The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1900-07-31
POWERS IS RESPONSIBLE
FOR ARMED MOUNTAINEERS
Admits He Supervised Their importation to FrankfoSays
They We're Present to Show Interest
in the Contest.

Georgetown, KY. July 3o.-Ex-Secretary
of State Caleb Powers took the stand in
his own behalf to-day. but did not COM
plete his testimony on direct examination.
He will be on the stand all day to-mor-
row. His defense is an admission that he
organized the body of mouE,aineers who
went 10 Frankfort on several occasions
last winter for influence on the State Con-
test Board and the Legislature. but not
10 intimidate them. He entered denial
OF the damaging charges made against him
by Witnesses Cuiton. Golden. Noakes and
others
On the stand this afternoon he denied
that Henry Youtsey had the keys TO his
Office on the day OF the assassination, but
said that there were two keys to the Of
fee. one Of which was in the possession OF
former Assistant Secretary OF State W. j.
Davidson and another In possession OF Ben
Rowe Taylor. a colored porter. Powers
said that neither Of these keys was ever
In his possession and that he had his own
key In his pocket In Louisville the day or
the assassination.
Davidson is in the Far West. supposed
70 be IN the State Of Washington. and
Taylor, the colored porter. is somewhere IN
Indiana, possibly at Anderson.
Powers Enters Denial.
At the afternoon session the defendant re-
s,,rned the stand. He read to the jury re-
ceipts from various parties which he SAID
were for money paid by him for board for
some of the mountain men brought oy MN
| to tie State capital He then toid OF inc
Barbourville conference, at which flniey'
Powers and others discussed the arrange
ments with John A Black. who strongly OPP
The witness said ne
assured Black that he and Finley would use
their best endeavorS to keep the crowd from
degenerating into a mob, but denied that ne
told Black he was going to organize mop.
He said he had no recollection OF having
said in the presence OF W. II. Culton that
the legislature would be given thirty min
utes to act and Il IL did not do il In that time
they would kill the Democratic legislators
Afterwards he said positively that no such
! remark was made, and added: The men
came and nothing OF the sort was done We
| could have cleaned them up. as Cuiton put
| 1t, if We had desired"
In regard to sending the men home from
| Frankfort the evening OF January %. about
| which Witness Noakes testified last week
| and told Of a breach between the witness
4 and Governor Taylor, Powers says:
Dfsapproved Mountain Men.
ct heard that they were going to send the
| men, and / ordered II, as the men had been
| I'D all the night before. j went to see Gov
| ernor TAYLOR He told me 1t had been de-
| cided to send them home, as their presence
was having a bad effect. Some of the anti
| Goebel Democrats in the Legislature had
! strongly disapproved of bringing the men
armed and had threatened to desert Taylor
In the contest unless he sent the men
| home"
| The witness told of conference at the
home of Postmaster +. Clay Elkin at Lex
| ington, at which the witness and others
participated This was the day after
! Representative Berg was unseated. Those
! in the conference decided that the vote had
not been properly taken, and that Berry
/ should refuse to give up his seat
| Governor Taylor was told of the plan. but
disapproved Of it, and Berry made no at
| tempt to hold the seat on the following
| day the witness said he intended to go TO
| Louisville to make arrangements for trans
| pOTtation of some of the mountain men, but
| did not get off that day. He did not give
| Youtsey key or keys, nor did he hear a
| conversation with John Powers and Golden
| Tn reference to Goebel going TO be killed by
| Tallow Dick Combs. He did meet Youtsey
| in the hall of the Legislative building. and
| Youtsey asked him to let him into the Of
| fee. Witness did not know why Youtsey
| wanted to get in there. but witness did not
want him in there. Witness had his keys in
! his pocket Previous to his occupancy of
| the office there were three keys to the door,
| only one OF which was turned over TO MIN.
Explanation of the Note.
| W. J. Davidson is said to have had one
| of these keys and a negro porter is said to
| have had the other during Finleys incum-
! bency OF the Office. but witness never had
| but one key. He talked with Treasurer Day
! and w. J. Davidson Monday evening. Janu-
! airy g. about bringing another body of men
| 10 Frankfort but did not decide till Tues
4 day morning, the morning of the assassna-
4 ton. 1t was agreed to do it. Day, Golden
1 and witness went to Louisville for the pur-
| pose of securing transportation for the
crowd that was TO be gotten up. The wit
ness explained that the slip Of paper found
, in his pockets when he was arrested and
| which read: Powers is our friend. ,Sgned)
! W. S. Taylor" was given to him BY Gov
| ernor Taylor on the morning of the esS as
| sination to be taken to Pension Agent Les
! lie Combs at Louisville. who had charge Of
| the funds with which the expenses of the
| contest were being paid.
| The testimony was interrupted at this
/ point by adjournment.
Testimony Resumed.
| The trial Of Caleb Powers, charged with
being an accessory before the fact to tho
| murder of William Goebel was resumed at
\ "a Th..