The San Francisco call., 1904-04-22

ment and in which the San Francisco
attorney was invited and urged to be-
tray Hyde TO the Government?
Two answers TO these questions were
given yesterday in the great land fraud
hearing before Federal Commissioner
Z. H. HeacOck.
Dimond himself, with thorough self
possession and intense emphasis, said
No; and his attorney, Charles S.
Wheeler, declared his faith in his
clients innocence and his belief that
the letters were the work of the Gov
ernment's detectives. But the Govern
ment. appearing by Counsel Heney, af-
ter denying Wheeler's charge, said,
Yes. Dimond wrote all these letters"
and forthwith it began the Introduction
Of a mass Of evidence.
A DAY OF SURPRISES.
Yesterdays work marks a crisis in
the case. Heney's cross-examination
Of Dimond had begun on Tuesday and
two days had been spent in going over
all the relations between Dimond and
Hyde, including their correspondence
when Dimond was in Washington pros
ecuting Hyde's lieu land selections be-
fore the General Land Office and their
quarrel over Hydes peculiar methods
and still more over his failure to di-
vide the profits with the attorney. 1t
was tedious work, but well done, and
as it drew to it's close the Government
lawyer declared that the defendant had
trapped himself into the hands of the
prosecution
In his oral testimony and by the cor
respondence offered by him with every
mark of candor. Dimond has shown his
familiarity with Hyde's methods-the
alleged frauds that form the basis Of
the Governments charge against Hyde,
Benson ct al. Heney took pains to
have the witness define the bounds of
his acquaintance with these peculiar
methods-the use of irresponsible per-
sons in obtaining school lands from the
States of California and Oregon, the
manufacture Of legal papers and the
employment of fictitious names in ap-
plications to the Government for forest
reserve selections. All the documents
in Dimonds hands were taken possess
sion of by the Government-thati is all
the documents that Dimond said he had
and these were used to aid in fix
ing the extent of his acquaintance with
tiiS dAtSeO lllle ldClOIy IN f1yoe Of
fee.
But yesterday Dimond Unexpectedly
announced that he had some more doc
uments-papers not included in the
bundles he had formerly turned over to
Heney with the declaration that he was
concealing nothing. He produced two
Of series of anonymous letters, which
he said he received last year. Then
came the admission that these letters
had been concealed even from his own
counsel until a day or two ago. Their
appearance on the opening Of court
was afterward explained by the Gov
ernments representatives as due to
''leak'-a court official intrusted with
a secret had been indiscreet, and Di-
mond's attorneys had discovered that
Heney was planning 10 make the
anonymous letters a leading feature of
the case against their client. Hence
Heney found himself forestalled yes
terday morning when Dimond volun-
teered the story of the letters, and his
counsel, Wheeler, at once charged VIII
liam j. Burns, the wellknown detec-
tive, with their authorship.
These anonymous letters add to the
already complicated case one of the
most extraordinary problems ever pre-
sented in a criminal action. Here, in
brief, is the Governments side of it,
the only side that has been disclosed.
In fact, the Government has but partly
shown its hand, and much more evil