The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-14
THE ERIE SCANDAL.
Mrs. Cavens' Neighbors Talk of
Lynching Hired Man.

Chanute. Kas., Aug. 14.-The Blade
says: The thrilling events which
occurred at Erie furnish a sequel
to the story published in the
Blade of Wednesday wherein Mrs
Fannie Cravens. her hired man, Jacob
F1aylyloff. and a 1O-year-old son of the
widow were the principal actors. Flay
lyloH had been arrested on the charge
of brutally whipping the Cravens boy.
and his trial was set for yesterday at
ternoon before an Erie justice of the
peace. A special telephone message to
the Blade from Erie says:
This being the day of the trial of
Jacob RObylier, alias Jacob Flaylyloff,
the usual quietude of the county seat
was violently broken. Early in the
morning farmers and their families
who live in the Cravens neighborhood
began pouring into town, and by l
o'clock in the afternoon, the hour when
Robylier was arraigned in the court of
the Justice of the peace. the streets in
| the vicinity of the Justices office had
taken on circus day appearance.
Angry men elbowed their way through
the crowd on their way to the court
room muttering imprecations against
Robylier and the woman who was up
holding him in brutally beating her lit
tie fatherless son.
The evidence adduced at the trial
showed that Robylier had used the
child very roughly. Neighbors testified
THAT the lads body for some time after
ging to him was literally covered with
black and blue marks from the effect
of the lashes. It was also brought out
in the evidence that Robylier was for
merly tramp; that he had been picked
up in the city of Erie by Oliver Ford,
a brother of Mrs. Cravens and given
job as his farm hand. Afterwards
RObylfer was engaged for similar SER
vice by Widow Cravens. and he grew
with such rapidity in his employers
favor that few months ago he bios
somed out the general Overseer of the
Cravens broad acres and the biggest
thing in the CravenS household.
The sudden rise of RObyler, from the
mental who formerly plowed the Crav-
ems fields, cut the stove wood, cleaned
the stables and MIXED the cows, to the
position of general manager of the
Cravens estate, struck surprise to every
heart in all that region for five miles
north and east of the county seat. And
when it became known that Mrs. Cra-
vens and her hired man were head-over-
heels in love with each other, and that
Robylier was in the habit of misusing
the little Cravens boy, indignation min
gled with the surprise which was felt in
the neighborhood.
Robylier with his remarkable leap
from farm hand to superintendent of
the Cravens estate. became intolerably
arrogant toward his former friends. He
wore the finest clothes of any farmer
in the neighborhood, drove the best
ana IeClDEQ III a SALUTE Wne'l
horseback riding that is said to have
been bought with Widow Cravens' mon
ey and cost $45.
All the things mentioned above were
brought out in the trial of the case and
more too. The jury, after hearing the
evidence and a powerful speech in be-
half of the accused by Attorney Cline,
returned a verdict of not guilty. BY
way OF explanation the foreman of the
jury announced that such a decision had
md Iaf Ire
Cravens had authorized the whipping of
her son by the defendant.
The jury's verdict was received by the
assembled neighbors of the Cravenses with
BODIED i'll to the personal safety of Roby-
lier During the trial the erstwhile hobo
sat arrayed in a fine tailor made suit cast
ing cOntemptuous glances at the sunburn-
ed and roughly dressed farmers who were
which they had preferred against him and
when che jury announced its verdict he
swept his enemies with one long defiant
in company with Mrs. Cravens.
BY this time the indignation that was
felt over the verdict of the jury threaten
ed to crystalline into mob violence and had
not the counsel of some of the cooler heads
prevailed Robylier would undoubtedly have
/ been seized and roughly handled. For an
hour after Robylier had made his exit
from the town the indignant farmers stood
unrneasured terms the verdict of the jury
and breathing fierce maledictions on the
head of the superintendent of the Cravens
estates.
After considerable excited parley It was
decided to send word to Robylier that if he
had not fled the country within As hours
he would be mobbed. This decision was
made known to Oliver Ford the brother Of
Mrs. Cravens. with the request that he no
! tify Robylier Mr.. Ford said he would
do so, but whether the threat will have
any effect on the elegant and defiant Mr..
Robylier is yet to be determined If he
does not heed the warning there is no
telling what will be doing at tbs, Cravens
premises at the moment when the forty
eight hours shall lhave expired.
Douglas Won't Give Up.