Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-10-27


Wednt sday evening when Arthur
Young, the accused murderer of Ed
ward Smith, made what he represented
to be a clean breast of the crime, and
appeared in circuit court aud plead
guilty and received sentence Young,
since being arrested had spent his time
evenings in singing, and presented a
bold front at nearly all times, and in
deed the nerve of the fellow was re-
markable 1t was not therefore ex-
pected that he would ever confess the
murder, and surprise followed the pro-
ceedings of Wednesday evening When
apprised of his desire, his attorney, M
b. Rosenberg, advised him of the con-
sequences that would follow, but Young,
it appears, had set his mind on plead
ing guilty, and intimated that nothing
could dissuade him from that course,
and there was nothing else to do but
accede to his wish. A petition to the
court was drawn up, which he signed
and Judge Silverthorn opened court on
the evening stated and the prisoner
was brought in For the first time,
since arrest, he appeared worried and
downcast, and when asked to stand up
and make answer to the charge set
forth in the information he broke down
and wept, and could scarcely utter a
word. When asked if he understood
the proceedings he answered in the
negative, whereupon the Judge re-
quested Youngs attorney to make
things clear to him. Mr. Rosenberg
stated that he was authorized by his
client to make statement of facts as
presented to him by Young, and that he
wished such statement to be taken
down by the court reporter and spread
He then made the following statement ::
Mr. Young informs me that on the
9th day of August last he met Mr..
Smith at Athens, as was shown by the
testimony on the preliminary examina-
| ton; that he procured the conveyance
to take him to Edgar substantially as
was stated on the preliminary examina-
ton; that he and Mr. Smith started and
travelled by the route that was shown
by the testimony offered, and came to
Poniatowski; that before leaving Athens
they had been drinking That when at
Poniatowski they drank some more and
they We're fooling along the road. He
says that they We're good friends and
always had been since they had come
| to this state. That they were following
the telephone hue to Edgar and when
they reached the place where the tele-
phone line turns off from the main road
to turn south Mr.. Smith spoke to him
| in regard to some money which MIR.
Young owed Smith and they talked
| about it and computed the amount that
was due. That when they had done
that Smith says you still owe me SO on
account of money which you took from
me the night of the dance at Milan" 1t
seems, your honor, that at that time the
deceased Smith had some money on his
person and was considerably intoxi- |
Gated and that for the purpose of taking
care of this money, Mr. Young took it,
and that during the next day or two he
gave back the money to Smith, and
there had been dispute between them |
as to the amount that was taken since
that time, Mr.. Smith claiming that it |
was 81, and Mr.. Young claiming that
it was sand they talked about it on
the way out there as they were going |
down the road and after they had had |
some discussion, which was not exactly |
"a quarrel, but somewhat heated Mr.. |
Young said We'll, we will let it go at |
that nos"
Here Young alleged that the two got
out of the buggy for some purpose and
as they did 50 Smith continued the dis
cussion, and with the remark, II don't |
believe you ever intend to pay me-"
called him vile name
Mr. Young said to Smith You can't
call me S---, you need not |
get too gay around hereS and started |
toward him, he having stepped ahead |
some distance to follow up the team, |
and as he did so Smith grabbed rock |
and threw it at Young and threw off his |
coat and reached for another rock, and |
that at that instant Young picked up a |
rock and said to Smith, IF you don't |
drop that rock | will throw this" and |
Smith continued in the act of picking |
up the rock, STOPPING over, partially |
bent over just ready to raise with the |
rock which he had picked up, he can
not tell just exactly how, Young threw
the rock which he had in his hand and
struck him Smith behind the ear at
the place indicated in the testimony
and killed Smith. That Smith dropped
over on the side of the road, and after
Young got over his anger and passion,
aud his mind cleared, he saw that he
was dead. He waited few minutes
for him TO get up and he did not move,
and he then carried the body of his
friend into the woods and placed it be-
hind the log, as shown in the testimony,
covered it up with MS coat and came
back to the buggy, and when he got
back be found that the hat of Smith
still lay in the road; he did not care to
go back into the woods again with the
hat and he put the hat in the bottom of
the buggy under the lap robe He got
| in the buggy and drove south towards
| Edgar Is or 20 rods, turned around and
drove back north, as was shown IN the
testimony That when be got beyond
/ Poliatowski he happened TO think of
the fact that Mir Smiths grip was in
the buggy and he reyolved over in his
mind what he should do with it, and he
concluded he would leave it in the
woods along side of the road, and when
he got up to the point on the town line
directly east of Athens, he drove his
team up on the side of the road and got
out of the buggy for the purpose of con-
cealing the grip, took 1t ont 10 the
woods and threw out she stuff between
the logs there, as was testified to, with
the exception that he put it all in one
place That If the testimony on the
preliminary examination was correct il
had been moved since that time; and
that instead of leaving the grip there
he thought perhaps people would think
it strange seeing a grip in the woods,
and would think nothing of seeing old
clothes there, and he took the grip
along with him. That when he came
back to the buggy he discovered ~the
hat; he then put the hat in the grip and
went back TO Athens, as testified 10 on
the preliminary examination. That
after he had been there, | do not re-
member the exact length Of time, his
room mate had lost his hat aud was in
/ - ,uo and Xaunor told hin, b.aI