SMYTH CASE
HIS SURETIES WILL HAVE TO
PAY $25,000
Government Will Recover the Sum
Burned in the Mint Fire, for
Which Cashier Dowling Was
Tried and Acquitted.
The Smyth case has been decided in
favour of the Government. After it was
argued yesterday, Judge Parlange
instructed the jury to bring in a verdict
against the sureties of Dr. Smyth.
According to this verdict the sureties will
have to pay the deficit of $25,000 on
the accounts of ex-Superintendent of the
Mint A.W.Smythe, and interest at 6
per cent. These sureties are Edward
Conery,, Harry H.Hall, testamentary
executor of the succession of David
Chambers McCan, and of his deceased widow,
Mrs. Hester Callaway, and the minor
hiers, Kate, Fanny, David and Charles
McCan, represented by their legal tutrix,
Mrs. Mary F. Tobin. The court granted
attorneys for the sureties thirty days in
which to draw up a bill of exception on
motion for a new trial.
The Smyth case presented many interesting
complications. In June 1893, a
package of currency claimed by Cashier
Dowling to contain $25,000 was burned
and charred in a fire which occurred
in a vault between closing Saturday
and opening Monday. Dowling was tried on
a charge of embezzlement, as the government
experts claimed that the package
had not been worth $25,000, but consisted
of small bills. Dowling was acquitted,
and then came the case just ended,
in which the government sought
to recover from Smyth's sureties.
Dr. Smyth was never supposed to have had
anything to do with the loss of the money,
but being under bond as superintendent,
the government held him and his sureties
responsible.
