Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1905-12-24
AFFAIRS At SOJTH OMAHA
James 0. Nichols Held to District Court on
Charge Of Emsezllsment
SPENDS FUNDS or RELIEF ASSOCIATION
Man Arrested for Neglectin9 wife
and Family IL Bound over on
More Serious Accusa-
ton.

Nichols, Thirteenth and H. came to its
preliminary hearing yesterday afternoon IN
Judge Kings court. He was found guilty
of embezzlement and was bound over 10
the district court on 1900 bonds. He was
taken to the county Jail last night. From
the evidence produced at the preliminary
and the evidence in his trial at Omaha
December II, Nichols appears as little de-
serving of lenency as any man II were pos
sible to name lie arrested In Omaha
on the complaint of his wife on Saturday,
December o. The case against him was
that he had abandoned her and his chll-
dron. who were to all appearances deserV-
ing. Time and again he had visited the
dives of Omaha and spent there the money
which should have gone to their support,
until at last she traced his steps, and with
the evidence in hand caused his arrest.
He was found guilty by Judge Berka and
fined so and costs He was remanded to
tail During the course of this imprison-
rnent il was discovered that he had not
only spent his own money i'm riotous COM
pany. but he had drawn on the funds of
the Union Stock Yards Relief association,
which had been intrusted to him as secre-
tary aud treasurer of the organization, TO
the amount of SlO6.5O. 1t was for this en-
bezzement that he was tried yesterday in
police court. Nichols had been employed as
a time keeper in the stock yards and as
such received good pay. 1t was proved
that from the time he took the Office he
kept no account of the meetings; nor kept
the books of the treasurer. The only en-
try he had made was that of the money
turned over to him at the beginning OF his
term, 500 and more. This he deposited in
a local bank. He soon began to draw on
this fund for his own benefit and the bene-
fit OF his friends. The money from two
later assessments he put into his own
pocket direct. without tho Formally of de-
posting it at ALL Checks were produced
to account for $2S that he had misspent.
The principal witnesses against him were
L. NJ. Cockerell, president, and c. o.
Nownes, present secretary of the relief as
ISOLATION Nichols put up no defense Judge
King bound the prisoner over to the dis
trict court. 1t is not likely that he will
he able to secure bonds. President Cock
ercll said: I'VE gave Nichols every chance
we could: we did not want to prosecute
him. We trusted him perfectly in the first
place or we would have looked into the
matter before it had gone so far"
Frontage on Railroad Avenue.
Among other property owners along
Railroad avenue, George & Co. of Omaha,
who own property in block of Cobb s
Second addition to the City of South
Omaha, have sent letter of inquiry az
to what portion of the said avenue was
or is abandoned to the railroad company
They wish to know II their property will
have any street frontage at all. The city
engineer makes the following public state
ment of the matter All of Railroad ave-
nue. from f street TO a point 100 feet south
~
from a point 100 feet south of o street al
of Railroad avenue has been given up tc
the west line Of Twenty-fourth street. II
the space between and o streets on Rail
road avenue the west half of the street
strip thirty-three feet wide, has beer
released to the property owners and the
railroad The statutes of Nebraska pro
vide. where street is vacated in thiI
manner. that the land shall be equally dl
vided between the property owners. II
this case George & Co. are entitled Il
an additional strip of land which the!
can still use as\ a street as far as thei
property extends, but men who own lot
each side OF them can fence in thei
holdings as they see nit, so that Geors
n Co. can't get out in the old way oil
Railroad avenue.
Park Bond Puzzle.
a pertinent question was HSkeu Ut III
city hall yesterday morning: what ha
become of the $4,000 issue of park bond
- which was ordered at the time that tn
city hall bonds were voted and by tn
same election" The question drew
blank. The city clerk said he had hear
nothing Of them. All he knew was tina
they had been voted and were to bear
per cent interest. 1t was further under
stood that the managers of Syndicate par
stood ready to exchange their propert
on the north side for the bonds as 500
as they had chance. The question wa
put to W. p. Adkins, president of the cit
council. He said: I'VE have been in n
hurry about the park bonds because, fo
one reason. of the injunctions and delay
! we met in trying TO float the bonds 70
the city hall. We have simply don
nothing in the matter, but will take It u
in good time. possibly before spring. S
/ far as ] know Christie Bros. are sti
willing to take the bonds as they ha
offered, but they have had no chance. W
want to go a little slow In this bond bus
ness until We see that we can float III
city hall securities with no further diff
Guilty
Accused of Assault.
Charles Lambertz Nineteenth and
was arrested Friday night on a warraI
sworn out by Martin Kemsk. who charge