The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-07-09
New York Correspondence-NO Al.
Il Notable TridI-A Neto York Fdrldnd
and he Ldcyers-Spectators and Witnesses
MoUing Day-Rairodd Prgects in he City.
Rom OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
NV ORR MAY. 4

The long-protracted trial of Daniel Mcfarland
for the murder of Albert Richardson of tn
Tribune, is nearly closed. As a spectator of tn
occasion, let me give the readers of the Adrertise
a glimpse of the New York Court of Genera
Sessions upon this famous trial.
Upon the north side of the City Hall Parl
stands a large unfinished building of white mar
. bic, erected at a eost-or rather an expense L
the city, for all the money did not 60 into tn,
building,-Of many millions of dollars. 1t ii
the new Court House: and in one of the room:
upon the first floor, a handsome apartment about
fifty feet square and eighteen feet high, the trial
which forms the leading criminal sensation Of
the country is now in the fourth week of Its
progress.
1t is q crowded court room. The bar divides
1t into two equal portions. On the south side
sits the recorder, Judge Haekett, a compactly
built, notwithstanding man,, with an air that
is at once courteous and frm,-a man apparently
not over tbirty-fye years of age and to his left
the jury are ranged in two benches,-a stolid-
seeming set of men. How could they be other
wise, when they swOre that they had formed no
opinion of the merits of a case that had been the
talk of the town for three months before they
were summoned? Our ~jury-law selects the most
unintelligent men to decide upon questions that
involve the highest need of intelligence. But to
the Court: In front of the jury sit the counsel
for the prosecution, Judge NOAH Davis. late of
Albion, n. Y, and Judge Garvin; and near
them is the counsel for the defence, Mr.. Graham.
The latter person has a great advantage over the
former gentlemen, that he is a bully, a master of
discourtesy and vituperation; while the prose-
cutiOn are men who labor under the constitutional
necessity of behaving ~dccently, and SO have no
arms wherewith to meet their opponent.
Near Graham sits the prisoner, Mcfarland.
lie is a dark man of medium stature, apparently
about fifty years ofage his complexion is sodden
and his expression lowering; his eye rolls rest
lessly about the room. His little son Percy is
with him, and gambols about in a way quite
calculated to soften the hearts of the jury.
Some of the spectators were odd studies. In the
southeast window stood the renowned Count
Joannes, Familiarity known in New York as the
" Count NO-account." He is a half-crazy look
ing parsonage, attired in q sky-blue waisteoat
with white facings and brass buttons, dark coat
and trousers, wonderful neck-tie, and thread
gloves which he pulled off and on with a pom
pous air at intervals Of a few minutes and
listens in a pompous manner to the evidence and
to the wrangling of the lawyers. He is the man
that institutes libel suits against newspaper
editors for calling in question the genuineness of
his nobility; an odd, eccentric, halE-witted
Count he is. Near him sits a much less amiable
humbug, DR.. Hammond a physician who was
Surgeon-General of the United States army dur
ing a part of our late war. While he held that
high ofhce he was proven guilty of the most
gigantic frauds he procured worthless drugs and
rotten blankets for the sick and committed
other crimes which even American carelessness
could not overlook. He was court-martialed
and after a long and impartial trial was expelled
from the army, and 80 forever disqualified from
holding any Office of trust or profit in the service
OF the United States" Upon this he came to
New York; and being once in New York, all
was well with him. He " set up I" as a specialist
in nervous diseases; he gave out that his cashier
ing was the result Of party-enmity and New
York, with its careless amiability, accepted him
as an honest man and physician. He is now in a
full tide OF popularity and practice, and charges
his fashionable patients the most fancy -
prices. Wherever notoriety is to be gained, DR..
Hammond is present; and this accounts for his
attendance upon the Mcfarland trial. He has
been busy in endeavoring to prove that McFar-
land was Z" insane :" at the time he murdered
Richardson but now he stands aside and listens
to the other witnesses.
In front of this distinguished company and of
the judge are two spacious tables devoted to the
Probably twenty of them are at
work; some using short hand, some taking brieCer
notes in the ordinary script and many writing
lpon multiplying paper - which gives three or
our copies of the words that the pencil traces.
Every few minutes messenger boys from the prin-
lpai city newspaper Offices make their appearance
md receive supplies Of manuscript which they
away to the composing-room in Printing
House Square. Every word that falls from the
fps of witness, judge, or counsel, thus takes
Immediate and permanent form, and passes into
record more durable than that of inscriptions
N brass or stone. To the end of time the his
DRY of this case will doubtless be ON file in some
f the newspapers.
Still farther to the right of the judge sat the
emale spectators, probably Fifty in number. L
annot say that they were a credit to their sex;
lost OF them had coarse and vulgar faces. For
hree weeks they have patiently attended this
rial, and their curiosity appears undated. .
lany of them stand for hours at a time, the
accommodations being insufficient.
Without the bar is the general company of
spectators. 1t is a coarse, almost a
crowd. One sees few fine faces in a court J
pom; but whether the men or the women who
ttcnd the Mcfarland trial are the hardest look
lg crowd it is difficult TO judge. {
Some Of the witnesses, however, relieved the
ssemblage from the imputatiOn of entire %stolidity.
Brick POmeroy was there, the editor of the |
ew York Democrat and other papers; and his !
stimony was full of witty points, though it was
eighty and dignifed. Mrs. Calhoun's testimony
as tho most important feature of the day ard
the trial thus far. She is a most refined, ex- !.
llent, and truthful lady; and her appearance :
Gated a great buzz of interest throughout the \
Gln to.k:eod L. AloE.-I.-lh. ii =