The Sedalia Weekly Bazoo

KICKED OUT.
This is How William Hebbard Says Mrs. Searles Treated Him-Relatives will Cite Other Cases of Emotional Insanity.

New York, Sept. 4-Another consultation was held at the office of Butler, Stillman & Hubbard yesterday by lawyers representing the litigants in the contest for Mark Hopkins' millions. Nathaniel Hebbard, a cousin of Mrs. Searles, said that these conferences did not mean a compromise. "We intend to fight this case in a court of last resort," said he, "and to see justice done the Hebbards." The Sherwood branch of the Hopkins family promises also to submit sensational evidence. At the office of Butler, Stillman & Hubbard, counsel for Mr. Searles, it was intimated the new claimants were parasites, who had been supported for years by Mrs. Searles' generosity. The contestants would be silenced when the will was probated on Sept. 17, at Salem, Mass. Many lawyers believe that the cutting off of the two aged cousins, Jane Smith and Harriett Hebbard, would have strong weight with a jury. One lawyer, a good authority on wills, had this to say about the new claimants' case: If these good and infirm cousins had been receiving this income up to the time of Mrs. Searles's death, as Nathaniel Hebbard says, why, they have an excellent case of undue influence. Any jury in the country would say, "Well, why should Mrs. Searles cut off these old women at her death, when she had no use for her money, and support them when she was in the enjoyment of her millions?" The Hebbards will make specific charges of emotional insanity. Nathaniel Hebbard tells of one instance where Mrs. Searles is alleged to have used violence to a relative. "One of her cousins," said Mr. Nathaniel Hebbard yesterday, "was Mr. William Hebbard, who died recently of a broken heart at Greenpoint, L. I. He was always on good terms with Mrs. Searles, and one day she notified him she intended to make him a handsome gift. He was getting old, and had worked for years as a silversmith with Dominick & Haff, the Union Square silversmiths. He was industrious and sober, and whenever Mrs. Searles was in the East he was welcome at her home. She often gave him money, and told him the same she did all the rest of us that he would be handsomely remembered in her will. "Mrs. Searles was at the Windsor Hotel at Great Barrington. It was just about the time she was preparing plans for the great mansion. Searles was not with her when her cousin called. She received him most graciously and asked after all her relatives in this state and in Connecticut. She had just got back from San Francisco and said that when she came here to New York she would call on us. She was very solicitous about her two aged and infirm cousins, Harriett Hebbard and Jane Smith, who reside at Davenport Centre, Delaware county, New York. After family matters had been discussed she made this statement, which William repeated to us: " 'Now, William, I am anxious to do what is right by you all. I love all my relatives and you are as much in need of present help perhaps, as any of them. I don't wish to see a relative of mine working as a silversmith. I have plenty for all. I can not carry my millions with me.' " 'I don't like to accept money from you,' William said. " 'Well, I will tell you how we can arrange that,' Mrs. Hopkins said. 'You look around New York and pick out a good big apartment house. After you have chosen a house that will support you, I will buy it for you. Then you can collect the rent and live in comfort for the remainder of your life.' " 'But I am afraid this Mr. Searles will interfere,' replied William. " 'No, indeed,' replied Mrs. Hopkins. 'I will never permit him or any other man to come between me and my blood relatives. I will allow no one to dare say a word against you, because you earn an honest living. You pick out a house and I will buy it for you. Come to me when you have selected it.' "William Hebbard was overjoyed. Now he could care for his family in his old age without continuous toil in the silversmith's shop. But there was a rude awakening a few months later. "Didn't William get the house?" "No, he got kicked out of her house at Great Barrington." "Kicked out by Mr. Searles?" No, by Mrs. Searles in what certainly must have been a temporary fit of insanity. William picked out a nice flat-house and found it would support him nicely, say about $1,100 a year. He sent up his card to Mrs. Searles and she came down with hair and dress disarranged, shouting: " 'Get out of my house, you miserable old beggar.' " 'Frances! Frances! Are you mad? What is the matter?' William replied, in astonishment. "He was so shocked at this uncouth reception he could not stir a peg. " 'Yes I am mad!' screamed Mrs. Searles, 'mad enough to kill you, you old beggar. Get out of my house. Who sent you here?' " 'But, Frances listen to me for a moment,' replied William. 'Don't you remember you told me to pick out a flat and you would buy it for me?' " 'You lie. I never saw you before. Get out of my house, you wretch.' "Mrs. Searles summarily ejected poor William Hebbard and thus was his picture of happiness in his declining years rudely shattered. He returned from Great Barrington a broken hearted old man. He died at Greenpoint, R. I., a few weeks later. This is only one case where Mrs. Searles showed a great lapse of memory. For it all developed after she married Mr. Searles. He had some strange influence over her that wrecked her life and turned her against her relatives. It will all come out in court. "Have any overtures been made to you by either Mr. Huntington, Mr. Searles or their representatives?" "None, whatever, as yet. We are not bringing this suit from any parsimonious motive, but because Mrs. Searles should not have cut off these aged relatives, who had been receiving this regular annuity of $300. I am confident as to the results. Timothy Hopkins knows altogether too much about the Southern Pacific and Messrs. Searles and Huntington's influence over the woman he called mother. They are doing everything in their power to buy him off, but he is stubborn. With the Hebbards and Hopkins combined I am positive justice will be done us. If Mr. Hopkins had been left the fortune there would have been no contest, as I am sure he would have continued this little annuity." "What other relatives besides Harriett Hebbard, Jane Smith and your brother William were assisted with money?" "Well, all them to a certain extent. There were two in particular of the Sherwood branch of the family. Betsie Sherwood, a cousin, who were great favorites of Mrs. Searles. When Mrs. Searles was at St. George's Hotel, Black Rock, Conn., these two young women went down from Fairfield, Conn., where they reside, and paid a long visit to Mrs. Searles. She always wrote to them and sent them gifts of money and jewelry. They, too, have letters from Mrs. Searles in which she says she would remember them in her will. "When Mr. Rogers, my lawyer, went to Fairfield to see the Sherwood branch of the family he was told they had plenty of excellent documentary evidence of their own and a prominent lawyer to handle their case, without the assistance of either Timothy Hopkins or the Hebbards."