1905.] RESOLUTION. 213 



If any one was ready, within our knowledge, to meet the 

 last call that man was Mr. Wells. 



Resolved, That these resolutions be placed on our records 

 and furnished to the press, and that they also be presented to 

 the family of the deceased. 



The President. You hear the resolution ; is it seconded ? 



Mr. KiRKHAM. Mr. President, I consider it a privilege 

 to rise here and second this resolution. I claimed Mr. Wells 

 as a friend ; do now. He was my companion when I first took 

 the responsibilities of business in times past. He lived not a 

 great ways from me. I was within easy communication with 

 him. I knew him by a great many deeds of kindness. We, 

 unfortunately, became connected in a mistake. We both of 

 us knew it, and it was the only mistake of judgment that I ever 

 knew Mr. Wells to make. We both signed a fraudulent note 

 nearly thirty years ago. It was not for such a great deal. 

 Mr. Wells was thrifty, well off, but he was so put out, and so 

 ashamed of his own failure to recognize the fraud before he 

 signed the papers, that he took it to heart, and he says : " Let's 

 face it ; we will fight it. It is a fraud that has been going over 

 this state fooling the farmers for a great many years. Let's 

 stop it." Well, he was a quiet, but a determined man. We 

 went to work and we found just as many as we could of those 

 who had been swindled, or who were to be swindled, and in that 

 organization with Mr. Wells I was connected with him for 

 about seven years before the last note was outlawed. During 

 that time we were much together, and I think I knew him 

 personally better than any other man outside of his own rela- 

 tives and family. Many a deed of kindness did he do. Just 

 to show what kind of a man he was I will cite that the law 

 concerning commercial paper was defective at that time, as 

 most lawyers know. I asked him if he could not help us. We 

 changed that law in regard to the evidence in such cases. It 

 was a very ticklish thing to do, but we had the sympathy of 

 the whole community, because very many had been swindled. 



