The Evening Telegraph

U. S. COMMISSIONER'S CASE.—Before United States Commissioner Craig Biddle, at 1 o'clock to-day, were arraigned Messrs. Young & McDevitt, distillers, whose place of business is at the southeast corner of Twelfth and Ogden streets, on the charge of aiding and abetting in the removal of distilled spirits upon which the tax had not been paid other than to a bonded warehouse.

Harrison G. Clark testified—I am a revenue officer: McDevitt & Young's place is at the southeast corner of Twelfth and Ogden streets; know the firm to be rectifiers and compounders of liquors and wholesale dealers; on the morning of the 2d of April Mr. Mackey and myself visited their place, Mr. Mackey being distraining officer; the first man we met on the premises was named Noble: we waited until Mr. McDevitt arrived, and demanded of him his whisky book; he replied that it was in the fire-proof and that he could not open the proof; in the afternoon Mr. Young arrived and opened the safe and said that the book was not therein; he then proceeded to the retail department, at the north end of the office, ascended the stairs, and produced a book, which he called the regular rectifying book, the one we desired to see: the book was opened February 1, 1870: I asked Mr. Young for their old book; he replied that he knew nothing about it, and the old book could not be produced; Mr. McDevitt subsequently refused to open the fire proof, as he asserted by the advice of his counsel. On Saturday last, another demand was made for the old book by Mr. Brooks, to which Young replied that he would give an answer this morning, but the old book has not been produced up to this time: the book which was produced was found under the stairs: a stencil plate was recovered and seized; the place was also seized: there were five barrels gauged by Mr. McKelvy, which were all that I saw in the place, two gauged April 7, and three on March 10: I noticed some empty barrels: the defendants stated that they came from Mr. McManus distillery, and were received the day before; they said a portion of them had been sold, four of them were dumped because they leaked, six were sold, four stamped, and two were in the store.

Mr. William Mechelke affirmed—I am a gauger; the last gauging I did at the distillery was on the 27th of April, when I gauged 20 barrels; on April 1st, 17: April 4th, 25; April 5th, 10; April 6th, 10; April 7th, 13; April 8th, 10: April 9th, 10; April 11th, 19; April 12th, 12; April 14th, 2; April 15th, 17; April 16th, 25; April 18th, 15; April 19th, 40; April 20th, 22; April 21st, 25; April 22d, 20; April 23d, 17; April 25th, 25; April 26th, 12; April 27th, 20; I recognize my name on the cancelling stamp, but do not know anything of the stencil shown; the letters should be G. O. S. instead of O. T. S., and G. L. instead of O. T.: I have not visited the place since the seizure, and cannot tell whether the small stencil is mine or not; I cut up my stencil and threw it away; I believe I did so at McDevitt's place; the one shown me might be a part of the one I cut up.

Christopher Loeser, Supervisor's clerk, testified that the number of barrels sold in April, according to the "Liquor Book," was 241; the number marked by the gauger was 375.

Mr. Mechelke recalled—Have heard that McDevitt and Young dumped rectified liquor into their alcohol vats: they make cologne there; I have heard in the place itself that liquor was used for this purpose.

The defendants were held in $2000 bail each to answer.