Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1901-05-30
CENSUS TRIAL BEGINS.
FIRST DAYS PROCEEDINGS.

ct. Marians had been well advertised
and that the sons and daughters Of the
old county had responded literally 20
the call. They came from far and near.
savannah, New Jersey, Washington
city, Baltimore, Charles county and
many other places had large or small
delegations. In point of number Wash
ington had the lead Of all other sections
ninety-eight, II 10 claimed, hailing from
the city Of magnificent distances.
Jim Stiff was there, and Boosting OF
St. Mary's. He said "You may talk Of
Frederick county raising tremendous
crops Of wheat and corn, of the immense
hay yields Of Carroll and OF the peach
and pea crops Of the Eastern Shore, but
81. Mary's beats them all Why, we
have men there who can raise the dead,
and the census bureau claim they hare
done it."
The case opened with the swearing in
of Messrs. Enoch b. Abel and Derby
A. Lynch, Of the St. Mary's bar, as a.
torneys OF the u. s. Court. Then Mr..
Marbury, of the counsel for the defense,
demurred to the indictment. He made
a lengthy argument. but spoke in such
q low tone that the general audience
could not hear him. He claimed that
the Indictment was defective in that II
set forth that the conspiracy was enter
ed into on or about July 12 and that the
cOnspirators were the census enumera-
tors. He contended that the term of
Office OF the census enumerators was
limited by the statute to the Both day OF
June. and at the time of the alleged con-
spiracy the accused were no longer emu
merators. When on June 30th, they
returned their schedules to the Censns
Bureau, they became by that act fHnetas
cGlciO. That any returns tgadc by them
subsequent to this were not and could
not be official returns. No supplement
tai lists sent in after June 30th were of.
fetal in the idea of the statute, for off,
cial returns are returns that the law re-
quires to be made, and there Is no re-
quirement in the statute for returns
from the census after June 80
Judge Morris spoke softly, deliberate
ly and concisely In announcing his de-
cision overruling the demurrer. Assis-
tant District Attorney Soper began read
ing the Indictment at 11.4O and II .4s
asked IL what he had read was suffl-
cient, and was told that It was. The
book he was reading from looked quite
as large as an unabridged dictionary.
During the reading of the Indictment.
the accused, Messrs. Joseph II. Ching,
Daniel ]. Bowles, Stephen Abel and
Philip T. Graves, stood, and when the
reading ended, pleaded mot guilty"
At 12 m. the Court began swearing the
jurors ON their voir dare. The jury
was soon completed as follows:
George III. Lamb, foreman John NJ.
Baker, Martin Russell, Henry L. Phillips,
John b. Haziehurst, Benjamin +. Pier
pont, David Mccullough, Charles
Wheat, Charles Z. Walsh. John King Of
William, Charles Bohlofink and Charles
w. Buckler
Charles Fl. Guytber was not arraigned,
having confessed guilty" the Judge
delaying imposing sentence.
The pending case Is on the conspiracy
charge.
After the jury had been sworn the
Court took q recess. After the recess
Mr.. Rose made the opening statement
for the government. He took up the
question of Mr.. Ching's motive for the
conspiracy. He showed Mr.. Ching's
connection with the Republican party
as member of the committee, and how.
IL the population of st. Mary's county
was returned rs more than $4,000 souls,
the county would be entitled to an ad-
dItional member OF the House OF Dele
gates, and the Republicans in the county
entitled to greater representation in
State and Congressional conventions,
and In the State Central Committee
He said that Mr.. Ching learned, he did
not know how, that the population oil
the county was 1900 or 1000 less than
necessary TO get an additional member
of the House. Mr.. Ching went to Wash
ington and saw Mr.. VIM. T. s. Rollins
the Supervisor for the district, and told
that large number of names had been
omitted In Sc. Mary's county. Mr
Ching saw Congressman Mudd who also
went to see Mr.. Rollins, and told hin
that he knew himself of these omissions
Mr.. Rollins was unwilling to act with
out advice, and Mr.. Mudd and Mr.. Ching
/ went to Director Merriam, who referred
them to Mr.. Hunt, the Chief Of tn.
Bureau of Population. Mr.. Hunt in
formed Mr.. Rollins that II he believed
names had been omitted, il was his dut,
20 send additional schedules 10 thu
county.
In his statement, Mr.. Rose read |
number of entries from the return
made by the accused enumerators show
ing the most ridiculous misstatements
Children of g., or 8 years of age wer
put down as laborers, carpenters o
school teachers. All were entered q
being able to read and write. All o
the fraudulent work was done in Oh
supplementary schedules made out afte
July 1, and Of the 100 names on thes
schedules Ii il said that at least o5 pc
cent. were fraudulent.
Mr.. Rose closed and the defense n
served It's opening statement. AT
O'Clock Mr.. @. s. Sloan, chief Of Oh