The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-01-27
LAWYERS DlCKERING' FOR SETTLEMENT
 OF DUNCAN CASE.
Redding Man Found Dead In Home After Weeks
 SecIuSiOn.

1 others interested in the bankruptcy case of former Tax Collector Duncan that a settlement will yet be reached outside of court. Whether such an adjustment is brought about depends on the willingness of the American l Surety Co. to meet the demands of the | lesser creditors in return for a con- 1 veyance to the company of the Dun can homestead. There are no other known assets and in their division all l the creditors are legally entitled to 8
 pro rata share that the proposed compromise means the saving of court expenses and therefore a larger amount for the Surety Company. One consideration, however, might tmpe1 the company to put aside this ad-
 vantage, that being 8 desire to place MT. Duncan and perhaps his wife also | upon the stand and subject them to g, | searching inquiry in an endeavor to | learn what became of the missing tax
 money. Nomina1ly the reason of the l indefinite adjournment of the hearing set for last Saturday before Referee
 Banks was the issue raised by the Surety Company, regarding the valid l ity of the assignment made by MT. Duncan, the company contending that | the assignee had been judicially ad- 1 judged incompetent and must be so considered until restored to his rights 1 by the ending of the conservatorshtp. The opposing claim is that when the authorities of the Connecticut Hos pital discharged Mr. Duncan as cured their action am ounted to a certificate | of his sanity and rendered him com 1 petent. MT. Connery says that MT. Duncan's attorney so advised him after carefully looking into the ques- I ton. Inquiry yesterday at the office of Attorney Howard Taylor of Dan
 bury, who is the Surety Company's I counsel in the case, elicited the 1n- formation that negotiations looking to a complete settlement were in pro-
 gress without having reached a de- terminative stage.
 | Melvin Gould, aged 5S,. was found dead last Monday morning in the old house belonging to l.. C. Rumsey,
 where he had lived alone for several
 years. On Saturday, the 1 9th, he went l to Danbury, returning towards night | with a new suit. of clothes and other supplies. Since that time he had not been seen outside the house and there
 was no smoke from his chimney or l light visible in his quarters. On We'd 1 nesday last, however, MT. Rumsey from the outside, head Gould talking to himself, habit he had. No sign of life being subsequently, manifest MT. Rumsey forced an entrance Mon day morning and found the hfeless body of his tenant upon the bed. The conditions indicated that Gould, who
 
 had sat down on the edge of the bed
 after dressing himself and then fell
 backward and expired. Dr. Smith,
 the medical examiner, came to the
 conclusion that death probably re-
 suited from cerebral hemorrhage.
 There was plenty of food and fuel
 in the house, but the circumstances
 indicated that Gould had made no
 use of either since his Danbury trip.
 On his person was $13.5o. In his
 younger days the deceased travelled about this section with a threshing
 machine outfit which he owned, but
 after losing two of these equipments by fire he became a farm hand. Of
 late years he has worked mostly on
 the roads. The funeral was held to-
 day from the home of his sister, Mrs.
 B. B. Banks, with interment in Sam
 fordtown cemetery.
 Efforts have so far failed to fix the
 identity of a young man who, giving
 his name as Herbert Baldwin, so
 worked upon the sympathies of Fred
 Diggs, the insurance broker, in New
 York last Thursday, that the latter
 gave him a suit of clothes, a pair of
 shoes and $5. MT. Diggs has sum
 n1er home and a general acquaintance
 here and when the applicant told of |
 having worked for H. s. Barnes, the
 poultry magnate, Charles Perry, the
 storekeeper, and other we'll known .
 press of truth and helped to make
 credible his story that he had been
 reduced to Restitution by a garage
 fire in which all his personal belong
 ings were lost. The day after MT. Diggs had fallen for this hard duck story Baldwin tried to work the same game upon F. L. Dunnell, the Wall street broker, who also has 8 summer
 home on the Ridge. The latter was sufficiently cautions to put the man 
 his story and the inquiries made to that end showed Baldwin to be a fraud. Neither MT. Barnes nor MT. Perry has any knowledge of the man and are unable to place him from the description given He is about 20 years old, of medium height, brown eyes and hair. clean shaven and well Fspoken. Whoever he may be hS has a good knowledge of Ridge residents and matters.
 Mail Carrier Ward has been off duty this week suffering from a bad cold. His father and mother are also on the sick list, fthe latter having se- were attack of pneumonia She is | slightly improved. B. P. Sanford was l taken down with the grip on Monday. Nearly all the other members of the family have been victims of the ai1- 1 ment. Superintendent Louis Miller of Ethe, Gilbert & Bennett Co, is also a | grip patient with complications which threatened pneumonia. Other patients are Mrs Underwood of the Ridge and one of Sanford Caborn's children. | Another of the herd of four deer which made their home in George s. Banks woods, was bagged with shotgun a few days ago by his son
 Jesse. It was a yearling buck. A
 four-year-old buck comprised in the l original quartet was killed several weeks ago by George Kicks.
 The board of relief will hold their
 first session on Tuesday of next week
 at the town house. Their other meet ings are fixed for Feb. ', A and 21. Several aggrieved property owners of the west side have expressed their in l tention of appealing to the board The