Iditarod pioneer., 1915-07-17

an emergency mall contract was let Ill February, 1914, which cleaned up all ac cumuated mail.
 "You don't like Tom Thurston?" asked Mr Roden. Well, l cant say Pm in love with him." answered Vile.
 Claud Baker testified that Joe Smith came to his place of business early in April, 1914, and showed him mail packages, one of which was torn. They were all ad dressed to Jos H. Smith" He did not ex- anime the sack which contained them.
 At the conclusion of Mr. Bakers testi mony the prosecution rested, and after a recess of ten minutes c. B. Sims was called for the defense,
 Testimony for Defense
 MT Sims was asked by Mir Roden as to conversations with Thurston relative to the sale of mantels. Mir. Roth objected to the question on the ground that any assertions of Thurston would be merely selfservlng,, and the objection was sustained by the court Witness had asked Thurston for mantelS and had been told thlt he had none for sale.
 He was cross examined by MT. Roth as to the date, and said it was subsequent 1 to Thurston'S having advertised mantelS for sale An objection was sustained to a ques tion by Mr Roth as to whether he had not interested himself in the Thurstons' behalf.
 Mrs. Thurston on the Stand Agnes " Thurston one of the defendants, testified that it was her custom as assistant postmaster to clean up the office thoroughly once a month. She described the sorting table and said she had never seen the pack age offered in evidence, nor any similar packages She knew nothing of sack con tainng such packages, and had never opened such mail. A week before quitting the postofice she had made a thorough clean ing up. She knew Mrs. Joseph H. Smith, and had trouble with her in February, 1914, which, however, had no reference to the postofice.
 Mir Roth questioned her as to her place of residence prior to her arrest She stated that she in company with her husband, had been brought from Seattle as far as Panama by Marshal L. T. Erwin. From the latter place they had come on to Iditarod alone. She could give no explanation of why this consideration was shown to them. She testified as to the class of merchandise sold in the store connected with the post office, and said no mantels were sold by her, nor had she ever seen any in the store She had assisted at all distributions of mail be- tween November l, 1913, and April l, 1914, with few exceptions. Thomas had also as sisted them, but no one else.
 Tom Thurston's Testimony
 T. L. Thurston, the second of the defend ants, stated that while he was postmaster Mrs. Thurston conducted 8 store in the postoffice building He sold few mantels lol T Il, He placed a sign in the postoffice an nouncing that he had mantel5 for sale. and disposed of all of them by the first of the year 1914. Selling lamp fixtures and man tels was not part of his regular business. He sold enough of them to pay for his own. He could not say that he had ever seen the i package in evidence before. He saw similar packages, but never prior to April l, 1914. He never opened the package or similar one, and never sa" the packages of nantels addressed to Smith or the sack that had been testified to. The practice was to clean up the postotfice each month and to keep | the matter under the sorting table in good order, as it consisted of catalogues and pamphlets some of which might have to be returned, but which were either improperly addressed or unbelievable. The place was cleaned up few days prior to Wile's taking | charge There was no cloth sack under the sorting table at that time
 On cross-examination by MT. Roth he told | the same story of the arrest and being brought to Panama by Marshal Erwin, and coming to ldtarod alone, as was told by 1 Mrs. Thurston. Like her, he could not tell why He was questioned closely on this poirt. He remembered Smith asking about mantels which he expected He did not remember Smith showing him the invoice, | He could not remember the dates on which Smith mentioned mantels to him. The only persons who ever assisted him in distribut- ing mail were Mrs. Thurston and Thomas He could not place the date of the receipt of his own mantels except by the invoice. Asked where the invoice was, he said he did not know. When did you see it last 7" asked MT. Roth Today" said the witness Then you ought to have pretty good idea of where it is," said Mir Roth Witness finally admitted that it probably was at his hotel among his other papers. He had re- ceived ten dozen mantels from Nome in February, 1914 He sold few mantels after that, and returned the balance, six dozen to Nome He could not give the date of | lue leleSIdIll lie SeHI tO NoIlIt. He ItIlel- ated that he had no knowledge of how the packages addressed to Smith came to be in the sack. He expressed the opinion that the package in question was fourth-class or parcel post, for the reason that it was unsealed, that there was no postmask on the stamp, and that there was no mark to in dicate that it was firstclass. Asked as to how long it would take package coming by mail, after 1t had left Cordova, to reach Iditarod, he said if its passage was uninter- rupted it would take thirty days; otherwise 1t might take an indefinite period. MT. Roth tried to get him to acknowledge that emer- gency contracts had cleaned up all mail dur ing the winter of 1913-14. The only emer- gency contract he remembered was during February, 1914. Before he went out of office he went over the accumulatlons under the sorting table with Vile
 Wife Contradcts Thurston