Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1881-12-08
The Prisoner Interrupts
Counsel, Witnesses or
Judge, Whenever the
Spirit Moves.
The Trial Conducted in Such
Shape as to Bring Reproach
Upon the Judge and
Disgust the People,
THIETEENTH DAY


amounted to a perfect jam to-day. The
papers and letters of the prisoners
father were offered in evidence. They
were all written by Guiteau to his faith
er and other members Of the family,
and covered a period of fifteen or
twenty years.
The reading ef letters was finished at
noon, and
GUITEAU TOOK TIE WITNESS STAND.
Giteau then related his efforts to Sc
cure the Chicago Inter Ocean.
Q.-After you gave up the newspa-
per enterprise in Chicago, what did you
do next2
A.-That brought me down to the
winter and spring of rs. tried to pick
up the law business again, which | had
neglected. but the law business was
scarce and | found it hard to get any.
Then | went out to your place in Wis
consin. [ worked around the house.
studied theology and the New Testa-
ment and read papers, soaped
trees, and all that sort of thing
In October, 1876, [ was in Chicago
during the Moody and Sankey meet
ings; attended prayer meetings and
services regularly day and night during
three months. Moody was there from
October to January. During all that
time ] was with Moody and bore an
active part. | was usher and helped
around in general way; spoke at
prayer meetings frequently. Some
time in November, during the Moody
work, heard DR.. Kittridge, OF Chicago,
pastor Of the Third Presbyterian
church, say in regard to the text: eff
| will Che meaning john larry till |
come, what is that to thee?" "Breth-
rem, | have to confess as q man of God
that | do not know what that means. y
At that time there was much expecta-
ton in the PUBLIC mind that the Saviour
might appear, and that idea has per-
vaded the peoples mind ever since.
That set my brain Whirling, and / be-
gan to investigate it. | went to work
in the Chicago public library and [ dug
out my lecture on the second coming.
As q result Of that investigation [ went
to work and wrote my lecture. My lee
ture is briefly this: That the second
coming Of Christ occurred III the de-
struchon of Jerusalem, in the clouds,
directly over Jerusalem; that it was an
event in the spiritual world, and
that the destruction of Jerusalem
was an outward sign of His
coming. | hold that for all these
eighteen centuries the churches have
all been III error In supposing the
second coming of Christ to be in the
future. That is the proposition on
which my lecture was written, and that
was the result Of three or four years
investigation on the subject. Witness
then went on to relate his various fail
ures in delivering the lecture in Chi
cago, Evanston, Kalamazoo, Ann
ArbOr, Detroit, Ypsilanti, Toledo,
Cleveland, Buffalo, Washington, Roch-
ester, Syracuse, Albany, Troy and
elsewhere. He frequently laughed
as he repeated some humorous
incident of his failure At various
times he was put off the cars for not
paying his fare, and arrested for not
paying his board bills. At other times
he grew excited and asserted that in all
he did he was like st. Paul, engaged in
the services of God, and that God was
therefore responsible for all his board
bills. On this latter point he said, /
did not give up lecturing because my
repeated failure, / stuck to my work,
my idea was that | was working for the
Lord. | would do my duty and let
Him take care of me rs he fell dis
posed. | went into that whole business
to serve the Lord, to make money. sue
cess or failure was nothing to me. |
considered that was the Lords affair.
my duty was to continue with my
work. | have had no success because
| had new ideas on theology. l kept
thinking of Paul all the time. and |
stuck to my theology all the time. On
my way from Baltimore to Washington
| avoided the conductor, who had or
dered me to get off at the relay house,
and so managed to get to Washington.
The strangest thing about it was, after
| had eluded the conductor, man
came along and said to me: ''AIv friend,
are you going to Washington" [ said
eyes" He said: ''Would You like a
good boarding house?' | said ''ves. .
and he said he could take me to one.
Now | had been praying | could get a
4 boarding house, as / did not want to
go to hotel, and had no sooner cot
the prayer out when this man came
along, and was just as free and easy
with me rs l. he had known me twenty
years. Now that | call providence. /
have had hundreds Of that kind of ex-
perlenCes, where direct answer to
prayer has been rendered me.
While the prisoner was giving his
testimony he was watched most atten-
lively by all the medical experts pres
ent, and with great curiosity by every
person IN the crowded court room. At
times he showed exhaustion bv lower
ing his voice, and it was in consequence
of these signs that some 10 minutes
before the usual time of adjournment
the court at the instance of the district
attorney, adjourned.
FOURTEENTH DAY.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 30.-Guiteall's re-
cital, yesterday, Of his varied expert
ences as a religious tramp and dead
beat, seems to have whetted public in
terest, for despite the rain, the crowd
was as great as yesterday.
Upon the opening of the court Gui-
teau was taken directly to the witness
box. The witness was asked by SEQ
vile to identify some papers. The first
shown him was a hand bill announcing
u lecture at Evanston, Ill.
eyes, said Guiteau, turning itround
to the jury with an air of satisfaction.
that was an announcement of one of
my lectures; shall | read it?"
ScOyille-"NO: / will mt tbnSo no