The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1881-10-15

- A suit, in which Captain Briggs was
plaintiff, and Mr.. J. R. Mills of Honokaa, de-
PENDANT, occupied the Supreme Court, on Mon
day and the greater part of Tuesday last, and
resulted in u verdict in favor of plaintiff with
$4,000 damages. The parties being well known,
the case attracted n good deal of public atten-
ton. From the evidence it appears that Mrs.
Briggs went to Honokaa on n visit to Mrs. Mills
(who was an old acquaintance, some time last
year, and remained three months there. Her
husband was ut the time trading to that neigh
borhood with his vessel. According to Mrs.
Mills, after Mrs. Briggs arrived, she and her
husband could never get on together, on account
of his attentions to his visitor. On the other
hand Mills makes accusations against his own
wife which form the subject of a pending
divorce suit so that there would seem to have
been anything but n happy family at
HonOkaa, before Mrs. Briggs appeared upon the
scene. When Briggs lost his vessel, Mills gave
him an engagement as a luna on the plantation,
and he and Mrs. Briggs lived in the same house
with Mr. and Mrs. Mills. Although the in
timacy which had sprung up between Mills and
Mrs. Briggs was noticed and commented upon
by others, Briggs appears to have had the
utmost confidence in his wife, and when she
hesitated to go TO Waimea, with Mills as her
escort, lest people might say things about her,
he said that he would shoot any man who told
him anything against her and Mills. Never
theless, out of this journey to Waimea, the
present suit has arisen. As soon as Mrs. Briggs
got back to Honokaa, her nurse-girl, Maria, q
half-white South Sea Islander, accused Capt.
Briggs, to her mistress, of improper conduct to
her. Then tales came to the ears of Briggs as
TO his wife's conduct at Waimea which led him
to make the charge of adultery which was the
foundation of this action against Mills. On their
own evidence it appears that they slept within
the same apartment, a large upper room, in
which also natives slept. The natives who gave
evidence for the plalntlf, however, explicitly
| charged them with being in the same bed. Their
testimony was not very coherent, but the jury
gave credit to it. An episode which occurred
soon after Mrs. Briggs retired for the night, may
also have had its weight in influencing the
minds of the jury. Mrs. Briggs found her
bedclothes smelt so musty as to be unfit for use.
At this time Mills was in a room on the lower
floor, where a bed had been provided forh i'm, and
Mrs. Briggs, and the native woman who was
with her, reused him up to tell him about the
bed-blothes. Mills carried the sheets, etc., of
his own bed up stairs and gave them to Mrs.
Briggs, and it was then that he took possession
OF a mat in the upper room. There were
long arguments between counsel as to the
admission Of the testimony of Mrs. Briggs and
Mrs. Mills. The Court at first ruled against its
being taken. Int on Tuesday morning decided To
allow them both to be called. Mr.. Blckerton,
who with Mr.. W. C. Jones, was counsel for the
defense, noted exceptions to the admission of
Mrs. Mills evidence, and, as the exceptions can
not be heard until after the appointment of a
Chief Justice, the case is tied mp till the jan
nary term. Meanwhile divorce suits have been
commenced by Mrs. Briggs against her husband
and by Mills against his wife. Besides this
civil SUIT, capt. Briggs nau Mills ana MS Vile
arrested last week on p charge Of adultery, the
case being the same as that on which his action
for damages is founded. Mr.. Bickerton being
disqualified Gas Mrs. Briggs legal adviser from
hearing this charge, it was brought before Judge
McCully, who dismissed ii on the ground that,
the offence being, according to the allegations OF
the prosecutor. committed at Waimea, the Police
Justice of Honolulu had no Jurisdiction in the
matter.
% A fancy dress party was given at the
Waikiki residence of Mrs. c. r.. Bishop on the
evening of the 7th inst, and besides being large.
sly attended proved to be a very interesting and
kenjoyable affair. The costumes of many of the
Emery masqueraders We're exceedingly unique and
slisplayed a great amount of originality, in some
Sinstances palpable anachronisms, compelling IN.
lividuals to acknowledge that they hardly knew
That they represented. Peasant dresses wert
numerous; Miss Florence Luce as a Welsh, thu
Aiisses Feer as Swiss and Miss Ponti, French;
being remarkable for the artistic dressing of the
Characters represented. Miss Severance appear
81 to good advantage in a figured muslin dress
lew neck and pulled sleeves, which with sasl
and trimmings of blue and a jaunty hat trimmed
also with blue, presented la belle Peggy. Miss
Jadd's toilet dc cdraiUal was decidedly wei
gotten up, representing the style of her grand
mamma-s DAYS in n manner thOrOughiV appre