| Show GE adams of seattle assay office accused of theft seattle wash ov 23 george edward adama for seven years cashier the united states assay office in this city and one of the best known young men in seattle is under arrest accused by secret service officials of theft of in gold dust to which bad access in bia official capacity of this bum was taken off adams by secret service agent connell who has been at work on the case for several weeks sir connell that adams hag made a practically complete confession of guilt stating that he hae abstracted more than from miners packs since juno last and substituted black sand to represent the deficiency in weight adams was taken before united states commie aloner kelfer this afternoon and held in fronds to appear for preliminary examination on friday next adams believes he will be able to secure bondsmen when arraigned in court adams made no statement other than to amur as to the amount alleged to have freen taken secret service agent connell on the witness stand testified that from the result of his investigation and examination of adams accounts he had reason to believe that the shortage would exceed connell gave out this statement adams method ot operating waa to substitute mack sand which occurs in nearly all deposits of placer gold for dast which was turned into the assay office to toe weighed and melted the percentage of dirt in gold dust varies from 2 to 8 per cent depending on the locality from which it comes after the gold had been melted the weight represented by the eana would be charged to shrinkage thus protecting adams from detection this age became so large however that the fact was sufficient to attract the departments part ments attention and inquiry resulting from this suspicious circumstance led to mr adams arrest today when I 1 accused him he delivered over in currency which he had concealed in a belt on his person lie admitted to me that it was his practice to extract the gold dust and sell it to a local banac it waa jn turn deposited in the assay office to be reduced to bullion amounts varying from 20 to could be easily reversed from large consignments consign ments of dust without exciting immediate suspicion adams took currency in exchange for tho dust and copt it concealed on his person he told me that of abo sum which the department knows to be missing all had been extracted during the present year the greater portion since june 1 last he would have icv ered his connection with the office on december 1 and under the circumstances we had bui a few days left in which to make the arrest while be was still a government official the only statement adams would make tonight was 1 I dont caro to nuke a detailed of the charge against me until I 1 have secured and consulted counsel As cashier of the assay of I 1 handled no money I 1 am conal dent that I 1 can within two days straighten the matter up 1 jacob furth and M P backus prominent local bankers tonight qualified as tor mr adams each justifying in the sum of george E adams js a native of atas from which state ha came to this city twelve years ago to accept a position aa cashier of the massachusetts mutual lite insurance company he served in this capacity until july at which time he waa appointed cashier ot the assay office adams drew a salary of 1800 a year as cashier of the assay office on october ag 1904 be married emily clary daughter of mr and mrs charles clary tho former was tor many acara a united states bank examiner in athla district and the family is very prominent in social circles in athla city the wedding wis one of the events of the social season of 1904 and waa a brilliant affair chief mlkle sold that although there had been something wrong at the seattle assay office for nearly a year the service men had been out on tho case only ten days when stephen A connell was sent from the ban francisco mint with two xann to assist him the seattle assay office he said Is used by the klondike miners usually there Is a losa of one fourth of one per cent through impurities in the assay of gold ore seldom varying from that but during the last few months the impurities at the so atle office had run to three fourths of one per cent and even higher this ted to suspicion then ore from the same vein was bent to both san francisco and seattle with the result that tact former assay wa a normal and the latter far from it when connell waa bont to seattle be found that adams had access to the vault where the duat was deposited bonnell provided tests with 2000 ounces of goia dust he had it assayed and weighed and placed in the vault within reach of adams who entered shortly after noon and just after everybody had left after closing hours yesterday when adama waa arrested pair of gold scales and n supply ot |
