Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-04
LOCAL NEWS.
FOr other Local News see secondgPae ell
The Smith Murder Trial.

The Smith Murder Trial.
 Testimony of the Reputed Wife of the Accused-She Denies that she was ever Married to -Smith-She is C0ntradieted i'm the AfEernOOn-BOlh Sides Rest Arguments To-Day.
 The Superior Court, criminal side, for the trial of Jacob Smith for the murder of Charles Pierce, opened yesterday morning at 10 o'clock. There were but few spectators present at the opening, but an hour later the seats in the auditorium were comfortably filled and @ number were within the space al- lotted to attorneys.
 Mrs. Lowe was recalled to the witness stand and her cross-examination resumed by Mir. Blydenburgh. When asked whether she had not told some minor details of the homicide differently in the lower court she could not re- member. She could not recollect that she did not testify in the lower court that the glass in the hall door was broken by Smith running his hand through it. Most of her answers to Mir. Blydenburgh's questions were, "I don't know, I don't recollect" Finally he gave her up, discouraged.
 On her re direct the witness testified she did Hot hear Pierce say, while the two were strug- gling, "Life for life!" She heard nothing at all.about life.
 Mary Van Schoick, coIored,. testified that 
 took place last August, on another floor from the Loves. That night she saw the accused and the deceased, Pierce, clinched in the hall Pierce backed Smith against the hall door, breaking two panes of glass. At this time Smiths little girl ran up stairs and told the witness that her father was fighting with MT. Pierce.
 Cross-examined, the witness said that when the two men were struggling she did not see Smiths cane. Subsequently she found it behind the hall door. There was more blood on the st0op than in the hall, the wit ness said.
 John Guy, coIored, testified that he knew Pierce, the two being in the employ of the same concern, and knew him to be quiet and peaceable man. The witness lived under the Loves in the Goffe street house, and was abed when the trouble between Smith and Pierce began that night. He first heard 8 rumbling over his head, and it alarmed him so he ran out, intending to go up the basement steps. He heard drip on the steps from the platform overhead. He crouched down, waiting chance to ascend the steps, and felt something run down on him that led him to think the struggling men above had upset bucket of blood. At this stage, the witness testified . that he discovered he had forgotton to put on his trowsers, and returning to his bed room, he saw that he was covered again he heard Pierce first and Smith afterwards gay, ''You let go of me-" Pierce added 'sLet go of me and I'll go and get an officer, and whoever is in the wrong will suf- fer" The contestants then "broke holds" and that was all of the fight the witness saw.
 The court ruled out testimony offered through the witness, as to what threats or declarations Smith made after he came back to the Gofe street struggle as not being proper evidence in rebuttal.
 The witness did not hear either of the men, while struggliDgeon the platform, say, "Your life or mine." He did not think that Pierce carried knife, because while ct work short time before the homicide Pierce borrowed knife from witness MT. Guy knew that while Pierce was sailor he carried sheath knife but not after he went to work at the Rubber shop.
 Afternoon Ss ssiGn.
 At 2 o'clock the trial was resumed, when the witness, Laura Lowe, continued her tes- timony on the cross examination. In reply to Judge Bydenburgh, witness said: I do not remember when Smith and went to New York. We talked of being married. I passed as his wife and represented myself as his wife. Do not remember that we ever went to look for a minister. I don't know that I have ever told any one that was mar ried while I lived in Brooklyn. When we left here and went to New York expected to be married. don't remember when first met Pierce. It was in the winter previous to May 1, when Smith left me. I saw him at Mrs Banks on Webster street. Mir. Wrinn never SalQ any6nlnR TO me aDOuG leaving ms house on Rose street on account of the mum Der of men that I had visiting me ct the house. Pierce came to the house twice while I lived there. I lived in the house one month. When he came he sat down and talked as any gentlemans would, and left the house. Pierce was never present at my house when I proposed to move away and leave Smith, and Pierce did not point out the fur niture and things to be moved in the pres- ence of man named Scott. Smith told me he did not want Pierce to come near the house lived in. This was when lived in MT. Wrinn's house with Mrs. Banks. On the morning of the day I moved from Webster street told Smith I was going to move. While lived in Liberty street, after moving from Wrinn's house, Pierce never called on member seeing Officer Clancey at my mothers house after the afray. 1 don't think told the officer that did not see the first of the fight.
 Laura Lowe. who lived with Smith many years as his wife, and who left him for Pierce, thus laying the foundation for the trouble that led to the homicide, was next called to the stand, in rebuttal, by MT. Doolittle. She is slight woman, of dark brown complexion, and not over attractive features. She smiled as she met the gaze of some friend in the room, but when her eyes rested on the bulky form of the accused she scowled. She testified that she lived last August in the house where the homicide took place. She had come home to live with her mother after her child was taken sick. In the family were Pierce, Alexander, her three brothers, her mother and herself. The oldest brother was twenty-five years of age EThe witness denied that she was ever married to Jacob Smith, as he testified. She heard his testimony that while in New York, years ago, he took her to 0 minister and mar ried her, and she denied that this was so She lived with Smith until the first of May, 1879, and then left him on account of Rice woman, with whom he had become intimate The witness complained to him of his conduct in connection with this woman.
 The witness detailed one occasion when she had trouble with Smith, which resulted in her coming down to complain to the Chief Of Pc lice of him. The witness denied most posi- lively that Pierce ever cohabited with her or asked her to marry him. On the night of the homicide she sat beside the stove in her house, when Smith came in and said Good even ing" She saw him raise his heavy cane but did not see him strike Pierce, who was in the room sitting in chair. The witness got up from beside the stove and went towards the bedroom door. She saw the two men were both tussling out in the hall and when they got outside the door she went out. Smith, when he raised the cane, stood just inside the door. She heard the blow and it did not sound as If the cane struck piece of wood, but rather came down on some person.
 Pierce had at that time been living with the witness mother two weeks. He had a sheath
 
 sink. It was used to open cans of condensed milk. That night the knife lay by the side of the stove, having been used to cut kndlings to make the fire. She knew that before she went out neither of the two men picked up that knife. When next she saw the knife it was back of the sink in it's usual place. After the afray and when the witness returned that evening to the house she noticed that the glass in the hall door was broken. The wit ness denied telling "Jake," the Monday be- fore the homicide, that she would marry him if he would go and get license. When the witness was living with Smith in relation of wife, he told her one woman was not enough and he would go with the Rice woman if be wanted to. After the witness left him he sent his clothes once to her to be washed. She washed them and sent them by her little girl the morning of the day of the homicide, tell ing her to tell him to send back some money to get medicine for the baby.
 To Mir. Blydenburgh on the cross examina tion, the witness said she did not get the money till after Smiths arrest. She con tinued that she had lived with Smith in New York as his wife and bore him three children. She had lived with him about eight years in