ithhold,
under an agreement which he had with the city treasurer, all payments
of money and all deposits of certificates in the sinking-fund until the
first day of each succeeding month--the first month following any given
transaction. As a matter of fact we can and will bring many traders and
bankers who have had dealings with the city treasury in the past in just
this way to prove this. The prosecution is going to ask you to believe
that Mr. Cowperwood knew at the time he received this check that he was
going to fail; that he did not buy the certificates, as he claimed, with
the view of placing them in the sinking-fund; and that, knowing he
was going to fail, and that he could not subsequently deposit them, he
deliberately went to Mr. Albert Stires, Mr. Stener's secretary, told
him that he had purchased such certificates, and on the strength of a
falsehood, implied if not actually spoken, secured the check, and walked
away.

"Now, gentlemen, I am not going to enter into a long-winded discussion
of these points at this time, since the testimony is going to show very
rapidly what the facts are. We have a number of witnesses here, and
we are all anxious to have them heard. What I am going to ask you to
remember is that there is not one scintilla of testimony outside of that
which may possibly be given by Mr. George W. Stener, which will show
either that Mr. Cowperwood knew, at the time he called on the city
treasurer, that he was going to fail, or that he had not purchased the
certificates in question, or that he had not the right to withhold
them from the sinking-fund as long as he pleased up to the first of
the month, the time he invariably struck a balance with the city.
Mr. Stener, the ex-city treasurer, may possibly testify one way. Mr.
Cowperwood, on his own behalf, will testify another. It will then be for
you gentlemen to decide between them, to decide which one you prefer
to believe--Mr. George W. Stener, the ex-city treasurer, the former
commercial associate of Mr. Cowperwood, who, after years and years of
profit, solely because of conditions of financial stress, fire, and
panic, preferred to turn on his one-time associate from whose labors he
had reaped so much profit, or Mr. Frank A. Cowperwood, the well-known
banker and financier, who did his best to weather the storm alone, who
fulfilled to the letter every agreement he ever had with the city, who
has even until this hour been busy trying to remedy the unfa