The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-04-18
BANGS INGENIUS DEFENSE.
His Client in a Tight Place,
But the Judge Saves Him.

| A few days ago the St. Paul Dis
patch published the following early
Gay story on Gge A. W. Bangs of
this city. It is so much like the
old Judge himself that THE UNION
gladly reprints it-and best of all,
it actually occurred as here related.
| Here it is:
A well known threshing machine
company caused the criminal prose-
Gu tion of one Of it's debtors for un-
lawfully selling chattcl-mortgaged
property. The defendant was sad
eyed, mournful specimen Of humani-
ty, ragged, unshaven and disconso-
late, and there was no doubt what
ever that he disposed of the prop
erty, converted the proceeds to his
own benefit and refused to pay the
debt. An impartial observer would
have been unable to see the least
hope for him, but he resolved to put
up defense and employed Judge
Bangs, who is a gifted and brilliant
attorney, to fight his battle for him.
There was then, as now, very sharp
competition between the various
thresh!ng machine companies for
the patronage of the farming public,
in which every company supported
its claims as best it might with all
sorts of assertions as to the excel
lence OF its machinery. A very i'm
portant point always involved in
threshing, is whether the machine
cleans all of the wheat out of the
straw or not, and the machine that
is known to do this part of the work
the best is surest of success in max
ing sales. Now, the company in
question-we will call them Brown
q Co.-were not behind their COM
petitors in claiming clean threshing
and as very novel and striking fea-
ture to advertise this point they
adorned mortgages with cuts Of
farm poultry "fattered on Brown s.
20. straw Letterheads, cards,
contracts, notes-everything ing-bore
pictures of the sorry-looking poul-
try 'fattened on Brown & Co.
straw. The birds we're were dis
reputable and woebegone to degree
lean, scrawny, almost bare Of feath-
ers and certainly calculated to set
forth the proposition that when one
Of Brown & Cos. machines had
threshed grain there were not ker-
nels enough left in the straw to fat
ten anything.
The case drew to a close without
a shadow Of defence having been set
up, except that defendant swore
that when he sold the property
mortgaged to Brown & Co. he had
intended to pay the entire proceeds
right over to the company at once,
but he was compelled to admit that
the money had all got away from
him somehow before he had paiu an y
part of it.
This was certainly very precari-
Gus situation, but, still, as the guilt
was matter of intent, there was a
fighting chance with the jury, if
their sympathies could be reached
and when Mr.. Bangs arose to his
feet for the argument, those in
the court room who knew him
best felt that if there was a chance
he was the man to find it. He spoke
slowly and deliberately, at first, 60
ing carefully and shrewdly into the
evidence to hunt out every possible
construction bearing upon the in
tent. favorable to his client, but
seemed to find nothing along this
line to arouse his enthusiasm.
Gentlemen Of the jury, he said
at last, there is another point in
this case to which / wish to call
your attention. You see upon the
table in front of the prosecuting at
torney, and in my hand here, and on
the desk Of the clerk, many papers
asd documents bearing the crest
and title of Brown & Co., and print
Led ed and issued by them. ] wantlyou