Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1872-11-26

10
Ib It Is the language, and he saws that Prince
was drunk hall or two-thrds dunk. Primo
csLuadicts him Prince contra diets Plant.
Prince contradicts the other Prince and of
course. he contradcts Noyes. What a terrible
stock in trade there must be of testimony your
Honor, when this one inevitable Prince, the
nominal plaintiff here source OF all the evidence
like q ball-pardon the vulgarity OF the refer
enee :it Is little signitcant-s introduced a. the
one ball with which they are going to bowl do vp
al our witnesses one after the other-under-
takes TO swear them all out of COURT. he swears
Bennett out Of existence; he coutradicts Plant
fat footed; and disagress-to say the lea st of it
with Noyes. What can be said about the weight
OF evidence, your Honor, when the m An tn at the
special act of Congress was necessary to-make A
witness at all, is to be used to anuihilate at least
four disnterested witnesses, for Plant, Bennett,
in this case-none at all; aud here appears the
original strength, force, and genius of nv friend
on the other side that cannot pass without
commentator. He says that we are aSsailing
the private reputation of this Prince OF his. for
Princes, although sovereigns. are sometime
unfortunate. Royalty doesn't. it seems escape
Prince happened to be drunk-I do not charge
II upon him at all-he says that we think that
we are entitled to libel him. We didn't saw a
word about it; didn't know anything about It;
didn't care anything about it; didn't 90 around
looking for witnesses to prove it; did
not AK this witness whether he was
drunk but the witness stated il himself,
and Prince contradiCts it. 1t is not of any con .
sequence. gentlemen OF the jury, whether he
was drunk or sober, hat know OF, except IN at
my friend here is going TO have it enhance the
dividends; and don't like that. I don't mean
that his fees shall be largely increased becsusa
his client was drunk. But, to take up Bennett
Bennett says that he went over to Georgetown
and, bless your souls. when he came to inquire
after the lady why he would a. soon nut his
finger on live lightning as to approach Mrs
Hume and say word to her about her having
passed a counterfeit $40 bill. And with the best
grace that he could he said, Really, [ ma te a
mistake about the Mrs. Hume, and now, m adam,
If you will excuse me l will make my bow and
retire." which he did, and he vent down to Mr..
Hume and he told him that Prince said tn at
Mrs. Hume had passed to him a SO counterfeit
bin, and he had threatened If ii was not
replaced she should be arrested. Hume under
stood him to say that he had a warrant or
course, gentlemen, You see that would be a yery
natural inference on the part of Mr.. Hume for
when person known to be an officer talks of
making an arrest. of course who yer heard that
would suppose that he had q warrant for her
arrest.
Well, Hume did not like it. Brother Caring
ton says that he has prOfaned the great God
I" Damn it," Gentlemen, q good MANY men
might have occasion to say that, although they
might not indulge in 1t, in the presence of the
and submit, your Honor, that really he had as
much reason to complain as my Brother Oar
rington, and do not like to have that 90 to ada
$40 or 500 TO their Vt rdict. But 1 confess 1t
appears to be about the best ground my friend
has. 1t looks to me as il that damn 1t" was
rather actionsble, and If 1t doesn't make any
difference who is the plaintiff, considering the
number going to have "snacks" in it, as the
Yankees used to say, il ought not make much
difference who is de fendant.
Well, everybody seemed to sympathiZe with
Hume when that little damn il" escaped him
L confess felt myself-pardon mel felt myself
d little like a lady on a certain occasion, when a
gentleman rushed up to the platform, With his
carpet bag in hand, just in time to see ths tr ain
move off, The lady reached the same point at
the same instant. Now, the man under the
urgency and stress of that departing train, said
"Damn the train" and the lady said "My dear
sir, permit me to thank yon for that remark"
Now, confess / felt good deal like thanking
MIR. Hume tor that little and very pertinent re-
mark, especially when you remember to whom
He wet up to Princes. He did not see
Prince, but he saw Mrs. Prince, and here
we are again brought up by the genius of the
plaintiffs Leading counsel, your honor. We can
not do anything in this case without aggrayatiug
damages. 1t is the most aggravating case thai
man was ever in; and these are the most ag-
gravating gentlemen, that ever hunted down
ton. Why, We did not ask what Mrs Prince
said to Hume, we were not entitled to IL, and
we stoppe d the witness; but the gentlemen con-
suited with each other, the senior Carringtons,
all come out, and don'ttry to suppress anything"
and it did. 1t came out from Mrs. Prince that the
plaintiff was drunk, and now they say that we
have made Mrs. Prince Islander poor Prince: and
they have got this action for libel now against
The Star, tor sanderOus words that Mrs. Prince
uttered against Mr.. Prince! Was there ever
such a case? Did anybody ever hear of such
an one? And yet, gentlemen of the Jury, 1t was
and IL positively made point to YOU against us
in this case; and there is not any other i'm the
case, or but one other-that little " damn il" of
my friend Hume. That and this little "damn
it, general" together, are good for q thousand
each. l do not know where this whole sum of
$2O, COO is to come from, unless you make 1t up
out OF eloquence. [Laughter.l There is at least
~ GOO worth Of that. Renewed Iaughter.l
And the eath-bed scenes, they are worth lit
tie something, and good many Of them.
Laughter.l Undertaking costs something now
the mourning coach, and does all the weeping
himself. Laughter.l This boring for water in
dry places Is not always very pleasant, but If a
man does get any moisture 1t ought to 60 high,
Tor 1t certainly went hard. [laughter.l But
it was made q point to you. 1t was gravely
argued. The gentleman in his flights almost
left the earth. 1 did not know whether he
you as an evidence OF our express malice. He
made 1t his strong point in proof of express
malice, that We had got good, sweet,
p1us, innocent Mrs. Prince to say that
had published It here through the mouth
of Mr.. Hume, who had already said damn It,
General" and therefore 1t was proof that the
malice towards Prince am not gons s to sss
your honor to charge upon that point at all.
think that with the aid of my ingenious friend
who will follow me, We shall be able to take
care Of that part of the case. Well, gentlemen
of the jury, all this happened here In the fall
end winter OF 1869, 10, and In the spring OF 1870
The bill was passed in the fall, or towards
Christmas, and in the spring this occurred,
Hume didn't like 1t at all. The more he Thought
about It the less he liked Ii. Seeing q gentle
man that some other gentleman said was
Prince, coming along down these streets one
day and supreeing he was Gen. Carrington's 10
Prince he was courteously invited
into his store, and from the store he was invited
to 60 down into the cellar, and down In the cell
lar, Mr.. Hume made some rather striking dem
onstrations, which, OF course, 60 in sggra.
walton of this case, 60 to enhance the
damages. am not going to try to get off from
that. i am willing we should pay for all we
have had; and If The Star must pay for Hume,
pay for the other Prince, pay for Bennett, pay
for Plant, and pay for Mira Prince, too, they will
all make what the western boy called Gan all
fred mess" Well, down cellar there was q little
(not very pleasantly interview between these
parties-Hume and our Prince. 1t might have
been supplemented with another little inter-
view that occurred n day or two after that, up
at the broker establish ment of the other Mr..
Prince-and have something else to do than
tell that story; and If 1 should, it would 90 I'm
aggravation OF damages, and The Star would
have to pay thousand dollars for it. L suspect
the case has gotten up now, to about as much a
we can well pay; and as my friend says that
judgment for damages operates IN future, also.
there is no knowing what may say hereafter to