The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1897-02-05

to confess and refused An <&s4fa1a crime
of which he was III 10 !NAg guilty.
President Ross bad. cs1Nfefd him with
guilt ana swore at tfnjsll, and after
ward the officers II TIT bank declined
to let him cone isl ~ 2esiieate whether
some counteraCtibw error would not ex-
plain the appsseh 9ekortage
Miller acbsgklsf every entry In the
books Charged % have been made 10y
him, adWll@F tbat he had the draft
of 81 ,J0( and that the $3.50 en-
try Id Gkfhlls' book was his hand
writing sus emphatically declared
thai In fsteHt case the money had been
put hEfe Ii was his duty to put it, on
thAitellefss desk. He admitted the en-
hSs of shipments of currency TO the b.
go: +. r., although he denied that
any of those packages when larger
than 1000 were put up by him. He
would make entry and make out eX-
press receipts at the request of the tel
Ter.
The 81 900 on the draft of December
10th, 1895, was obtained from tine Me-
chanics' Bank about noon, and it was
after o'clock before he drew and had
the draft signed by the assistant cash.
Ter to give to the Mechanics Bank.
After that he entered it on ''scratcher."
Being after the hour when cash was
settled for that day, it went Into next
days entries, and in this way it must
have been that in some way the book
keeper overlooked and failed to post
the entry.
If the bookkeeper had carried the
entry in his cash and ledger any short
age could have been at once discovered.
The b. & o. accounts had been audited
several ii mes between that date and
the discovery, and they were found to
balance. AS to the apparent discrep-
ancies aud heretofore unexplained
charges to and credits of currency to
the b. & o., Miller explained that it
sometimes occurred that upon an order
of currency he would be directed to
charge up, as in one instance, $500,
and 1t would be found that the balance
was not SD much, or, tor some reason,
only $500 would be sent. Then the
charge would remain on the books,
and when the next shipment was
made the 81, 900 would be sent, and, of
course, the express receipt in the first
case would show less than the amount
charged on the bank books, and in the
second case more than the amount
charged.
The Company kept its account close
and had balance every few days. AS
to the memorandum in the pockets of
his office coat and how they came to be
there, Miller said: The memorandum
of the number of the missing draft was
made in order to try to trace it up,
when Cashier Williams advised him
it was missing. The empty express
envelope was one he had opened after
sealing for shipment 1000 III order 10
inclose draft for $500 ON the same
day, which incident also explained the
letter found in his pocket about the
$500 draft. When the Two amounts were
to go together he opened both letter
and package, carelessly put them in
his pocket, wrote a new letter, made
up Il new package aud shipped both
together, taking AN express receipt for
only ST. 900, as the check was worthless
to anyone till Endorsed by Mr.. Ijams,
and would be a voucher for itself,
This ST. 900 in currency had been put
up weeks before and charged to the
railroad, but the teller had not shipped
it, but put it in the vault, and it was
there till shipped by the witness, July
30th, 1896.
He also recounted some instances of
how mistakes had been made at the
bank before and how difficult it was TO
get things straight. Some depositors'
money was never entered on the books.
1t was placed in envelopes and kept in
the vault, and they were paid out of
their own deposits and checks filed
with the money in the envelopes until
the account balanced. Once O deposit
was placed to the credit of another pa
iron of t he bank and it was some time
before the mistake was found and rec
titled. The cashier, he said, made this
error. Miller here stated that he al
ways wanted an opportunity to go over
the books with the bank officers and
try and explain the shortage, but they
would not allow him the privilege. He
says his eyesight is very bad and he
can only read with the aid of power
full magnifying glass. Hestoutly main
tains his Innocence and denies that he
ever received a cent from the bank that
did not belong to him.
There was great furry in the Uni
ted States Court on Tuesday morning,
when the case of Gregg Miller came
near being quashed on account of Sc.
rious flaw in the indictment. Attorney
Marbury, for the prosecution, had up
to this time only partly proved that the
Central Bank of Frederick was Ma
tional Institution, and was thus enti-
tied to hearing before the United
States Court. 1t is probable that the
defence had noted this neglect and
were ready to take every advantage of
it. When the charter of Incorporation
was presented in court, the counsel for
Miller were OH their feet in an instant
and protested strongly against this lack
of regular form. A statute was fiually
discovered which allowed the admission
of such evidence when accompanied
by legal certificate from the Comp
troller of the Currency. 1t was, as all
agreed, narrow escape for the gov
eminent Case.
A somewhat similar point was
brought up by Mr.. Maulsby in the
''prayers" of counsel to The Judge con-
ceruing instructions to the jury after
all the evidence was in. This point
was 10 the effect that there had been
no testimony to prove that either the
81 900 received from Cashier Duvall of
the Farmers ana Mechanics Bank, or
the $3.50 alleged to have been received
from b. E. Phoebus, depositor, was
depositor, was "lawful money of the
United States" as charged in the ill.,
dictment, or was money at all. Upon
this ground he asked that the jury be
charged to bring in verdict of not
guilty. Judge Morris overruled this
objection,
The greater portion of the day was
| Devoted tn ne airing rebuttal TESTIMONY