Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1911 — B. Forsythe Stands dance at a Hard Bump at Winamac. [ARTICLE]

B. Forsythe Stands dance at a Hard Bump at Winamac.

The prosecution of B. Forsythe, the former Rensselaer merchant, at Winamac, is being diligently pushed. Instead of being charged with a violation of a city ordinance he is being prosecuted for violation of a state law defining a “transient” merchant.. Mr. Forsythe is being defended by M. M. Hathaway, and another lawyer and Judge Sties, of South Bend, has been employed by the Winamac merchants to assist the prosecuting attorney. The case is being tried before a jury, with Judge Vurpillat on the bench. By having copies of the Rensselaer Republican submitted it had been expected to show that Mr, Forsythe had been advertising to go out of. business for some two years, but the court would not admit these papers In evidence, ruling that a stationary merchant in Ills own home town could employ suUh methods as he chose to influence trade, but that lie could not use the same means as a transient merchant and the evidence was ruled out on the ground of immateriality. This seemed to be a rather severe blow to the defendant’"* case. The state had called witnesses from Brook and Oxford, where Mr. Forsythe conducted his store for some time, to show the sort of advertising he had done in those places and also to prove that he had been moving about enough to give him the name of a transient merchant. If he i 3 proven to be a “transient'’ merchant he stands a chance of being fined $lO a day during the entire time he has been in Winamac, which is about 100 days and would mean fines aggregating SI,OOO, to which would be added the costs of the trial. He seemed very hopeful, however, that he would be able to beat the state.