The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1869-07-22

ITl .
never saw him stagger; / saw him from
day to dav for four months. and am sure
he could not have used liquor with sucn
frequency and to such degree as TO prlng
on delirium tremens without my noticing
il.
| have resided in this county since 1881;
my acquaintance with the accused COM
menced more than % years ago: since iS6o-
when / re-established myself here, nave
seen Mr.. Gerger very often ana conVerse9
with him very often; | have been associated
with him as members of the same conllnIt-
tee of the same political party. and nave
I known him in conventions caucuses- meet,
/ mos for consultation; Col. 4erger was fond
/ of having a social glass of liquor with ms
| friends; he was in the daily haplt OF urlhh
/ inc more or less: / never saw him lntoxl-
| Gated in my life, according to my concep--
| ton of intoxicatiOn; have seea him Grated
/ a little with liquor, but never saw him stag
| ger nor ever saw his intellect anecued ne
was never a gentleman who degraded MIN,
| self by drunkenness; / have never heard
| delirium tremens attributed to him; never
/ thought he drank to excess; VIII state IN
| general terms that after my assoelating very
! freouently with Mr.. Yerger, that observed
/ his conduct pretty closely; made MN
| somewhat of study, and have the haDlt
| of studying men ] come into contact Win,
\ ard thought once could generally analyze
/ them pretty well; he always presented HIM
!
! puzzle; his conduct was eccentric, general
/ fv, out of the ordinary mode in which peo-
| pie usually conduct themselves; MS notlohs
were exceedingly peculiar; l thought very
! often very unreasonable and very absurd;
/ one popularity that observed, which struck
me as being very singular, was disposition
! generally to have his own way about every
| thing, and to cOnstrue any opposIon to his
| peculiar views, into something aimed per-
| sonally at himself and accordingly he made
I in
visionary, given to broOding over great
many schemes, political and financial, Il
! thought had no utility or good sense in
/ them, adhering to them very pertlnaclousiy;
| that was his general course OF conduct and
4 action. and il impressed me as mystery
/ and puzzle so he always seemed TO me; L
! remember one interview with Mr.. 1erger,
! Dossiblv three or four weeks before the I'M
| fortunate affair TRANSFERRED, which struck me
| at the time and which mentioned next day
/ to some friends 1t was late in the even
! ing and he was standing near my office near
| the capitol; approached him and engaged
| in conversation, and he began at once talk
ing about his grand scheme of immigration
and labor: this scheme which he frequently
limited at to me. | had often encouraged him
to tell me what that scheme was, but he al
ways evaded it and never did, and | never
knew what it was, he kept it back he made
a remark of this character, | think | can re-
peat all ms words, certainly the substance:
this great scheme of mine will make this
the richest country in the world; gold will
flow into it till iC will blossom like the rose;
it will make me rich, immensely rich, and |
will make you rich, sir; = it attracted my at
tcnton, and looked ut him to see if he was
testing, and he seemed to be at himself in
every respect and finding it was uttered in
all earnestness and seriousness, | replied Il
shall be very glad of that, [ have not sue
cceded in doing that for myself after my
long trial" he lookup the conversation and
Said, mot only rich but magnifcently rich,
fl.af fI.at. fax- oil h \
and not only you, but all my friends shall
be enriched by this great scheme; | can
control millions upon millions of acres of
the best land in the wOrld;' L listened to
him, as he concluded it struck me as very
singular indeed, so much so as to remark
upon il. and that terminated the interview;
/ looked at the Colonel to see If in my opin-
Ion he had been drinking excessively, but |
saw no indication of it whatever; lie talked
clearly and distinctly, and walked straight
as he went of, and he left me impressed
with the singularity of his sentiments; i
reasoned upon it, but | do not know that /
arrived at any definite conclusion, but it
struck me as very sin gular; that was not
more than month before the unfortunate
death OF Col. Crane; L don't remember now,
this moment, of any other extraordinary
conversation | held with Mr.. Yerger; the |
scheme itself know nothing of yet, except
SO far as he stated it, and | was always inn |
pressed with the belief that it was really no
scheme of his except so far as it existed in !
his imagination.
BY the Judge Allocate.
indirectly asked him to explain to me |
the details of this scheme; L know of no |
other person who was interested in it; |
schemes were generally discussed for matu- |
ring labor system and obtaining laborers |
from China and Sweden, but whether this
was his scheme or not do not know at the /
time of the convention referred to, | then /
thought and still think, he was not intoxi-
Gated.
There was 4 a proneuess in Mr.. Yerger to
be somewhat OVerbeariEg towards those
who differed from him in opinion, and it in
duced me to have much less social inter
course with him than L otherwise should
have had. and we really never did occupy
the position Ofintimaue friends, although my
feelings were always very good towards him
and doubtless his were the same toward me.
There was proneneSS of disposition, uni
formally on the part of Mr.. erger, to at
tribute opposition to his political views. to
an effort to drag him down and prevent his
personal advancement; that struck me as a
very peculiar trait in his character.
TESTIMONY OF FULTON ANDERSON.
l have known the accused from his child
hood-he is my brother-in-law. In the
earlier part Of his life, he never touched
1rop of liquor; after he arrived at mature I
years. he was advised by DIR. Stone, of New
Orleans, that it would be advantageous to
Il X.
very meal, after that | know he commence
d drink; | have known his habits since that
ime, and know that he has been a constant
thinker, but / have never seen him drunk.
never heard of his having an attack of de-
irium tremens: | ought probably to saw Z
hat on the night spoken of by Mr.. TAYLOR $
n his evidence, L supposed and confidently !
believed, that Mr.. Ierger had the mania a |
,otu, but on my going up home in compa- !
" with DIR. Craft, | was informed that he
nd M m Of If "a / off nj ]
ed his conduct to mania a potu, owing to l
he extraordinary character of his conduct {
know nothing myself of the occurrence of |
us shooting the negro boy, but | do know q
hat up to that period of his life, he never |
ad taken drink ofliquor. that is so far as S
could know, from constant communication '
With him; within the last or years he $
as exhibited an eccentricty of character /
nd department, which mas struck me as re- 4
his relationship to members of i
is. family has generally been unfriendly, n
ostile in fact; | attributed this conduct to II
is general belief that they were generally t
opposed to him. not disposed to advance his h
interests and cOunteractin0 his views in v
very particular; the feelings ofevery MEM p
er of his family were always kind toward s.
i'm; have known the witness Parmelia o
'insley. ever since her residence in Mr.. e
'erger's family; she was trusty and relia- e
lie, and | would place the most implicit con- "
dence in any statement she made.
BY the Judge Advocate. e
L think the prisoner has INDUCED very n
luch in drink, during the past four or five II
ears; | have noticed peculiarities in his o
Dnduct for much longer period than that; k
w special attention has not been called to il
is conduct TIL within that time. a
On the night testified to by Mr.. Taylor. al
lere was but one bottle of liquor in the t.
ouse that know of; thought it would be W
benefit to him to have something to drink, d.
nd advised Mr.. John X. Yerger to get a st
)ttle of n,which he did, and after the bot st
e came Mr.. E. Nj. Ierger took one drink
it. thar was all the liquor I knew he | tie
| m