The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-22


=: WI you state to the committee
whether there was or was not such a
suggestion of a moneyed consideration
Tor Keeping the vote good?
A. Wei, Mr.. Chairman, as 1 said in the
beginning, the conversation ran on in
casual way, and l paid comparatively lit
lie attention to it, and l think you are
now making mountain out of a molehill,
II you will permit me to say so. l do
not recall that any suggestion was made
OF any money being paid at all. Such
suggestion may have been made. l am
not prepared to say it was not; such a
statement may have been made, but there
are hundreds of those statements made
every day in the presence Of almost every
gentleman here.
Mr.. Meliick-Captain Barbour. Mr..
MaShDurn was on the stand just a little
bit ago, and he said that a certain AS
sembiyman last night, in your presence,
salu that he had been offered by James
copeland 5000 for his vote to go to Bulla.
Now, this was no idle rumor. There was
an Assemblyman in your presence who
admitted having been offered $4,000, ac-
cording to Mr.. Wushburns testimony.
a. If you will permit me, Mr.. Wash
burn is responsible for his testimony and
l for mine.
.: want to get this: Did you hear any
such conversation?
b. A. l cannot say positively that no such
thing was said, and l am certain that l
DO not recall it being said. 1t may have
been said.
j Q. Well, if it had been said it would not
come under the category of those indie
o AllldBit lulllOlS llldl YOU SPEAK Oh, because
there was direct statement by an As
Semblyman.
a. If 1t had been said in my presence so
that l distinctly understood that it was
charge or bribery l would have remem-
bered II.
Q. And you did not hear any such state
ment?
A Not to the best of my recollection.
@. y. Captain Barbour, If it had been said
at that time when that conversation was
going on would you have heard it?
j a q Ira saz fiaaA h IL hot
II may have been said and that the con-
. Versauon in my mind was a repetition
largely of rumors and that if said it was
said in such q way that l regarded it
merely as a rumor and that it did not fix
itself in my memory. 1 cannot say
whether such remark may not have
. been made, and made in my presence.
e. Q. You do not answer my question yet.
=. Were you in such a position that you
could have heard that conversation if it
A. My recollection is that part of
the time L stood close enough
TO those two gentlemen to have
heard any such remark II it had been ad-
dressed by one to the other of them and
that part of the time L was distant Tar
enough so that L might not have heard
If 1t had been made. l am confident
that no such remark was made directly
TO me.
Q. Did you hear all the conversation
that took place at that time between Mr..
Washburn and Assemblyman Dale?
A 1 left their presence and went to bed
left the two gentlemen standing together
before they had finished their converse
ton.
q. You heard all the conversation up
until the time you left, did you not?
a. I am not prepared to say that did
8. We're you and Assemblyman Dale
talking together when Mr.. Washburn
A. That is, which of us were talking
together first?
A Wen. think we practically all came
8, You heard the first part of the con-
VeTsation?
A Yes, think the first part I heard.
.. Then what was the last thing said
=: A. Oh, I could not undertake to say,
20 sir; a whole lot of things talked about.
-. =. How long did you talk together?
a. Perhaps ten minutes.
=. .. Did you hear everything that was be-
ing said during that ten minutes that you
A. I do not know, sir. told you what
/ heard as near as 1 remember; that is all.
.. Were you not in position so that
, on?
A Not all the time.
. .. Or that you did hear everything?
=. Not all the time.
Q. What interfered?
a. Why, we were too distant. The fact
IS. as l told you, that l regarded the talk
there as part of the superficial talk that
was about, and l paid comparatively lit
tie attention to 1t.
Q. But here. according to the testimony,
Is direct statement by an Assemblyman
that a certain amount was offered him;
SO that II could not have been one of the
-. undefnable rumors that you speak about.
A. I do not think a distinct statement
that so much money was offered TO him
was made in my presence. At the same
; time ii may have been.
: Q. Or any amount? Well, why could
you not have remembered it if it took
A. Because it was not sufficiently def
mite to fix my attention as a criminal
charge.
e. Mr.. Bacon-You did not know. Mr.. Bar
bour, at that time that Mr.. Washburn
and Mr.. Dale had ever had any CONVEX
= sation before this on the same subject,
80 A. I knew that Mr. Washburn had pub
'lished in the Times an article in refer
ence to this matter.
. Q. You did not know whether he ever
had a conversation with him?
"A. With Mr.. Dale?
g. Yes had personal knowledge of the
a. Not of my own knowledge; no, sir.
q Q. But what you had seen in the pa
Mr. Mellick-wen. captain, you saw
that in the paper, did you not?
Q. In the paper did not it say that a
definite amount had been paid?
Q. Did not the paper say that he had
been talking to a certain legislator?
A. I think so.
q. And did you not understand as you
read that article that that man was As.
semblyman Dale?
A 40, sir; l do not think I can say
q. that.
Q. After he had spoken to or talked
with him in your presence last night tnen
did you not understand that it was AS
sembly Dale?
- A. I do not recall just where I got the
first impression that this offer, if made.
q: had been made to Assemblyman Dale; but
i certainly am clear that the impression
was in my mind that, if such a proposition
had been made, it was to Assembly
man Dale. Now, whether 1 got that i'm
preston through reading the paper or
from the common talk about the hotel,
or from some remark that may have been
made there, 1 am not clear
- q. Was there some reference last night
IN the conversation to this article written
by Mr. Washburn in which it was said
that a certain legislator had been offered
$1,000?
e.. A I do not think so.
q. Was there reference to that in that
conversation last night?
q. A. | do not think so. / think the con-
'versation opened by my remarking to Mr..
Washburn in a jocular way that he was
= still cut of jail; he hadn't been committed