips of forger; pointed out oscillations
in the execution of scollop or a curly
cue + at he thought were the misdeeds of
a designing person rather than the un-
steadiness of an i'll old man who within
few days after writing those words died of
a complication OF diseases. Mr. Ames
was, oh, so profound.
Tha Oft heard admonition gurgIing up
from Attorney NJ itchell's throat, "If you
have any other reasons for forming an
opinion to the effect that the disputed
documents are not in the handwriting of
the party who wrote the exem plars, please