The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-01-17
The DELAYS of Litigation.

Miss Minnie heinrich, or Minnesota
has sued the Pullman Car Company
for $4,000. She was travelling on a
Pullman car, when revolver dropped
out of the pocket of colored porter,
struck on capsidore and was dis
charged, the bullet entering the thigh
Of the young woman, who was in the
toilet room combing out her bangs.
We are sorry that Mr.. Pullman did
not give a check for the amount at
once, as he can we'll afford to do, and
thus put stop to the litigation, for if
the matter once gets into the courts
there will be no end to it, and the
poor young lady will be too old to
enjoy the money before she gets it.
IN the first place the defendant will ap-
ply for continuance owing to the alb
sense of an important witness, and
will proceed to show that the impor-
tant witness is a travelling man who
saw the bullet az it sped to its marx,
and he is on trip to the Pacific coast.
The court will grant the continuance,
and the girl will have to wait till the
March term of court. At that term
the travelling man VIII be on had, but
a con inuance will be asked, owing to
the absence of another important wit
ness by whom the defense expects to
prove that the plaintiff has been heard
to say that the bullet did not hurt her
very much. This witness is a girl
who attended the injured young lady,
and though the injured lady is pre-
pared to demonstrate that she never
said anything of the kind, and the
bullet nearly killed her, the case will
be continued till the November term.
By the time this term is ready, the
girl will be ready to settle for $1,000,
but the case will have to be continued
from time to time on account of the
abseLce of Mr.. Pullman, who has gone
to Europe for his health. A charge
will about this time be made in the
daily papers that the woman who was
shot placed herself in a position to re-
ceiye the bullet, In order to bleed the
company, having bribed the colored
man to drop the pistol, and the col
| ored man will be interviewed, while
he will not admit the story to be true,
for fear Of being discharged, he will
hint that he has been approached, and
public attention will begin to turn
from the PLAINTIFF, who wishes she
had settled for 5000. Before the
next term OF court the story will have
been pretty generally circulated that
the girl inherited a tendency to gun
shot wounds, several of her family
having been thus afflicted, and the
case will be continued on the ground
that a witness who knew
several of her relatives. who had been
shot, is not to be found: By this time
the girl will be old enough to be mar
ried, and change of venue will
be moved by the defendant Oh the
ground of prejudice on the part of the
judge, and the girl will get married,
and the defendant will move for a
non-suit on the ground that there is
no cause of action, when it will be
ably argued that if she is able to get
married she cannot have been injured,
and, in fact, it will be shown that the
nOtoriety she attained by reason of
the shot secured for her a sutton and
a husband, and the company will put
in claim for a commission on the
transaction. BY the time the case
comes into court the lawyers will
have died, the judge gone crazy, the
injured woman will be a grand
! mother, the company will prove
that on the day the accident
is alleged to have occurred that
| there was no railroad at the
place designated in the complaint, and
that there Is no such person as the
/ plaintiff, who is alleged to be an I'M
J married young person, when the COM
I pany can prove that she is married
and a grandmother, and not the per-
son at all, the cOlored porter will have
been gathered to his fathers, revoly-
ers will have gone out Of style, and in
all probability the Pullman company
will recover a judgment against the
plaiatiff for Sl5, 900 for malicious pros
ecution, and she and her husband will
have to mortgage their farm to pay
it, and do washing for the balance of
their natural lives to pay their attor-
news. This is about the way of such
litigation these days. If Mr.. Pull
| man will not pay the amount claimed
by the plaintiff he should be put IN
der bonds not to get a Judgment
against the girl.