Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-04-15

COUNTANT GIVES IMPORTANT
EVIDENCE FOR THE STATE.
Philadelphia, Pa, April 14.-Persist-
ent, keen and brilliant argument be-
tween District Attorney Rothermel on
the one side, Messrs. Watson, Shapley
and Shields on the other, upon the adj
mission Of testimony, which may go a
long way to establish the alleged guilt
of ex-United States Senator Quay was
the feature of tO-day's trial of that dis
tinguished defendant, and it culminat-
ed in decided victory for the prosecu-
ton.
The 'red book found in Cashier
HopkinS's desk, after his suicide, and
upon the admission of which the COM
monwealth so largely rests its case,
was the shaft the District Attorney
aimed at the defence. To pave the
way for the final effort to introduce the
book itself he succeeded, after frequent
clashes with opposing counsel, some
times bitter and personal, in present.
ing imperfect testimony to prove that
the book was necessarily book of the
bank as accounts in the books admitted
under the courts ruling would be made
ineligible by the red book.
Before starting his examination Mr..
ut oil IN he q ct q
ment Of what he intended to prove.
The expert, he said, had made a thor
ough examination of all the books in
the case. He found that previous to
April 80, 1891, the Peoples Bank paid
interest ON the State deposits to the
State Treasurer, and that records of
such payments were kept in a regular
way on the books of the bank. After
April 80, 1891, when Mr.. Hopkins APP
peared on the scene, a new system was
adopted. This entailed the addition of
another book-now known as the 'red
book"-to the books heretofore kept
by the bank.
ant, was the witness upon which the
commonwealth depended to accomplish
it's contention. During the whole course
of the experts examination, objection
after objection was made by the de-,
Tense and as frequently overruled by
Judge Biddle, while the District At
/ in
the witness his conclusions as to the
book, based upon a comparison of
what was written on its pages with
what appeared in the other books.
After it was all over, four hours of
examination and cross-examination in
terspersed with argument, this much
was sworn to by the witness: Two ac-
counts out of upwards one thousand
in the regular books were incomplete
and inaccurate unless explained by en-
tries in the red book" One was an
item for s1,519 entered in the indi-
vidual ledger to the credit of the per-
son who received it. The witness was
not permitted to designate the person
by name. He found this item on the
stub of the cashiers check book, but
what it represented he could not say
until he had examined the calculations
in the ''red book" Here he found the
amount entered and the indications
that it had been paid by the cashiers
check on November 4, 1897. Another
item of $5,35210 he found in the reg
ular book dated May "a, 1894. and
found the same item in the red book
dated October 80, 1894. He stated there
were other entries in the red book
which explained transactions in the
regular books. but the two instances
specified were the only ones in which
he could reach accurate conclusions as
to their nature and purpose.
Mr. Goldsmith said that when he
first opened the red book he did not
consider it a book of the bank, but
when he compared the calculations en-
tered on its pages with transactions in
the other books he was forced to con-
slider it book of the bank. He ex-
planned this by saying that prior to
1891 calculations such as appeared in
the red book were regularly entered in
the ledger, but since then the red book
had been substituted and fulfilled and
fixed the same results
During the cross-examination Of this
witness, which was conducted by Mr..
Shields, he testified to a page which
was missing. The defence repeatedly
endeavored to get from him the state
ment that there might have been fig
ures and words on that page which
would clearly explain the entries on
the other pages and that the book as it
now stands is unreliable. This was
ruled out following an objection by the
District Attorney. This would seem TO
indicate that when the final effort to