Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1922-01-18
GINSENG CASE
HOLDS LOCAL
ATTENTION
Bierman Found Guilty;
Two Years at Waupun.

The ginseng robbery case culmina-
ted Saturday in verdict of guilty
from the jury and a sentence of two
years in Waupun for the defendant,
Otto Bierman of Platteville. The val
lie OF the stolen herb was placed at
SITS by the jury. The case being one
OF grand larceny the court placed the
penalty at two years. Bierman, who
had maintained stolid attitude all
through the trial, declared he was in
nocent when the court asked him if he
had anything to say before being sen
fenced. II didn't take it judge" ne
declared Mrs. Bierman broke down
and wept when the sentence was pro-
nounced upon her husband. BY good
behavior Bierman will be eligible to
parole in twelve months. Saturday
evening q warrant was issued for
George Hull, of Platteville, Bierman'c
alleged accomplish in the theft last
July. bond of $1,000 was issued
returnable at once. Hull's case was
set for the February term of court
The ginseng case aroused consider
able interest among the court at
taches and spectators last week 1t
seems that Jas. T. Tracy and Silas
Howell had developed a ginseng in
dustry on the Tracy farm in the town
of Harrison The plant is one Of slow
growth and for years they worked,
searching the woods for the rare herb
and transplanting it to their little
plot of one quarter acre on the Tracy
farm. On the evening of July 2Sth,
1921, Mr.. Tracy valued his labor and
n nCfy1 ont In Ia Erf4, NJn+
five thousand dollars. On July goth.
when he visited the plot, it was a
wreck. Vandal hands had stripped
the place and broken stems and few
scattered seeds were all that re
NAMED of the Tracy and Howell hope
of o fortune.
When Mr.. Tracy viewed this no
wept and probably swore When he
called Howell no doubt that expert on
woodland lore and disciple OF Thor
eau, wept and swore also. Togethey
the two men began hunting for the
dastards who had committed the Of
Tense,
Clues were slow in coming but fin
ally people, neighbors, were found
who saw Bierman and Hull in the
vicinity on the day the plot was looted
One woman heard Bierman say, cts
over there" pointing in the direction
Of the Tracy place. The men had
sacks with them. That evening q
Platteville man saw the two men pass
his place laden with sacks full of
something or other. So much for
that
Then Deputy Sheriff Stowell raided
the Bierman home on search war
rant. He found sang" in small
quantity and confiscated it, Bierman
maintained that he had picked the
herb in the wild state. At the trial
Silas Howell, the aged naturalist
identified the confiscated sang" as
the transplanted type He said that
transplanted sang" was darker in
color and had stubby main root from
being transplanted as compared to
the herb in a wild state. His testi
mony was mistaken.
So the chain of circumstantial evil
dence was woven around Bierman.
No one had seen him taking the herbs
and he maintained his innocence at
all times. The fact that he had
served prison sentence in 1914 for
the theft of steer may or may not
have Influenced the jury against him
He had fair trial and was found
guilty. DICI LllftA w 90 well oCACllhCN
by Attorney J. j. Ruble of Platteville
The latter was much distressed when
a verdict unfavorable to his client
was pronounced.
Ginseng, the plant, grows in the
dark, cool woodlands of the hill and
mountain slopes from Canada to
the gulf states. The American phar-
macopea does not place the root as
curative and it has no standing
in medicine as we understand it. The
main market for the root in a dried
form is China where the residents
prize it highly as a general curative,
health giver and prolonger of long
life. Sold on the market at New York
at So pound, the herb or root is said
to worth it's weight in gold in the
market at Shanghai. The Chinese do
not smoke it but chew it and "sang"
has a spicy, aromatic flavor similar to
licorice.
The seeds are even more valuable
than the roots, Mr.. Tracy says, be-.
ing worth $40 an ounce. Tracy es-
timated his actual loss in roots at
$50 pounds green which would make
100 pounds dry. He also lost
couple of gallons of seed from the
plants being destroyed when they
were almost ready to bear.