Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-01-19


and DR.. and Mrs. George f.. LorenZ.
| charged with conspiracy to defraud
F., the government, the prosecution intro
duced n number Of witnesses to prove
! the relations of Machen with the Lo-
renZs and the Croft brothers.
| During the day Justice Pritchard
showed a disposition in arguments on
adlnissibility OF evidence not to toler-
ate unnecessary delays in the progress
| of the case
! AR. Taggart. for the government,
| produced Il certified copy of the patent
| on tic Croft fastener. showing that q
! one-half interest has been assigned by
Samuel \. Croft TO his brother Diller
+. Croft.
The first witness was f. NJ. Gilpin
! a clerk in the Office of the comptroller
| of the treasury. who identified paper
authorizing Doller t. Croft to sign the
firms name of Croft Bros. to all doe
uments where the firm name was re-
Quired.
James z. Hell superintendent of de-
livery of the Washington, D. c. post
Office. explained the difference between
, the old system of attaching letter
boxes to lamp posts by means of iron
| bands and that represented by the
, Croft fasteners
| Mr.. TagCart offered in evidence an
order dated June %. 1895. for $50 fas-
| teners. but Mr.. Douglass objected. say
/ ing that the Indictment charged the al
; legged conspiracy to have commenced
/ in July 1860. Justice Pritchard in ac-
cordance with his ruling of Friday last.
exclude TIE evidence for the present,
saying:
Until we have some evidence of an
overt act l shall require a case of con-
spiracy to be made out
Mr.. Taggart then sought to intro
duce further evidence which Mr.. Doug
lass in the course of a long argument
to the court declared was inadmissi-
BILE. He insisted that the case could be
confined to the period named in the in
dictnent.
Discussion was cut short by docu-
ments being temporarily withdrawn.
On crOss-examination by Mr.. Mad
dcN. for the defence, the witness said
he had known Samuel \. Croft greet
many years and had suggested that the
only way to have the fastener intro
duced was for Croft to see or write
Machen about it. The fastener had been
adopted, he said. and put into use with
out any report from (BelD.
Harris Atchison. resident of Wash
i:gton, testified to knowing Mr.. Lo-
REM and Mr.. Machen. He declared
that Mr.. Machen never was in his
house. although Machen had frequently
driven DR. LorenZ. who boarded there, |
home.
Z. y. Smith. cashier OF the Raleigh
1'ctel. identified the hotel registers for
the years of 1901, 1902 and 1903.
William Sapp, assistant superintend-
ent of city delivery. 'Iole,in OHIO. testf- |
fed 10 knowing both Dr. Lorenz and !
Machen and said he was familiar with |
DR.. Lorenz's signature. He pointed it j
out on one of the hotel registers.
NJ. Sapn resumed the stand after
recess. but his testimony was unim- !!
portant. He was not cross examined. |
Charles Ross, file clerk of the free |
delivery system. identified certain rec
ord books Of this office and then Miss
Ina Liebhardt, Machen's former stem
ographer and chief clerk, was called.
Asked by Mr.. Taggart to state under
"hal circumstances she had placed ALI
endorsement on 4 certain letter which
was handed her. she replied that she
could not recall the particular case.
but that she was in the habit of brief
ing letters. She Was shown a number
of press copies of letters TO Croft
Brothers and identified Machen's sig
nature attached thereto.
MISS LIebhardt said she had seen DR..
Lorenz i'll Machen's office once. On
cross discrimination by Mr.. Douglass.
Miss Liebhardt testified that she was
present. she said. during all of the con-
versations and that nothing was said
about fasteners.
"A question designed to secure from
the witness 4 statement as to who was
in charge of the original matter Of
looking into the subject of supplies
brought al objection from the govern
meht' which was sustained. the court
reilafking that the question would be
admitted at the proper time
me witness was excused and John
U. Miller took the stand. He testified
that as an inventor of street letter
boxes and fastener, he had called on
Machen at the time bids were opened
IN 1897. incidentally. Machen had pro-
nounced the fastener good. At the
opened of the bids in 1897 Mr. Miller
said he met Samuel A. Croft. who in
formed him that his fastener was an
infringement on the Croft fastener. and
therefore could not be used.
John F. Clark of Washington, d. c..
a letter carrier. testified that a test OF
the Croft fastener was made in front
OF the city post Office and that the fas-
tener failed to work properly, where
upon he heard Machen say to Croft
that if it stuck like that he would not
recommend its adoption. The witness
said Croft replied that if he got the
contract he would make the fastener
larger and that it would work all right