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The roundup record. [volume] (Roundup, Mont.) 1908-1929, January 22, 1909, Image 8

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Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86075094/1909-01-22/ed-1/seq-8/

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' ABSENDER IN JAIL
Former Lewistown Accountant is
Brought Back to Face
Serious Charge.
The sensation caused here two
years ago by the flight of Arthur
Froembling who had for five years
been the accountant for the Power
Mercantile company, was equalled
Tuesday night when the report
spread around town that he had
been arrested near Seattle and would
at once be brought back by Under j
Sheriff Firman Tullock to face a
criminal prosecution.
It was upon Saturday, Jan. 18,
1907 that Froembling drove in from
his ranch catching the Great Falk
stage, traveled on to that city, where
lie took the train for Havre and
could be traced no further. His
flight followed the descovery of
some discrepancies in his books,
when he was temporarily relieved
by Manager \V. I). Symmes pend
ing a full investigation. Before
that was fairly begun. Froembling
had disappeared. An expert was
put to work on the books and
it is claimed the inquiry covering
the previous year revealed a short
age of about $5,.'500.
A complaint was filed, but
Froembling could not be located,
and finally a reward of $200 for his
arrest was offered and circulars with
his portrait attached were widely
circulated, but without results.
On leaving Lewistown, Froemb
ling went immediately to Alaska,
but the climate did not agree with
him, and he decided to return to
Seattle. On arriving there he found
that the officers were not on his
trail, and taking the name Richard
Gerlach, he secured a job as a hum
ble waiter at the restrauant con
ducted by the Seattle Comercial
club. He worked there until last
fall, when he went to Port Gamble,
not far from Seattle and was work
ing at the Port „Gamble jHotel when
arrested Tuesday afternoon.
The efforts of Pinkerton men, and
sheriffs and other officers all over
the country proved unavailing, but
Froembling was seen by a former
Lewistown man, a personal friend
of \V. D. Symmes. and he notified
the latter. The name Froembli g
was going under and his address was
sent to the officers and Under Sheriff
Tullock went on to attend to the
details of bringing the man back.
The officer and his prisoner will
arrive here tomorrow night, if all
goes well and close connections are
made. They left Seattle yesterday
morning. Froembling readily con
sented to return without requistion
papers.
Since the first developments in
the case, O. \V. Beiden, attorney
for the Power Mercantile company
has given the matter his attention,
and he will undoubtedly be as
sociated in the prosecut i o n of
Froembling, Gouty Attorney J. C.
Huntoon, then in private practice,
was employed by Mrs. Froembling
as her attorney and advisor after
the man's flight. She was in deep
trouble and Mr. Huntoon did all
PIANOS
STRING INSTfHNTS
FOR
HOLIDAY
GIFTS
On Easy Paymemts
ni v. m
Lewistown, Mont
j
that he could to straighten out her
affairs. Just what information he
came into possession of through this
confidential relation is not known,
of course, but his early connection
with the matter may put him out of
the case altogether, since he could
hardly use information coming to
him in such a way in prosecuting,
and of course could not be identi
fied with the defense, owing to his
offiicial position.
It is the expectation that the case
will be taken up at an early date
and disposed of without delay.
The news of Froembling's arrest
was received here within a few hours
after it had been made, Manager
W. D. Symmes, of the Power Mer
cantile, receiving the first message.
When it became generally known
public was suprised that the cap
ture had been effected, simply be
casue of late nothing had occured
to call the attention to the ease,
and the lapse o' a year, without
any trace of the fugitive's where
abouts had convinced most people
that Froembling would never be
located.
Yet, as a matter of fact, from the
time it was defintly known that
Froembling had fled, M. Symmes
never relaxed his efforts to have
him apprehended and brouhgt back.
Officers all over the United States
were notified provided with des
cription of the man and a small re
ward was offered for information as
to lqs whereabouts. The Power
Mercantile placed the case in the
hands of Pinkertons right at the
start so it will be seen that while
the matter was almost forgotten here
a lookout was constantly main
tained. Until late in December all
these efforts proved fruitless. Men
ansewering this description were
located in various part s of the
country, giving hope for a time that
the fugitive would be captured, but
all of these cases eventually proved
false alarms and with the lapse of
two years, it certainly did look as
the misssing bookeeper would suc
ceed in permanently avoiding cap
ture. The final success was due to
the action of Mr. Symmes himself
It was on Christmas eve that he
learned through private sources the
address of Froembling, as well as
the name he was going under. As
soon as the arrangements could be
be made, Deputy Sheriff Tullock
was started to Seattle to bring the
man back, and the arrest was made
Tuesday.
No full statement of the facts re
garding the alleged defaction of
Froembling has been made public,
and the chances are that the de
tails will never be told until the
case comes on for trial. The short
age as generally been estimated by
the public and those pretty well in
formed at about $7,000, but the
claim of the Power Mareantile com
pany is $ö, 201, 80, this covering
, the amount of the shortage claimed
to have been revealed by an ex
amination of the books in the period
1906 only. Some time ago the
company instituted suit in the dis
trict court against Froembling to
recover that amount, and it is still
pending.
Froembling left here on Satur
day, January 18, 1907, He had
been out to bis ranch and drove by
team to meet the stage at Great !
Falls, taking it on the road. Just
! before he left he transferred bis
real property to Richard Lausch, a
relative, the latter claiming that
the transaction was a bona title one
and that full consideration had
passed. The sale was attached by
the Power Mercantile company and
recently Judge Cheadle granted a
permanent injunction restraining
Mr. Lausch from selling the proper
ty. \\ hen Froembling left he went
to Great Falls and it was supposed
took the train out of that city for
i Havre, just where he went after
reaching the latter point has not
been definitely ascertained. It is
claimed, however, that he made
his way to Alaska and after a while
returned to Seattle where he had
been living for a time.
Mr. Froembling is a German,
highly educated and is said to be
one of the best accountants this
section has ever known. He came
to Lewistown from Chicago, where
i at one time he was interested in a
company having a paving contract.
He worked with the Power Mer
cantile company and was entirely
satisfactory and he proved himself
diligent, faithful and accurate, so
that the management came to have
full confidence in his integrity. He
was interested in church work and
was very free in contributing to
any worthy cause. He is a talented
musician, and during his residence
of five years in Lewistown frequent
ly appeared in entertainments here,
and occasionaly sang in church. He
had no bad habits at all, as far as
known neither drinking nor gambl
ing ind being devoted to his family,
yet all who had any occasion to ob
serve his mode of living were struck
with his extravagance in the con
duct of his household. He also
spent a great deal of money on his
ranch, located a few miles from
the city.
This line of conduct naturally at
tracted the attention of Mr. Symmes
who could not understand how
Froembling could indulge in such
to
by
extensive tastes on a bookeeper's
salary. To him Froembling made
the statement that he had two sour
ces or revenue, one coming from an
estate in Germany, and the other
from completed'contracts ofjiis old
company in Chicago. This seemed
perfectly reasonable, but at last,
when suspicion was directed to the
man, the matter was investigated
and it could not be learned that he
had received any funds at ' all thru
the other channels. The matter
reached a pass where Mr. Symmes
determined upon a through examin
ation of the books, and informed
Mr. Froembling that he need not
appear ot the store until this was
completed. Within day or two
thereafter the bookeeper disappeared
as stated.—Lewistown Argus.
PRIMARY i ILL LIKELY TO PASS
Placed on General File in Senate-
Differs From Oregon Law
Donlan's direct primary measure,
known as Senate Bill No. 9, held
the boards in the senate this week
and after a spirited fight along
partp lines was placed on the gen
eral file, which is the first step to
wards passage following the favor
able report of the committee. The
committee on privileges and elec
tions reported on the bill ond rec
ommended that the bill as amend
ed pass.
Senator Long of Flathead county,
democrat, brought in a minority
report, recommending that action
on the bill be indefinitely postpon
ed. Senator Meyer of Carbon moved
as a substitute motion to that of
Long that the majority report of
the committee be adopted. On
vote Meyers motion was carried, all
of the republicans voting for the
adoption of the majority report
and all the democrats voting
against it.
Donlan's bill differs materially
from the Oregon law to which the
democrats are pledged. According
to the Oregon law the legistature is
bound to elect a United States
senator in accordance with the vote
of the majority of the electors of all
counties. Donlan's bill provides
for the election by the majority of
! counties. Donlan's bill provides
*°r the electors, and by it the demo
crats claim that a legislature of one
a political complexion might choose
a senator of its own party, even
1 though the majority of the electors
through the state had preferred one
by
a
Household, furniture and farm
implements consisting of wagons,
harrows, discs, mowers, binders,
of the opposite party.
FOR SALE.
Household, furniture
for
not
is
be
a
pumps, tables, chairs, bedsteads,
stoves, ranges, wardrobes, organ and
numerous other articles. Also
about 3000 pounds of barbed wire
and about 9000 feet oi lumber at
Naderman's ranch, seven miles
above Roundup. 42tf
Lewistown expended $435,000 in
improvements last year.
Try a bottle of Lithia mineral
water. No typhoid germs. 25c per
bottle, $4 per ease 24 quarts. $1
erfund for empty case. F. M. M all
is
of
PROF. SHAWS OPINION OF
MONTANA.
Prof. Thomas Shaw of the Min
nesota Agricultural college, who last
summer made a tour of this part of
Montana to inspect the soil and to
ascertain its adaptability to general
farming, writes the following in a re
cent issue of the Orange Judd Farm
er, a noted farm journal of wide cir
culation:
"Much of the soil is of brown
clay loam, easily friable. Over much
of it lay little pebbles, like white
stones of small size. Some of it was
black, but the soil of the benches was
mostly brown. How could a brown
clay loam produce such crops of
grain in a climate with but 12 to
19 inches of normal rainfall? That
was the question of questions. An
examination of the soil, of the sub
soil and the Montana weather bu
reau's report all served to throw
light upon the question.
"It is at least an open question if
the brown soils of the west, volcanic
in many instances in their origin, are
not superior in both producing and
wearing power to the black soils that
are largely composed of humus. The
clay element is so abundant in these
biown soils and it is so rich that they
furnish the materials of growth for a
very long period. They are espe
cially rich in phosphoric acid and
potash, the abundance of the former
clement being largely responsible for
the great yields of the grain. My
own preference for cropping would be
for the brown soils, but in the ab
sence of analysis it is not possible to
be quite sure.
"The subsoil was carefully exam
ined on the roadsides, where men
were grading in the grades cut by
the railways and for irrigation ditches
that are no longer used. I found
that between the small stones usually
spoken of as gravel there was a plen
tiful supply of rich clay. The ragged
edges of the pebbles were calcareous
in character. As these wear by de
composition and attrition caused by
cultivation, they supply the soil with
an abundance of lime. They also
produce that mechanical condition
which enables the roots of plants to
go far downward in search of food.
"The temperate summer climate,
especially when the grain is matur
ing, gives the ripening process time
to make bright, plump kernels. The
nights are cool at the ripening sea
son, and this is especially favorable
to such ripening of the grain. These
three reasons therefore, the rich soil,
the splendid subsoil, and the tem
perate climate, account for the ex
traordinary yields in spite of the poor
character of the farming. This ref
erence is meant as testifying to a
fact, rather than as meaning any
stigma, for only during recent years
has farming been conducted at all,
and under such conditions it would
not be reasonable to look for high
class farming.
"The crops whose growth has
been proved, beyond all question, in
clude winter wheat, spring wheat,
winter rye, oats, barley, speltz, tim
othy, alfalfa, and without irrigation.
The growth of these is wonderful."
Hog* as Camp Scavengers.
To purify the camps, Robespierre
proposed to the committee of public
aafety that the armies of the republic
be followed by droves of hogs. This
suggestion gave birth to the popular
saying: "He will be a general If
Robespierre's little pigs do not eat
him up en route."— Le Cri de Parla.
Mules Drew Wedded Pair.
Just after a newly married couple
of Altoona, Pa., had entered their
carriage to drive to the station to start
on a wedding trip, friends unhitched
the handsome cobs and substituted a
pair of mules. These attracted great
attention as they hauled the pair
through the streets.
An Art Critic.
"This art craze Is going too far,'
said Blunt, when a pot of paint fell
from a second-story window and
struck him on the head. "No more
decorated tiles for me," he mournfully
added, as he began to scrape the yel
low paint off his silk hat with a knife.
at
in
per
$1
all
Atmospheric Pressure.
It has boon circulated that & man of
the ordinary size sustains a pressure
of about 14 tons. But, inasmuch as
the pressure is exerted equally in all
directions, and permeates the whole
body, no inconvenience follow«.—New
York American.
Making "Fun" of Ear Waahing.
Should the small child object to
having hia ears washed use a shaving
brush In place of a brush, and the op
eration will be completed with satis
faction and ease on both side«.—Good
Housekeeping.
A New Method.
"Well, this IS fanny," exclaimed
Tommy, when he saw hia first trolley
car; 'Tve seen wagons pulled by
horses, and I've aeen 'em go by
steam, but I never saen 'am run by a
clothes prop before!"
Free! A 48-piece handsomely
decoaated dinner set given away
absolutely free at F. M. Wall Co.'s
store. See sample in window.
Free! Free!
Handsome» Decorated 48-plece
Pinner Set
Given Away
Absolutely free
See Samples In Our
Window
F. M. WALL CO.
The Peoples popular Trading Place
9

Saturday
Jan.
doth
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