Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1911-07-25
DELICIOUS review OF
The OLIVER CASE
Judge SpGGF'S Humorous
Story Of Famous Incident

growing out or an dppACdLLOh IOI
large fees for certain attorneys in the
noted oliver case, Judge Emory Speer
gave a review Of that series Of re-
markable incidents that, while a tru<-N
full portraiture Of events as they oc-
surred. is we'll calculated to provoke
series of smiles on the faces Of all
readers. Said Judge Speer, in part;
The case will readily be seen to be
one of the most remarkable in the his
tory of bankruptcy litigation. A. D..
Oliver, who, it appears from the rec
ord, was an escaped convict from Mis-
sissippi and possibly other states, sud
denly appeared at the town of Climax,
| in Decatur county. He was literally
without assets. He possessed, how
ever, a pleasing and impressive ad-
dress, which convinced the somewhat
credulous and trustful people of that
| locality that he was a man Of large
means. His first financial venture was
to borrow s. from the Sheriff With
this he bought him a shirt. The land
lady of the hotel gave him a coat
The county is one Of the most prom
inent in South Georgia, itself perhaps
in its natural resources the most pros
porous in the state, Sea island cotton,
tobacco of a fine quality, and turpen-
tine and lumber industries everywhere
add to the wealth of the people. There
was no small surplus of cash in the
hands of many members of the com
munity which far from the maddening
crowds ignoble strife kept the noise
less tenor of its way The magnetic
Oliver soon disturbed and disarranged
the noiseless tenor aforesaid. The in
habitants then became a madding
crowd themselves, mad to the extent
of frenzy with the desire to entrust
their accumulations to the guardian
ship and manipulation Of this escaped
COiF ICI. u6 ltSulL Ndo AlCL 4oS' va
prising than the faith of the people
and one has not seen such faith, no,
not in Israel. Indeed, it does not APP
pear that Israel became in any sense
victim of Oliver. He, only, escaped.
Banking institutions, modern hotels,
turpentine and sawmill operations uD-
on an extensive scale, agricultural
ventures, perhaps not less expansive,
under the fructifying touch of Oliver
suddenly blossomed into existence like
the gourd of Jonah. Unhappily, how
ever these ventures had the fate Of
this famous vegetable phenomenon
mentioned in Holy Writ. In a short
time the character of Oliver was dis
covered, but not before he had taken
in marriage one of the lovely maidens
of the community. To add to his tur-
pitude, his bride was the daughter Of
the landlady, the generosity of whose
womanly heart had endured him with
coat when he first crawled from the
brake beams of the freight train which
brought him to the scene of his tri-
umphs.
Dark suspicious succeeded the un-
bounded confidence which had been
lavished upon him. His ventures like
the gourd of the prophet withered and
died. He was discovered to be a crook
of widespread notoriety, with an
achievement in the line of his baleful
occupations of the most disastrous
character to all of his associates, but
which had nowhere attained the eli
matte success of his performance at
Climax.
"He was soon thrown into bank
ruptcy, he was arrested by the state
courts; he was convicted in a prelim-
mary way of bigamy, but many other
indictments await the expiration OF
his sentence in the Georgia paniten-
tiary for the wrongs he inflicted upon
more than one womanly heart. Not
withstanding the writings Of the
Georgians whom he had plundered
they selected this as his basest and
darkest crime as deserving primal
punishment, for gallantry and Geor-
gians are convertible terms.
1T followed that he had many cred
Grs, and it also followed that prob
not in the history of litigation
it more difficult for the attorneys
MS victims to trace any accumulat-
assets for the distribution OF which
der the bankruptcy law their losses
light be in a small degree reQuited,
their indignation measurably as
Aged These attorneys, however,
remarkably successful, they and
"a Their officials of the bankruptcy
have accumulated and preserved
~ could from the estate of Oil
hich in point of fact, was as
the fabric of a vision, and