Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1901 — Wiseman Was Acquitted. [ARTICLE]

Wiseman Was Acquitted.

The trial of James Wiseman jr., postmaster and sterekeeper at Aix, a country postoffice 8 miles north of Rensselaer, was finished Saturday afternoon. He was charged with keeping his store open on Sunday. Samuel a neighbor, filed the affidavit. The prosecution was ostensibly in behalf of the U. B. church and Sunday School right across the road from Wiseman’s store. It did not develop at the trial that the church or Sunday School people were taking much interest in the trial. Nor that Mr. Wiseman’s Sunday business was any serious detriment to them. He did not deny that when people called for their mail on Sunday he opened up and let them have it, and if they wanted anything from the store he sold it to them. He did not keep open during church and Sunday School, hours however. On the other hand it developed that there was a standing unpleasantness between Mr. Potts and his wife and Mr. Wiseman and family. Also that Mr. Potts is not an active member of the church, and his wife, who ostensibly acted for the Sunday School, in this prosecution, seldom or never attended the same. Zeb Swaim, another state witness, also is at outs with Mr. Wiseman. The jury seemed to think there was more personal enmity than religious zeal behind the prosecution, and they acquitted the accused. Their first vote was ten to two for acquittal. Their second, for some reason, was seven to five. Their third was unanimous for not guilty.