The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-01-04
SENTENCES MEN
FOR SELLING VOTES
Judge Blair Holds Impromptu Ses'
sion Around Table in Hotel
Office.

w ESI lNlON, ONO, Jan. S.-be'
iieving that so many voters have been
| DISTINGUISHED I'm Adams county and
| thus rendered ineligible for jury SER
| vice, that IL would be impossible TO
get together another grand jury TO
| complete the probe into the vote SELL
| ing, Judge Blair today refused TO per.
| nit the adjournment of the grand jury
that has been IN session now Tor over
! two weeks and that has returned over
| 200 indictments.
The situation is causing Judge Blair
| considerable concern. Several mem
bers of the present jury have notified
the court that il will be impossible for
| them TO serve after next Saturday be-
cause OF the necessity OF getting back
| to business and TO their farms
No less than 800 Adams county resi-
dents are declared to have crossed
over into Kentucky and TO have an
\ nounced their intention OF not return.
Ing unless the vote probing is stopped.
| Some OF these men have been indicted
and some have not AS yet Judge
Blair has not announced what he will
do with them.
| The probe was tardy in being re-
sumed this morning because of de-
lay in trains which made Judge A.
Il. Blair, sitting as special Judge, late
| IN arriving. Not TO lose time, how
ever he held court in hotel lobby
at PEBBLES at daybreak when 10 Adams
county vote.sellers met him at the
train after waiting hours in the drizzl'
| -. "A Al a. iDh 70,
enter pleas OF guilty.
Judge Blair requested them to wait
until he had eaten breakfast. and he
| then held an imprOmptu court session
around rough table in the hotel Of
| flee, disfranchising the Is men and I'M
posing the minimum fines and sus-
pended workhouse sentences. All
were from Franklin township and had
been previously indicted
Their action in awaiting Judge Blair
at the train not only saved them ad
ditiolal court costs. and saved time
for the court but showed the ERECT
the filming OF five men who had been
indicted but failed TO come to cour,
promptly mas had upon other vote
sellers. The FIVE in question were
fined 5000 and costs each and SEN
fenced TO eight months in the Cincin-
lati workhouse. They will be taken
to Cincinnati today.
The meE who waited at the train
ranged in age from u years to 20
years. and some Of them had walker
in the rain half the night to be On
hand
Judge, we're guilty" they told him,
as the train stopped, and Judge Blair
stepped off onto the depot platform.
we sold our votes like the others and
we want to do the right thing-take
our medicine.
Although it was expected from the
action of Judge Blair Saturday that
| probably several hundred indicted men
who have failed to come into court
would be dealt with severely, Judge
| Blair is willing to extend further lem
| iency TO those who now come prompt
| w before him. believing that the heavy
penalties imposed on the five Satur-
day will be effective in bringing
prompt response 10 the officers sum-
mons
With the arrest yesterday of six men
charged with making threats TO Kill
Judge Blair and dynamite the court
house and Adams county jail, II de-
veloped that an attempt to steal or
destroy the records in the vote selling
probe was feared and the more than
I 200 indictments already of record
were placed in a bank vault on Sun
day. Judge Blair refuses 10 discuss
the threats against him.
The six men now in jail were from
Manchester and had been indicted pre-
viously.
Long before daylight this morning
hundreds Of people from all over the
county were focking into West Union
and today is expected to prove the
biggest court day since Judge Blair
started the election probe