Durango semi-weekly herald., 1903-01-08
THE NEGLECTED TRIAL.


The great legal battle in the Neg
lected mine began In the district
court this morning with q splendid
array OF legal talent on both sides b.
W. Ritter. Richard McCloud and
Charles $. Thomas appear for p. A.
Larsh. plaintiff. and Reese McCloskey.
w. a. Reese and Ben b. Russell ap-
pear for the defendants, James ].
German. Frank A. Rivers. James Den
nison and ". ]. Boyle.
Mr. Thomas called Mr. Larsh first
to the stand. and he was under d.
rect examination until within a few
minutes OF noon adjournment, when
Mr.. Reese began cross-examination. A
contract made In July. 1901. between
l-arsh and German on the one side.
and Dennison and Boyle on the other.
vas introduced as exhibit one. 1t re
| cited that Larsh and German were to
have half the mine II they compiled
with certain conditions, chief of which
| II Is understood was to procure credit
and protect the payments then coming
due quarterly OF two thousand dollars
each on the mine.
he became acquainted with the char
acter and value of the Neglected ore
while doing control work governing
the price which should be paid for
the ore nt the smelter. and that later
while conducting custom assay of
llce, learned further by assaying sam
Piles OF Neglected ore for w. j. Boyle.
He led German into n deal which
eliminated in the contract produced
In court. -arsb said he had turned
down AN offer OF sl25 per month from
the Hercules Mining company at Sill
ycrton. to go into the Neglected deal.
He said when Boyle first sought him
to go into the mine. he told him he
had no monYy. but that after repeated
conversations during which Boyle said
they would not need any money as the
mine would pull through itself If II
had a little credit. that the merchants
had no confidence in the district and
would not extend credit. that the first
ore he had shipped was attached for
wages. etc. Boyle had proposed to
give onehalf to secure an arrange
ment by which the mine could contin-
/ h' ~ bDFI LII Hl iiuhllN lDlu tbONlt
that II he went into 1t he would want
German in also. He had repeated
conversations with German about the
merits and richness of the mine. Fin
ally out near the south city park
Larsh met German and told him that
he would sign the desired contract
German said he relied entirely on
Larshs judgment. Boyle did not
lsign the contract until he consulted
his partner Dennison at the mine.
| Both Boyle and Larsh went to the
mine and there both Boyle and Den
nison signed At that time Larsh went
through the mine workings. After
that LRrsh says II was his business to
look after the mill and do the assay
ing The ore was sold at the local
smelter. Dennison was foreman.
Boyle was what might be termed gen.
cral superintendent of the whole en-.
tcrprise, Larsh made the settlements
at the smolter up to October 1st. be-
ginning the 10th of July. The combi-
nation OF people handling the mine
was termed the Neglected Mining
company and the people were Denni-
son. Boyle. German and Larsh. Larsh
had checked against the bank deposits
at first. but later German and Rivers
also checked on them. German said
that Rivers owned onehalf OF Cor
mans fourth of the mine
On the 18th of August, 1901. Larsh
made check against the mine ac-
count for 81 300 as quarterly pay
I aut ~ draI
dollars having already been paid by
Boyle on this payment to secure an
extension of time on the lease. He
told German and Rivers he had made
the payment German had started a
day book and ledger for the mine. but
did not keep IL up. The bills for sup
plies went to the mine and to the
plumbing shop Of German and Rivers.
one day Rivers came to Larsh and
told him he was out OF the Neglected
mine Larsh said he guessed not,
torney for tho handling OF the whole
mine and you are out Larsh insisted
that he was not out Larsh asked for
the agreement. and German said 1t
was in the safe Rivers went with
Larsh and delivered the contract to
him. Larsh saw Gaines and Cor
man at the fire house later. when
Larsh exhibited his contract as au-
thority for doing business and request
cd an extension OF time on the mine
lease Gaines said he would be will
ing. but he did not know about An
drews unless he received his part of
the money. Gaines came down next
day. and we went into the First Ma
tional bank and borrowed one thous-
and dollars 10 give to Andrews, all Of
us In the Neglected signing the note.
and We gave Gaines note for one
thousand dollars. The notes were ex-
hhitcd and Larsh recognized them.
Larsh then returned to the mine on
the 5th and looked after the mill un.
Ill the goth. when he returned to the
city On that day Larsh received
! word by carrier from Frank Rivers
that his baby was very sick. He re-
turned on horse rode by the carrier.
The baby was sick about ten days.
| While In the city Larsh talked to