DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS LOADED

Man Unwittingly Gets Into Trouble By Opening Another's Mail—Claims He Was Acting In Good Faith For Friend—He Made All the Restitution That Was Possible.

Fargo, N. D., May 18.—Charged with intercepting a letter in the United States mail, F. J. Gath, a homesteader and locater of Bucaris {sp}, Adams County, was arested {sp} by U. S. Marshal J. F. Shea. Attorney A. W. Fowler is acting for Attorney P. D. Norton of Hettinger, and will defend the man.

According to the story of the defendant he acted as agent for a woman who settled on land in Adams county. When it came time to prove up he was requested to look over the papers and for that reason he had the woman's mail put in his letter box. The papers came from the land office and were taken in charge by Gath who opened them, found the descriptions alright. The woman had left in the meantime and he kept the papers and it was not until she directed a letter to the land office that the letter was traced. Gath at once returned the papers by registered mail. That he gained nothing is evident and he staunchly maintains that he acted in good faith in the matter. He has a wife and several children living on a claim in Adams county.

Bismarck Daily Tribune, 5/19/1909