5908 . 
MORE TRUTH IN THE CATTLE CASE. 
In The Country Gentleman of January 23 we find 
this: 
This pending, Tiie Rural New-Yorker people proposed 
to Mr. Dawley to arbitrate his claim against them, to 
which he willingly assented, but it proved impossible to 
arrange the details, and Mr. Dawley finally decided that 
the only object really sought by the defendant was more 
delay, wherefore he began new suits on the 10th of Janu¬ 
ary, and they are to come to trial in March, being the 
very earliest opportunity. 
There are just seven direct lies in that little para¬ 
graph. March was not the earliest opportunity. 
On January 11 we requested prompt trial, which 
might then be arranged for February, but they 
declined, saying they wished to put it off until April 
or May, and they did not correct their faulty papers 
until January 27, after it was too late for us to force 
it on the calendar for February. He did not even put 
it on for March, but we have done so. This puts us 
in the position of forcing a trial against ourselves, but 
we will see what he does. Tiie R. N.-Y. never pro¬ 
posed to arbitrate the suits. Numerous friends of Mr. 
Dawley pleaded with us from the start to let up on 
him. To all we answered, investigate, and we will. 
Before the ink was fairly dry on the libel suit papers 
Mr. H. E. Cook came to us from Dawley with a 
request for a settlement of the dispute. We told him 
we would stop the criticism the moment Dawley con¬ 
sented to a prompt, full and open investigation, and 
that if Dawley was shown to be innocent we would 
give him the most complete vindication. In the mean¬ 
time the suits might remain as they were for later 
trial. Mr. Cook said nothing could be fairer, and that 
Dawley would have to investigate, but Dawley refused. 
In our letter to Governor Flughes, published last 
week, we gave the details of Dawley’s attempt to arbi¬ 
trate through his attorney on November 2, and we 
call Mr. Tucker’s attention to it. While experience 
ought to serve him better, we assume that Mr. Tucker 
relied upon Dawley for the above statement. In that 
case if he has any regard for his reputation for 
veracity, he will learn the truth from Messrs. Cook, 
Peer and Darling and publicly acknowledge that 
Dawley grossly deceived him. Failure to do this will 
brand Tucker as a willing accomplice in Dawley’s 
pitiable lies. , 
There is an old adage that birds of a feather flock 
together, and perhaps the two friends may have sen¬ 
timents in common aside from any purpose to feather 
their own nests. 
We ask you now, Mr. Tucker, if Dawley is buying 
copies of your paper which contain articles in defense 
of him? If so, is he paying for them with State 
money? We ask these questions advisedly, because 
as you know, Mr. Tucker, he has at different times in 
the past bought copies of your paper, and paid for 
them out of State money on vouchers signed by you 
or your authorized employees. You know this to be 
true, Mr. Tucker, and we now challenge you to deny it. 
On another tack in defense of Dawley, Mr. Tucker 
prints this: 
Mr. Squiers identifies cows at Mr. Rogers’ place, said 
to have been bought from Mr. Dawley, as the animals in 
question; and his testimony is corroborated by a man 
formerly employed by Mr. Dawley as a herdsman. Mr. 
Dawley avers that there is a mistake In Mr. Squiers’ iden¬ 
tification, unless there has been some substitution of ani¬ 
mals on Mr. Rogers' part, and denies that the testimony 
of the ex-herdsman is worthy of credence, alleging sev¬ 
eral reasons for this statement. 
What a babyish quibble that is! The cows were all 
marked with indelible tattoo in one ear, and most of 
them in other ways. This was done by John F. White, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
a prominent Jersey breeder, before the A. J. C. C. com¬ 
mittee examined them and certified, on Dawley's iden¬ 
tification of them, that all but one were right. • They 
were identified over and over again by Dawley and 
others, and no possible doubt remains that they are, 
as Dawley once said, “the identical cows” he sold 
Regers. 
We might find abundant reasons for Mr. Tucker’s 
defense of Mr. Dawley; we could find charity in our 
hearts for his untruthful statements about The R. 
N.-Y., but we cannot suffer to pass unchallenged his 
cowardly and characteristic attack on Melvin Benedict. 
This young man is probably not over 22 years old. He 
worked for Mr. Dawley almost continually for nearly 
seven years. His father dead, he was forced, like 
many other boys, at an early age to act as head of the 
family. His earnings as a boy and later as a hired 
man went to the support of the widowed mother and 
younger children; not a dollar of it, we are told by 
his neighbors, ever went for tobacco, drink or dissi¬ 
pation of any kind, and his clean, bright young face 
and clear mind tell the same story. He is a young 
man of blameless life, pure mind and clean habits. 
He knew nothing whatever about the registry papers 
or Dawley’s herd book; but he knew the cows. The 
crooked cattle deals which he was not supposed to 
know and which he could not help were naturally re¬ 
pugnant to him; but he felt he did not want to volun¬ 
teer information against his late employer. They had 
had no quarrel, and were on friendly terms. It was 
with the greatest reluctance that he finally consented 
to answer questions, the import of which he well 
knew, and finally to tell the whole story. The family 
council leading to this result was a real edification 
to the witnesses. After hours of earnest consideration 
of all the circumstances, he finally asked: “Well, 
Mother, what should I do?” Then after some min¬ 
utes’ silence he turned to his bride of a week and 
asked her advice. Almost in one voice came the 
thoughtful council of the aged mother and the honest 
impulse of the young wife: “Tell the truth.” The 
truth was told, but the trial of the good mother was 
evident. She acknowledged benefits received through 
Mr. Dawley when her children were young and father¬ 
less. She did not wish to injure him now, but she 
knew the cattle story from her son, and they both 
knew from the questions we asked that some of it was 
also known to others. With a mother’s instinct the 
moral welfare of her son came first, and she knew 
that the only safe and honorable course for him was 
to tell the truth. No one, not even Mr. Tucker, 
could witness the details of that interview and ques¬ 
tion the simple sincerity of mother or son. 
Mr. Tucker enjoys no higher reputation at 
his home in Albany than does young Benedict 
at his home. He can tell Mr. Tucker more about 
cattle in five minutes than Tucker has ever known on 
the subject, and he has done more for honest breeding 
and honest registry records by standing up for the 
truth in this case than The Country Gentleman can 
do in a life time. If Dawley thought Benedict 
“unworthy of credence,” when did he find it out? 
Last July charges of substituting a grade heifer for 
a dead bull calf in a sale to John Gardner were put 
up to Dawley. He came here to answer them, and as 
proof offered a long affidavit by Benedict. The writer 
stopped reading this document to ask Dawley if he 
considered Benedict reliable. Fie replied that he did. 
Why did Dawley hunt up Benedict on several differ¬ 
ent occasions and appeal to him to make no statement 
about the cattle, and to stand by Dawley like • a 
brother? Why did Dawley write two letters appealing 
to Benedict to make no statement about the cattle? 
Why did Dawley have a messenger watch for Benedict 
129 
on the arrival of every car on the night of August 28 
last, so that he might be notified, and intercept Bene¬ 
dict before Mr. Squiers and the publisher of this paper 
could see him ? Why did Dawley drive Mr. Benedict’s 
mother to the point of nervous prostration by telling 
Her that the charges against him were also made 
against her son, and that she must forbid him to make 
any statement about the cattle, because it would be 
used against himself? Why did Dawley attempt to 
compromise this .innocent and inexperienced boy in 
his own cattle transactions by advising him to em¬ 
ploy an attorney to defend himself and by offering to 
pay for the attorney’s services? Finally, why 
did Dawley send bis attorney, Mr. Olmstead, to Han¬ 
nibal to try to persuade Benedict to modify his testi- 
money? YVhen Melvin Benedict told the attorney the 
truth about the cattle, why, if Benedict is not reliable, 
did the attorney sit on a milk stool in the barnyard 
and say: “If you go on the stand and swear to that, 
you zvill crucify Trank?” 
In their conceit and cunning, Tucker and Dawley 
may create plausible explanations and manufacture 
evidence that will pass as a newspaper argument, but 
the experienced lawyer knew when he heard the 
straight story from Benedict’s lips in the lonely barn¬ 
yard that no mere creations of the mind won hi weigh 
against it in the balances before an impartial jury. 
He knew that the story was true. 
Does Mr. Tucker think this work of suppressing in¬ 
formation the action of a man confident of his inno¬ 
cence? Is it not consistent with the persistent effort 
to prevent an open investigation for two years, and 
the refusal to identify the cows in Rogers’ barn last 
month in the presence of Benedict and Squiers, as 
they did in the presence of his attorney? Mr. Tucker 
must be proud of his defense of his hero while vir¬ 
tually repudiating that hero’s cattle records. What¬ 
ever his purpose, men might find an excuse for his 
defense of Dawley, but no father or mother with a son 
will pass without reproof Mr. Tucker’s base attempt 
to injure without information or inquiry the good, 
name and blameless character of a poor but honest 
young man. _ 
A JACK RABBIT BILL.—The Valatie RoHgh Notes 
states that Assemblyman Bashford lias Introduced a bill 
in the New York Legislature to abolish the closed season 
on jack rabbits in Columbia County, as was requested 
by tiie Grangers, because of the damage the rabbits have 
been doing to fruit trees during the last few Winters. 
Assemblyman Northrup, of Dutchess County, has offered a 
similar bill in regard to an open season in that county. 
Assemblymen Bashford and Northrup met Fish and Game 
Commissioner Whipple and talked the matter over with 
him. The Commissioner said lie had a bill that would 
make a uniform law, which lie thought would cover the 
trouble in all the counties. This bill would give a man a 
right to shoot rabbits on his own property. Persons have 
that right now, but tiie Commissioner said that the law 
should be such that when damage was being done by the 
animals a person would have a right to go on property 
other than his own and shoot them without being in danger 
of being prosecuted by the Game Commissioner. 
OBITUARY.—James Henry Durkee, one of the most 
prominent agriculturists in this country, died January 25 
at ills home in Sandy Hill, N. Y. Mr. Durkee was born 
in Fort Edward in 1848, attended Cornell College and soon 
afterward became principal of the Sandy Hill Union 
schools, occupying that position for 10 years. I.ater he 
was editor of the Washington County Advertiser, published 
in Fort Edward. He was a prominent Republican 
and held many local offices. He was superintendent of the 
New York State agricultural exhibit at the Pan-American 
Exposition in Buffalo and at the Louisiana Purchase Ex¬ 
position in St. Louis. At the time of his death lie was 
president of the New York State Association of County 
Agricultural Societies, to which position he had been 
re-elected for the thirteenth time; president of the New 
York State Agricultural Society, State Fair Commissioner, 
trustee of Cornell University and a member of many 
other organizations and secret societies. 
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