The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1910-05-11
GRAFT IN HIS BUILDING.
J. M. Huston Who Designed Penn
sylvanla's Capitol Found Guilty.

Harrisburg, Pa, May 11.-Josepf
NJ Huston, architect for the state
capitol, was found guilty today OF
conspiracy in falsly certifying to q
padded bill for desks for the state
capitol The jury recommended leu
iency on account OF Huston's ire
spfcachable reputation prior to this
charge. The trial of Huston Is the
third OF the series resulting from the
exposure or the frauds in furnishing
the. new state capitol, and Huston
is the fifth of the seventeen men In
dicted on charge of conspiracy to
cheat and defraud the state tc
be found guilty. The others found
guilty we're: w. p. Snyder, ex-au
'ditor; w. l.. Mathues, ex-state treas
lurer, j.. M. Shumaker, eX-superln
tendent of public grounds and build
ings, and John H. Sanderson, a fur
niture contractor. Sanderson and
Mathues are dead; and the other two
are serving two year sentences
Huston is defendent in thirty-fouI
other cases, charging conspiracy and
false pretense, and Is also a respon'
dent in the action in equity to re-
cover million dollars alleged &c
have been wrongfully paid for furn'
ishing the capitol.
Joseph NJ. Huston, the young Phil
adelphia architect who obatined the
right of trial separate from the four
state officials sent into court with
him, was the principal genius be
hind the construction of the truly
magnificent state house. 1t has been
as dream to him, too, he asserted
when it was all finished, and his
words seemed vastly appropriate,
The great marble capitol stands
on emlnence in the spacious capi-
tol grounds overlooking the city in
every direction. Seen from any
point it appears an acropolis, stand
ing there towering in its bulky, white
magnitude above its surroundings
In many ways it resembles the Ia.
Mahal,s that most noted of the
matchless structures of India. In
the center of the great main en-
trance leading to the capitol, is a
fountain seventy-eight feet in diam
eter from which water is run down
inclines in cascades an idea borrow
ed from the castle "WhlIeImsoehe
in Hesse. Granite starways leNd
up from this level. They are forty
eight feet wide and broaden out at
the top into space sufficient to ac-
commodate troops on review. When
Pennsylvania came to count up the
cost OF its new home it was learned
that the great 4-million-dollar capitol
had required nine million dollars
worth Of furniture. The realization
of the enormity of these figures
came bit slowly at first, but it gath
cred force as the facts came out
one by one. The electroliers alone
had cost the taxpayers OF the state
two millions. No building is all his
tory could boast Of such an expen-
diture for lighting. The newspapers
quickly followed with the amazing
revelation that the magnificent
chadeliers were paid for by The
pound. In rapid succession came the
announcements that furniture hao
been paid for by the square foot
that desks purchased at this rate
for as high as $500 might have been
purchased in the ordinary way for
$S5 or $50; that the solid bronze
chandeliers, bought on unreasonable
figure pound, were brass shells
filled with lead; that they had been
solid bronze they might have been
bought for one-fourth what was paid
for them by the lavish and recent
"dreamers' Of state house magnli
cence.