Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-02-08

W. r. tOIe,Gdn, arose ana mate the statement that the defendant did not | question but what the work was hon. | estly done, and that the commission CTS had paid out for gravel all the l money that they had received for that l purpose. Thereupon Judge Grace l ruled that as it was admitted that the ] money was properly spent and the i work honestly done that it was un- necessary for plaintiff to prove the 1 same. With this statement the plain tiff rested his case.
 The defendant introduced M F. Bloom as the first witness. Mr. Bloom l testified that he was the expert ac- countant employed by the property owners to check Up the books of the district; that in conformity with that, he went to Captain Galbraith for the purpose of securing the vouchers at tached to their report, and that Cap tain Galbraith told him that he thought they were on file with the city clerk, as that was the place they had been left ten years ago. He then found was cancelled note executed by the commissioners of the district 1 to the Cotton Belt Railway company for S3,441, which was all the voucher that could then be found in the hands of the city clerk The report of the committee, E. c. Howell, ct al, showed that about $10,0OO had been expend- ed for gravel, he said, but as he could find no vouchers for the difference be- tween that amount and the note, he reported this fact to the interested citizens.
 MT. Voss and MT. York were pres ent, he added, and they could not ex- plain the discrepancy, and requested that the committee wait until Captain Galbraith returned from Illinois for him to explain. On motion of M. A. Austin, the meeting adjourned until June 21, for the purpose of hearing from Captain Galbraith,
 Mr. Bloom read the records of the meeting, and was very clear in his statement of facts and figures, but on cross examination he admitted that in his own judgment $3,441 would not be sufficient to pay for all the gravel needed to gravel the street at $1.35 per cubic yard. But the most import |ant admission made by Mir. Bloom was that when the committee was inyes- Itigating the loss of their vouchers, cancelled checks amounting to over I$5,O00 given by the commissioners of the gravelng district to the Cotton lBelt Railway Go. were in the Citizens Bank, of which he was cashier, and when Captain Galbraith returned and |asked that the bank book of the cOm- missioners, kept with the Citizens Bank, be balanced up, it was done, and these checks were then returned to Captain Galbraith.
 w. H. LangfOrd testified that he had taken the matter up with the off,
 
 ported that the only charge they had in St. Louis was the $3,441 item but that as the matter was over ten years old at that time, the books had been burned and destroyed by them. MT. Langford read in evidence a copy of Ithe telegram sent by him to the Press Eagle from Fayetteville, in which he told MT. Murray to publish all the facts.
 On cross s-examination by Major
 White, MT. Langford testified that
 while he had sent the cancelled
 checks to the Cotton Belt Railway
 company, he did not still believe
 that all the money had been ex-
 pended for the district.
 R. G. Atkinson testified that be-
 fore the publication of the articles
 in the Press-Eagle, rumors were
 generally circulated through Pine
 Bluff that there was a shortage of
 $7,OOO in the accounts of the dis l Lr1CC, put SlucS IAdC IlIA0 HS w
 came satisfied that those reports
 were untrue. Fred Senyard and V. 0. Alexander also testified to the
 efect of having of having heard
 similar rumOrs.
 The evidence of tSe day was closed with the testimony of City Clerk w. A. Lee He testified that
 M. E. Bloom called at his office
 for the vouchers and that he fur
 nished him with a certificate show
 ing that vouchers were not in the , vaults of the city. As far as the city records show, he said, the city council never made report on . the report of the commissioners. Lee had no personal knowledge of any vouchers ever having been filed VrN0