The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1900-10-23
Gnmrf-

On Tuesday William Vansant and Fred
Mason were brought into court to be tried
for s'buncoing" B. F. Downs, of Wading
River. The two men are old offenders.
They had pleaded not guilty, but when
they got into the court room and took a
look at the witnesses. they changed
their minds and concluded they
had done wrong. In the crowd in the
room were two detectives, bank cashier
and a prison deputy, all of whom had
knowledge of the crooked transactions of
the prisoners.
John Garter was put on trial for steal
ing watch from Alvin Kimble, of Bev-
erly. The latter was somewhat under the
influence of liquor at the time of the
theft, and was awakened by feeling the
defendant lifting the watch from his
pocket. The city marshal of Beverly ar
rested Garter for being drunk and disor-
derby. The watch was in his possession
then, but he said he had purchased it
from a man in Cinnaminson. Later Kim
BILE entered the charge of larceny and
Carter was held to appear at court. The
jury returned verdict of guilty.
Amos Prout was to have been tried on
Wednesday, but owing to the absence of
witness the case was continued until
Friday, and the barn burning case from
Rancocas was taken up.
The defendants were Charles Smith and
Frank Smith The fire occurred on the
28th of August on the farm of Hudson B.
Haines, near Rancocas. Both defendants
had been employed on the place, and on
one occasion Charles went home drunk,
and during his talk threatened to do some
thing to get even with Haines. The next
morning after making this remark Charles
left his place on the farm. On the night
of the fire he was seen around the ruins.
The two men had been seen in the vicini-
| ty the night before the fire occurred.
Charles, after leaving the employ of Mr..
near Smithville. He roomed with a taken
| boy, and the latter testified that on the
night of the fire Smith went to bed with
his clothes on, and after the family re-
tired, Smith got up and started to go out.
The boy asked him where he was going,
and was told to keep his mouth shut. The
next morning when Mr.. Stiles called the
hands, Smith was on the bed with his
clothes on.
At the conclusion of the states case,
Mark R. Sooy, who was defending Frank
Smith, asked that his client be discharged
as nothing had been offered to connect
the release of Frank.
Charles was put on the stand in his own
defence, and stated that he was not well
on the night of the fire, SO he got up and
dressed himself. When he got down
the stairs he could not open the door, so
he went back to the room and threw him.
self on the bed without removing his
clothing.
by the court, was called to the stand by |
the prosecutor, and testified he had heard |
Charles say he would burn Haines' build |
ings if he could not get square with him
any other way. The verdict was guilty.
Henry Van Lowenberg, meek looking
little German, was called upon to defend
the indictment charging him with three
or four offences. The first was for afro
cious assault and battery on Christian
Ehrmann, who looked as if he could mas
ter two men of the defendants size. Ex-
Prosecutor Budd defended Lowenburg,
and moved to quash the Indictment, but
the motion was overruled by the court.
Ehrmann said he and his wife were
walking down lane in the rear of de-
fendant's property, and were unable to
proceed because of gate which had been
erected, the witness claimed, to prevent
him reaching meadow he owned. Low
enberg came out and was abusive and
drew a pistol, which he pointed at wit
ness and also grabbed Mrs. Ehrmann by
the arm.
The defendant denied striking the wo-
man. He admitted having gate there,
but said he kept it open. He also admit
ted drawing pistol, but claimed it was
loaded with blank cartridges only. He
had expected trouble and took the pistol
with him when he went out.
AS soon as the jury in this case had re-
tired another was called to try the same
defendant for keeping disorderly house
and selling liquor without license. Sew
eral residents of Riverside were put upon
the witness stand and testified to the gen
eral disorder and drunkenness about the
place The juries in both of these cases
verdict of guilty.
Court was not in session on Thursday.
On Friday jury was empannelled to try
the indictment against Amos Prout, of
Moorestown, for assault and battery On
Mary A. Monroe. In this case the prose
cutor was not anxious to go ahead, as one
of the principal witnesses had left the
state and could not be found Officers
had been sent to several places but had
not been able to locate the man, and the
Judge decided that the defendant could
not be kept waiting any longer. The case
was incomplete without the missing wit
ness, and while the jury might have been
justified in convicting the man, who is
said to be a dangerous fellow to be at
large verdict of acquittal was rendered.
Samuel Sigler was acquitted of the
charge of picking pockets at the Fair
grounds. In this case the verdict was
thought to be certain miscarriage of
justice, as the evidence of the mans /
guilt was beyond dispute.
Joseph Flamer was next put on trial to
answer an Indictment charging him with
stealing a horse. The evidence showed
that Flamer went to the stable of another
colored man in Moorestown and took the
horse away without permission. Flamer
did not deny the charge. His defence was
that he sold the horse on a sort of lease
which provided weekly payments until the
sum of $50 had been reached, when the
horse was to be the property of the man
who had the animal. The payments did
not come as they were promised and the
horse was losing flesh and becoming of
less value daily, SO Flamer concluded he
would take it before it became entirely |
worthless, the agreement giving him the
right to remove the horse in default of |
any weekly payment The jury promptly |