Article Text
veloped the fact that Mr. Rush, instead
of being required to pay in $5,500, should
be required to pay in $6,100. By permis-
sion of the comptroller in that examina-
tion, we were enabled to get in evidence
the deposit ledger of the First National
bank. This disclosed the fact that on
the 28th day of May, when this case was
finally settled, there had been deposited to
the credit of Sarah Rush, Mr. Rush's
wife, $11,000, in two items, one of $8,500
and the other of $2,500, and that this de-
posit was made by Mr. Rush; and that he
had deposited to a fictitious name, James
C. Black, agent, the sum of $5,000, this
making the exact sum that Mr. Rush had
received from Mr. Nicholson in payment
for the water works bonds, and from
Mayor Sunderland, in payment of the $7,500
to be appropriated to the expenses of run-
ning the plant and cost of litigation. It
disclosed the further fact that on the 6th
day of June, 1896 (it being Saturday and
the Saturday preceding the bank failure
on Wednesday), Mr. Rush had drawn this
$11,000 from his wife's account, and in ad-
dition to that $700, leaving the account
overdrawn $700, and that he had also
drawn from the fictitious account of James
C. Black, agent, $2,000, showing that he
had taken of the funds of the bank, just
prior to its failure, nearly $14,000, and in
this act consisted the cause for the fail-
ure of the First National bank, of Larned.
"On the Sunday following the Saturday
on which he withdrew these funds, Mr.
Rush left for Chicago, and in his testi-
mony on the trial of this issue, he gave
no account of what he had done with these
funds.
"So, taking this testimony together, it
showed in the first place that Mr. Rush
should pay the sum into court that the
court had ordered him to pay, and it show-
ed further that these funds from which
this should be paid were not in the First
National bank of Larned, but had been
withdrawn by him and taken away.
Therefore, his answer was not proven, and
no defense was shown. He refused to com-
ply with the order of the court to pay the
funds into court, upon which refusal I
made an order committing him to the jail
of Pawnee county until he should comply
with that order.
"In this investigation I gave Mr. Rush
every opportunity known to the law to re-
lieve himself of this charge. I went to the
extent of requiring the parties against him
to carry the burden of proof, and to show
affirmatively that Mr. Rush had this
money in his hands and that it was not
out of his reach and that it was not then
in the First National bank of Larned;
and the evidence of Mr. Rush himself,
who was a witness upon the stand and
testified in his own behalf, did not at-
tempt to deny that he had drawn this
money out and that he had gone to Chi-
cago on the day following. Mr. Rush's
testimony further showed that the name of
James C. Black, agent, who held a de-
posit in the bank, was a fictitious name,
and that he had made the deposit in his
name in that way for the purpose of plac-
ing this money beyond the reach of these
parties to whom it belonged, and probably
beyond the reach of other creditors of his,
for the special purpose, as stated by him,
of evading any process that might be ob-
tained in an attempt to reach it.
"It will be observed that this controversy
with Mr. Rush has largely grown out of
the fact that he refused to make a fair
settlement with the attorneys for the
plaintiff, and with the attorneys for the re-
ceiver in this case. It is possible that if
that settlement had been fairly made these
discrepancies in his account would never
have been discovered; and he complains
that the fees allowed them were outrag-
ous. A summary of this entire transaction
disclosed that Mr. Rush bought $10,000 of
the water works bonds in the name of
Miss Spaulding, and that he bought these
bonds for $3,300; that he received for these
bonds $8,500; that he received by way of
receipts from the operation of the plant for
running the plant about a year, $3,559.19;
that he received from the city of Larned
the sum of $7,500; making an aggregate of
$13,559.19: that his entire expenses incurred
in this litigation and in running the plant,
aside from the attorneys' fees, were $7,-
599.13, leaving in his hands a balance of
$11,960.06. This sum was earned by the
skill and industry of his attorneys. With
this large amount earned, $11,960.06, they
asked an allowance of $3,600, which would
have left to Mr. Rush a clear profit in the
transaction, provided he had been allowed
the fees as receiver that I expected to
allow him, of $8,300; but with a
greed so intense that it seems almost
impossible that any man should possess
it, he refused to pay them anything, so
that it became necessary to take this ac-
tion to protect them, and the allowance
made to them, in my judgment, under all
the circumstances, was a very reasonable
one.
"The interest the firm of Peters & Nich-
olson had in this transaction was as at-
torneys for the bondholders. The investi-
gation of Mr. Rush's account, showing that
he had reported a number of items,
amounting to several hundred dollars, as
paid, that in fact were not paid, left
these items as a lien upon the plant, and
as they had paid to Mr. Rush a sum that
it was agreed would be sufficient to relieve
the plant of any incumbrance, their duty
to their clients required them to look after
the matter and see that the plant was
clear of incumbrance.
"In the investigation of this matter, I
gave to Mr. Rush as fair a trial as I know
how to give anybody, and I accorded to his
attorneys, Mr. Cline, of Larned, and Mr.
Histed, of Topeka, the most patient hear-
ing and the most courteous treatment that
I am capable of giving anybody. I con-
tinued the hearing three times for the
convenience of Mr. Rush and his attor-
neys, and gave them every opportunity to
defend their client and every benefit in
his defense that the law would possibly
give him, and while I have not talked to
these gentlemen about the matter, I have
no idea that they are making any com-
plaint of the treatment accorded them.
"The night after Mr. Rush was sen-
tenced to jail, a number of business men
called upon me and requested that I allow
him to go to Kansas City, in charge of the
sheriff, to see if he could do anything in
the way of reopening the First National
bank, I declined to permit him to go, for
the reason that objection was made by the
attorneys for the bondholders, as well as
the other attorneys, to permitting Mr.
Rush to be thus relieved of the sentence
imposed upon him, because of the well
grounded belief that Mr. Rush had in his
possession or under his control at that time
a sufficient sum of money to pay this mon-
ey into court.
"This gives a complete history of the
transaction of the water works case as I
call it to mind now. Judge Peters, of
Newton, and Mr. Vernon, of Larned, and
Mr. Austin, of Topeka, will each furnish a
statement in regard to this publication of
Mr. Rush's, which I beg to have published
in connection with this.
"Aside from the charges made against
me in connection with the water works
case, Mr. Rush has seen fit to go into a
very broad field with reference to other
matters, and I wish to make the broad
statement that neither in the water works
case nor in any other case has Mr. Rush
ever offered to pay or paid me any sum
of money to control or influence my judg-
ment in any manner possible. His
statement in that connection is ab-
solutely false. His further state-
ments that I endeavored to secure
money from him in any manner, or through
him, to aid me in my campaign for sen-
ator, or that I ever approached Mr. Ingalls
or the other gentleman referred to in his
article (whom I do not know), or author-
ized or requested any one else to approach
them on the subject of assisting me in any
manner in my campaign, is absolutely
false; and as to this matter Mr.' Ingalls
will undoubtedly corroborate my state-
ment, as would likewise any other gentle-
man whose name has been suggested in
connection with the senatorial office.
"In the transaction of business in my
court, while I have made mistakes, doubt-
less, as judges do, the business has been
honorably conducted, as will be testified to
by every reputable member of the bar, and
I believe by every member of the bar that
ever has practiced at it.
"In these cases specifically referred to in
Mr. Rush's statement, Judge Sterry, a
lawyer in whom every lawyer in Kansas
has the utmost confidence, who has had
the largest practice of any man in the
state, probably has as large an acquaint-
ance as any among the bar of the state,
is personally interested as attorney in the
case.
