In the latter part of the administration of Cyrus Carpenter as Governor of the state, the State Treasurer was also treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the Agricultural College. The two offices had no legal connection, and it was merely an incident that the same man had been elected to both positions--the one by the people of the state, and the other by the Board of Trustees of the college. The Trustees of the college in making their annual report to the legislature reported that their treasurer had proved a defaulter to the sum of about $27,000, and that they had, in order to secure the college, taken from him deeds for all his real estate including his homestead--all of the property save his homestead having, as they understood, been purchased by their treasurer with funds belonging to the college. About nine o'clock one evening I received a visit from the deputy treasurer of state who informed me that the legislature, then in session, had passed a joint resolution, appointing a committee for the purpose of investigating the question as to what funds of the Agricultural College had been used, and also as to the proper administration of the funds belonging to the state in the state treasury; that the Treasurer of State and of the Agricultural College, being the same person, was about to be examined the next day by this committee of investigation, and upon advice of his friends he wished to employ counsel, and wished that I would act as his counsel in the matter, and particularly the deputy wished me that night to go with him and have a consultation with the treasurer. I accordingly accompanied him to the house of the party. I found him to be an old man probably between sixty and seventy years of age, white hair and beard, blue eyes, a fine stalwart frame, but laboring under intense excitement. I listened carefully to his story, in which the deputy frequently interpolated or supplemented the statements. The care with which both parties persisted that the funds were not state funds, but it was only the funds of the Agricultural College that had been wrongfully used or appropriated, made me fear that neither the principal nor his deputy were telling me all that they knew. I felt as Shakespeare says in one of his plays, "Methinks the person doth protest too much." We were standing in front of the fireplace and the light of the fire threw a peculiarly bright light upon the countenance of the treasurer, and the deputy remarked, "Now you understand these funds were in the hands of the treasurer of the Agricultural College, and that he did not use the state funds. If he was defaulter as Treasurer of State he could be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary, but if he was only defaulter as treasurer of the Agricultural College that would be a different affair. Is it not so?" The State Treasurer was eyeing me very earnestly and watching carefully for my answer to the deputy's question. My answer was that I was not prepared to say that