The Hawaiian Gazette from Honolulu, Hawaii • Page 1

AUBURN, Cal. Feb. 7. The Weber trial has begun. 1 On the evening of November 10 last, the home of Julius Weber, a weathy retired brewer of Auburn, California, was burned.

In the ruins were found the bodies of Mr. Weber and his wife, their daughter, Bertha Weber, and their youngest son. All had been shot to death. Suspicion pointed to the older son, Adolph Weber, and he was arrested charged with the murders on Nov. 12.

He attempted to prove, an alibi but his story was refuted by witnesses. He is also charged with robbing the Auburn Bank; a pail of gold, supposed to be a part of the booty taken from the bank a month before, being found under the barn. Young Weber seems to have been addicted to the dime novel habit and is thought by some to be mentally uuuaiuiiccu. THE BELGIAN STRIKE. MONS, Belgium, Feb.

7. The-strike is serious. Sixteen thousand men are out. Mons, the capital of Hainaut province, Belgium, is a city of 24955 inhabitants. Yesterday strikes were reported in twenty-one colleries near the city of Charleroi in the same province.

ARCHBISHOP ARRIVES. MANILA, Feb. 7. Monsignor Aguis has arrived. Archbishop A.

Aguis of Rome, Apostoljc Delegate to the Philippines with his secretary, Mgr. Petrelli, passed through Honolulu on the Mongolia, January 4. 1 TOKIO, Feb. 7. The situation on the Shahke and Hunjdvers is unchanged.

0 TOKIO, February, 6. A number of serious skirmishes have taken place on the Hun and Shakhe rivers. The Russians were Forty-two sugar factories in Poland have been closed. The strike at Sosnovizs involves 40,000 workmen. Gorki and seven other authors are to be tried on political charges.

All is quiet in Manchuria. The weather is severe. The Russian extreme right holds Chiantsenhanen, six miles north of Sande Pass. The third squadron will sail to join Admiral Rodjestvensky's fleet on February 14. 0 1 NEW YORK, February 6.

Owing to ice floes in the harbor navigation is difficult. PHILADELPHIA, February 6. The harbor is frozen over and fifty vessels are caught in the ice. BOSTON, February 6. The New England, coast ports are embargoed with ice.

LOUISVILLE, February 6. Telegraph and railway lines in the Southern States are crippled with sleet. 0 LOS ANGELES, February 6. Rev. C.

E. Bentley of Nebraska dropped dead in a lodging house here, while in company with a woman not his wife. He was the Prohibition candidate for President in 1896. Charles Eugene Bentley, Presidential candidate of the "Liberty, Party" in 1896, was born at Warners, N. April 30', 1841.

He was educated at Monroe Institute and Oneida Conference Seminary, and was married October 7, 1863, to Persis Freeman of Baldwinsvillc, JN. Y. lie lived on a farm in his native State until 1863, removed in 1866 to Clinton, Iowa. Since 1878 he had lived in Nebraska, being on a farm in Butler county until 1890. He was a Baptist minister, and since 1880 has been pastor of the church at Surprise, Nebraska.

He was chairman of the Prohibition State Convention in 1884, and successively candidate for Congress, Governor and United States Senator. When the split came in 1896 he was nominated for President by the "Liberty" wing of the party. He was at the time of his death its State chairman. BERLIN, February 5. There is an enormous rush into Polish Germany.

The disturbances in Russian Poland continue. It is estimated that there are 400,000 strikers. LONDON. February 1. Lord Lansdowne hnn in powers the appointment of a Christian Governor in Macedonia.

LOS ANGELES, February 5. It is reported that aoo Americans are surrounded by hostile Yaqui Indians in Mexico. PARIS, February 5. Confidence is erowiner that the Russians will win in the North Sea inquiry. LOS ANGELES.

February a. The ereatest rainfall Southern California has had in years is now in progress. There have been many washouts. The Methodist Church of North Pasadena has been destroyed by lightning. WASHINGTON, February 4.

United, States Judge Swayne has replied to the charges against him, declaring that his acts are justifiable and unimpeachable. A '1 "1 'idm A VOL XL NOll HONOLULU, T. FEBRUARY 7, 1905. SEMI-WEEKLY, WHOLE 266G HOW DID REGO MANAGE SCHEME WITHOUT HELP? Rather a Puzzling Problem Presents itself to the Federal Authorities for Solution in This. Now, how could Manuel A.

Rego, postmaster at the fourth ciass office at Koloa, pass money orders of the value of $27,356 through the postoffice at Honolulu without collusion on the part of somebody not in the Koloa office? That is the question whose solution in now engaging the attention of the local Federal officials. That they will solve it, goes without saying. That is their trade. That things will be doing when they solve it, likewise goes without saying. And then Rego may have company over in Oahu jail.

Rego was formally taken into custody yesterday upon a charge of defrauding the United States Postoffice Department and had his examination at once before Federal District Cotirt Commissioner JJudd. Attorney Humphreys represented him, but advanced no de fense at the moment. The only witness examined at the heating yesterday was Postal Inspector Hare, who went down to Koloa to look into the matter, and with whom Rcgo came back to this city. Mr. Hare testified that when he first discovered the shortage, Rego said that it was an apparent one, merely, due to the fact that Spalding, his deputy, had not made up his books.

He wanted a few days' time in which to write up the books, when he said it -would appear that there was nothing wrong. Hare replied that he would go ahead upon things as they were, and then Rego admitted that he had taken the monev, but said that he had banked it at Honolulu, with the Bank of Hawaii and Bishop's bank, and that he twould restore it. "Very well," answered Hare. "Give me a check for it." The check was given, and then Hare said that he would telegraph the banks to see how much money was held by them in deposit to the credit of Rego. The message was sent, Rego offering no objection, and no answer was received from the Bank of Hawaii, although Bishop replied that it held to the credit of Rego's account.

When he was confronted with these messages from the banks, Rego said that he had taken the money, and used it in his business. And then he was brought to Honolulu or, to be exact, was asked to come to Honolulu, and he came. That was all the testimony adduced at the hearing, and upon the attorney for the defendant stating that he had nothing to advance at this time, Commissioner Judd committed Rego to Oahu prison for trial in default of ten thousand dollars bail. He was at once taken to the jail and is there now. Behind this there is a story that will make good reading when it comes to be told, although the officers are not yet ready to tell- it.

As to Kego, he used to be king of Koloa, but his throne has keen tottering for a little time it is said. There was a time, not long ago, when nothing was done at Koloa without Rego's consent, and when nothing was even attempted until his advice had been asked and his approval secured. He had the only business house in the place, he was the postmaster, the plantation people allowed laborers to trade where they pleased, and he had much cane planted out on contract. Indeed, he has that yet. This, however, was not allowed to go on.

Hackfcld opened a store of their own at Koloa, doing a rushing trade, and of course all that they did was taken from Rego. Then, although Rego was still to all appearances prosperous, it is said that certain large creditors in 'Honolulu began to press him, and he felt a need for ready money. He' could not realize on his cane contracts, although there was every reason to believe that they would have paid him out if he could have realized. It is believed that he saw the chance to borrow money from Uncle Sam by his crude system of fake money orders, intending to pay it all back when his returns came in, and that it was by some such course of reasoning as this that he was led astray. He hadbecn king so long, that he took a desperate chance when he saw himself being driven to the wall by adverse circumstances.

Evidently, he did not realize that' the arm of Uncle Sam is longer than the arm of any creditor and that wrong done to the Federal Government cannot" be "squared." Whether action for forgery will lie because of the signature to fake order assignments of the names of people who had no knowledge whatever that their names were so used, is a question for the lawyers to determine. Rego is in jail, unable to give a bond that is not half as large as the sum of his shortage, and he may have company unless the game he worked was so crude that it was allowed to go on because of its very crudity, nobody believing that a sane man would attempt anything so foolish. However, while the game was crude, that is probably not true. The "government surrounds its money order system with safeguards against just such crude work as that done by Rego. If it did not, the money order system would not be so popular as it is.

It is because of the feeling of absolute security that people send money by postal order. THE) GAVE BALDWIN SOMEHOW POISON "There is a Honolulu end to the Baldwin poisoning case," said Representative Sheldon of Kauai yesterday. Representative Sheldon, by the way, is the man who was put on the Republican ticket in Koloa when Manuel Rcgo, now in jail for issuing fake money orders while he was postmaster, declined to make the race. "The local police are extremely reticent about the case," Mr. Sheldon went on, "but they admit that they have sent down to Honolulu to arrest a third man, having two custody now, and say that when they get this man they willhavc all the Japanese who are implicated in the matter.

It "seems that when the discovery was made that poison had been put in the drinking water used at the house of Manager B. D. Baldwin of Makawcli plantation, the effects of the Japanese cook at the' Manager's house were searched and poison of a similar character" was found in his possession. The poisoned water and food were sent to Honolulu for analysis. The police working on clews that they' refuse to talk about, followed the arrest of the cook by taking a sugar mill hand into custody and there was a third man arrested at that time, but he was subsequently discharged.

Now they arc searching Honolulu for the third man." This is believed to be the man who bought the poison here and sent it to his confederates in Kauai. When they get this man, the chain will be complete. "The motive?" resumed Mr. Sheldon, "I cannot say. Maybe the Japanese disliked -Baldwin because ha was a man who made them live up to their contracts.

The police are reticent as to that, also. No I do not believe the attempted poisoning is an aftermath of the; recent strike on the plantation." Advices from Kauai are to the effect that the whole island is stirred up over the Baldwin it is even said that Will Baldwin, who preceded D. Baldwin in the management of was a victim of slow poison. At all events, for a long time before he left Makawcli, Will Baldwin was ill, and did not fully recover his health until lie left Kauai. It is thought that the plan of the poisoners was to administer minute doses, so as to cause lingering death in such a way that no suspicion would be directed toward them.

Hugh Morrison, manager of Makawcli just previous to Will Baldwin, was taken deathly "sick and lept failing in health until at last he- was obliged to resign his situation and leave for the Opast in search of health, where' he died a short time after his J. B. D. Baldwin, as well as some of "his family, has been unwell for some time. In fact, a few months ago Mr.

Baldwin was critically ill and everything goes to show that the Baldwins have been taking poisons into their systems for many months, and it is said that these poisons have been given them by two Japanese employed at Makawcli, namely Nomi Nizo, a cook employed by Mr. Baldwin, and Yonemoto, a man employed in the mill. Sheriff Coney went to Makawcli last week and arrested Nomi Nizo and Yonemoto and took them to Waimea, where their case came up in Judge Hofgaard's court last Wednesday. The case was postponed until February nth, as a Japanese who is an important witness in the case is now in Honolulu. This story of the Honolulu witness is the police story, given out it is thought so that the man who is really wanted will not be put upon his guard.

A Kauai officer is now here looking for this man, and will take him at once to the Garden Island if he can be found. There arc conflicting stories as to the character of the poison used, one saying that the cook at the plantation house was seen putting arsenic or something of that kind into the drinking water used at the house, while still another is to the effect that the plantation chemist found that Mr. Baldwin had been taking bichloride of mercury into his system. THE WEBER TRIAL. THE TRAGEDY IN FINLAND Nobles Petition the Czar to Give the Common People Representative Rights.

(ASSOCIATED PHEBS CABLEGRAMS.) HELSINGFORS, Finland, Feb. 7. The assassination of State Procurator Johnson was political. ST. PETERSBURG, Feb.

7. The assassination of Johnson is the precursor of Terrorism. An assembly of nobles at St. Petersburg has petitioned the Czar to permit the representatives of the people to participate in the discussion of legislation and of government measures, repulsed. DIFFERENT RUSSIAN STORY.

ST. PETERSBURG, February 6. Kuropatkin has reported General Dembowski as wounded. Ooerations are suspended. The Japanese were repulsed in the last skirmish.

ST. PETERSBURG, February 5. It is rumored that General Kuropatkin has asked to be relieved. ST. PETERSBURG, February 4.

The Czar has given an audience to a deputation of printers. The conference gave mutual satisfaction..