The San Francisco call., 1898-01-14

positive that q portion of the sacks were of prison make, but could Tot state just how many. Afterward he found it necessary to get more sacks to hold all his grain, and he procured some of Marshall Diggs, and at anoth- i CT time he got a small quantity rom | Charles D. Simpson of Woodland. MT | Bemmerly is unable to say, though, whether these last two lots were prison | or Calcutta goods.
 A. Abele owns 1900 acres of farming land a few miles from Woodland, ana l he is one of the men who have pur- l chased San Quentin bags from Mar shall Diggs. Mir. Abele expressed a willingness to acknowledge his state ment before a notary, but unfortunate ly he is suffering from stroke or par tial paralysis, his hands and arms be- ing rendered almost useless, and he was unable to go before notary or even 10 use pen to attach his signature. His statement was written in full in his ] presence however, and he said 1t was correct in every respect His statement was as follows:
 January ?, 1898.
 q am a farmer owning 1900 acres and more of land in Yolo County. In the ! year 1896 I purchased from Marshall l Diggs of Woodland nearly 4000 San Quentin grain sacks, paying for them, to the best of my knowledge, 5la cents each including freight to Woodland. made no affidavit and signed no docu- ment or paper, but paid cash Tor the 1 sacks upon receiving them. I have on other occasions purchased San Quentin sacks from dealers but do not remem- Der the exact dates or quantities bought"
 Walter Millsap is a prosperous far mer of Yolo County his ranch being situated about five miles from Wood land. His purchase of San Quentin ! bags was limited to the season of 1S97 and made from Borach & Levy. At l first MT. Millsap, while admitting that he had heard much talk of the way San Quentin bags were being sold by l outsiders. and that he had had some experience himself, was 10th to make ! statement because of his friendship for ] MT. Borach, and was disinclined to say anything that might get him into trouble.
 1 MT. Borach. however. was not so ser 1 iously burdened with friendship for ] Millsap at the time the contract was l entered into. On the contrary, al though the price quoted at the prison at the time was $5 per hundred, Bor- ach charged his friend s 50. and MT. Millsap is not certain but the price was 8 GO per hundred. He was inclined to ] the belief that it was the latter, but to be on the safe side he placed the ] figure at about $5 50 in his signed state ment. It was not until March Is that the prison directors advanced the price l to $5 40. which rate has prevailed ever since. Even at that figure. and paying the freight to Yolo. BOrach would still have found rich pickings in his friend.
 D. B. Woods. a son-in-law of T. B. Laugenour. tells more about the eX- tent of Marshall Diggs' dealings in prison sacks. In 1897 MT. Woods pur- chased from Diggs 5000 bags, part. if not all. of which were of prison make. In 1886 he bought from the same dealer II 900 bags, and part at least of these were San Quentin bags. MT. Woods was of the opinion that both years he bought more than the number given; but he was not positive. so he took the figures from MT. Diggs' books. At no time did he make any affidavit to the State prison, but the bags were deliv- cred to him upon personal application to Diggs. showing that the dealer must have had big supply on hand.
 c. p. Summers cultivates forty acres l of land about two miles north of YolO. | Mir. Summers also deals extensively in poultry, eggs and butter. and in conse- 1 quence has close business relations l with Borach & Levy, and other merchants in Yolo and adjacent coun- | ties.
 If The Calls expose of this bag ring brings about an investigation and my testimony is wanted" said MT. Sum merS, "I shall be perfectly willing to give it. That such ring exists is pat ent to every farmer in the county, and it has been the subject of much com ment among them.
 e'The way 1t is worked is very sim pie" he added. Every storekeeper, al- most, is supplied with quantities of the l arJa davits for prison bags. These are in every respect identical with those fur nished by the San Quentin authorities and must come from the prison.
 ''I know BOrach X Levy had a quan- tity of such blanks during the past sea- son, for I saw them there. l went to the store one day early in the season to order sacks, and was asked how many 1 wanted. At that time crops were looking exceedingly slim and l re- piled that 800 were all I would need. 1 The storekeeper told me to fill out an application for 10000 San Quentin sacks. pointing to a stack of affidaVits but I refused to do so. A man &s likely to make a mistake of a few hundred sacks when looking over his growing crops and estimating what they will harvest, but nobody will make an esti- mate of 10000 sacks for forty acres of grain. The proposition was so palpa- ply crooked that l would not consent to become party to it, and upon my refusal, the storekeeper declined to take my order saying it was too small to bother with. Later in the season however. I secured 700 San Quentin bags, all l needed, from him.
 That is one way storekeepers obtain their sacks" concluded MT. Summers
 'They get farmers to make a requisi- tion for a much larger quantity than they need, and keep the others to sell to others. But there are other methods of obtaining prison bags, l think. for al times the prices quoted by the dealers delivered in Yolo or Woodland. are about the same as the rate quoted al the prison.''