The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1908-06-12

AS Walter ]. Bartnett sat yesterday
in the courtroom where he is on trial
for embezzlement Of securities taken
from the vaults of the California safe
deposit and trust company there were
burned into his brain the words of a
prophecy of his own making-a proph-
ecy that has been fulfilled to the ut
most in shame, tragedy and death.
With head bowed and face flushed,
the defendant listened to the reading
of a letter written by himself to ].
Dalzell Brown but 10 days before the
suspension of the local banking con-
Germ opened the way for the exposure
of its mismanagement, and as he
listened the bitterness of the retrospec-
ton must have filled his soul
In every line that letter of last
October was eloquent of the terrible
fear that then clutched at the writer's
heart-the fear of discovery and what
would follow. He impiored Brown,
wildly. frantically, to do something
anything to hold together a little
longer the rotten framework of the
tottering bank, and in the delirium of
his terror he turned to point at the
results of the great insurance investi
cation, with it's train of death, exile.
madness and disgrace, and to prophecy
that unless the affairs of the local
bank were quickly righted a similar
end might come.
PARALLEL OF PROPHECY
T1fe fulfllment of the prophecy could
not have been closer parallel. He
spoke of the death of Mccall and in the
bank case there has followed the sui
eide of T. Otway Sadleir; he referred to
the confinement in a madhouse of Alex
ander. and the bank exposure has
brought about the confinement in the
state prison of j. Dalzel Brown; he
mentioned the exile of Hyde. and one
of the incidents following the wreck
ing of the bank was the flight into
exile of j. Dalzell Robertson. Bartnett
himself sees the doors of the peniten-
tiary yawning before him, for all the
high officers OF the California safe de-
posit and trust company there has come
disgrace
The letter was but one of many that
were read into the record yesterday
by Assistant District Attorney William
Hof Cook. All of them were cipher
letters, and their contents, as made
public in court. have formed the climax
of the prosecutions case against Bart
nett. O66plY lncrlnlndIinB as H0Q al
ready been much of the testimony in
troduced. none of 1t pointed so posi-
lively to the guilt of the defendant
as do the letters in his own handwrit-
ing, which passed between himself and
j. DalzeI Brown prior to the failure
of the California safe deposit and trust
company. The day was the most SEN
satlonal OF the trial, for in addition to
the reading of the mass of documentary
evidence. j DalZ6lI Rrnxry,
on the witness stand and added many
important links in the chain of evil
dence against his former business as
sociate.
Brown declared that after the fire
Bartnett advised j. d. Robertson to
tell Bank Commissioner Dunsmoor that
the Cotton bonds and securities had
been DESTROYED, although they were all
intact, and that Bartnett several times
discussed with himself and James
Treadwell possible means of obtain
ing funds to cover up the loss
Prior TO the sale of the bonds
through E. F. Hutton & Co. in Nav
1907, Bartnett told me that the spirit
of Mrs. Cotton had come to him and
way he saw fit,' declared Brown
Later he told me TO say to the bank
commissioners that the Cotton securi
ties were in safe deposit box in New
York"
HEAVY OVERDRAFTS
Brown asserted that in July, 1905.
Bartnett had oyerdrawn his account at
the bank about $4,000 and that in ad
dition he owed the bank 100000 Sc
cured from the sale of the 100 Western
Pacific bonds of the Cotton estate in
order to make good their value to the
estate. Brown went to New York with
q determination to secure a settlement.
and through the substitution of the in
debtedness of certain other concerns TO
him Bartnett wiped out the $4,000
overdraft, but failed to cut down the
100000. Instead he gave Brown an
acknowledgment that he owed this
amount TO the bank from the sale of
the Cotton securities. The acknowI-
edgment was destroyed in the fire and
when Brown attempted to get a dupli-
cate from Bartnett the latter at first
pretended not to understand
Brown made last attempt, he de-
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