The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-02-07

The suit brought by Miriam Clarke
against Anna Stoddard and others to
have a deed to property on First
street. described as part of lot 8, block
SIS, plat A, Salt Lake City survey, set
aside. came on before Judge Cherry
yesterday with Messrs. Richards &
Richards representing the plaintiff. The
proceedings lasted only a few minutes
as the defendant failed to appear and
judgment was entered for the plalntlH
as prayed
The defendants in this action are
the clairvoyants, Professor Stoddard
and his wife, who cut quite a swath IN
this city for a while and finished Up
by skipping out between two days,
after having swindled all the credulous
people they could find. In TINS case
their victim was Mrs. Miriam Clarke,
an aged lady who owned a piece of
property valued at $4,000. The clair
voyants represented to her that buried
somewhere on the land were vast
treasures, the location of which was
known to spirits with whom the Stod-
dardS represented they were in COM
munication, but the spirits were obdur-
ate and would only reveal the secret
when propitiated by an offering in
hard cash.
twenty-five hundred dollars was the
sum they required, but Mrs. Clarke
hadn't that much cash. She was. how
ever, so worked on by the fakirs that
she agreed to deed TO Mrs. Stoddard
her property and Mrs. Stoddard was TO
raise 81, 800 on it, which was to be
offered as a gift TO put the spirits in
a communicative mood. The transfer
of the property was duly made, but
still the hidden treasure was unre-
vealed. Things in other directions be-
gan to get so warm for the StoddardS
that they suddenly disappeared. Then
Mrs. Clarke awoke to the fact that she
had been duped and brought suit to
have the deed. which had been duly
recorded, set aside and luckily for her
the supposed innocent third party had
not yer figured in the transaction and
she was enabled TO get her property
back.
At the hearing Mr.. F. S. Richards
represented that the transfer of the
property was made without considera-
ton and he produced a package done
up in red tape and covered with pro-
fusion of formidable looking seals,
which, it appeared. had been fixed up
by Stoddard and handed over to Mrs.
Clarke with the representation that
it contained the $500. The packet was
given to the creduious old lady with
the strictest injUnctiOns that she should
not open it under pain of the direct
CiiSpleasure of the spirits. Breaking of
the seals before the proper time would
so displease the spirits that they would
not only not reveal the hidden treasure,
but IN ali proba bility punish the Of
fender with death. Mrs Clarke, thor
oughly believing in the statements
made by Stoddard, kept the package
intact until after the Stoddards had
made their hegira, after which she
told her troubles to her friends, who
regardless of the consequences, opened
the package and of course found that
it contained nothing but a few sheets
of paper, which could hardly be con-
sidered sufficient consideration for the
transfer of a $40 900 piece of property.
The Stoddards, whose whereabouts is
unknown, of course, were not repre-
scented at the trial and the decree set
ting aside the deed and restoring the
property to Mrs. Clarke was entered.
Numerous other parties, whom the
Stoddards gulled into giving them
ready cash, diamonds, and other valu
ables of a portable and negotiable ma
ture, are not so fortunate as Mrs.
Clarke, but are left TO mourn their
losses without any hope Of obtaining