St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-31
SHARP-POIATEO TONGUES.
Counsel Summing Up the WEIGH Libel
Case.
HARD WORDS IN DEMAND.
Judge Welch's Characteristic Roasts
Followed by Attorney Davis
=. Keen ThrpSts. -

1e e
In the midst of the argument by cou11-
sci. summing up the William WEIGH
libel case, the court adjourned yester-
day. Mr.. Davis has just warmed up TO
his argument. and Col. Sessions and
probably Victor Welch are to follow.
The case will then be given to the jury.
There were not many persons IN the
courtroom when the aged defendant,
William Welch, began the argument IN
his own behalf, but those few who were
there enioyed singular and wonderful
treat. It was not matter Of enjoyment
to hear man pleading for his own ac-
quittal, but the old Judge is caustic to- a
degree, quick, sharp and lmpasslonea,
and he threw an inciSive humor into MS
argument that made it very spicy. he
began on County Attorney Davis, Win
the intimation that, while he was an elo-
quent attorney and great man, ne was
neither, SO great nor so eloquent as ne
thought he was. He compared MIN 10
Mercury, when the agile god came upon
earth only to learn the low estimation IN
which he was held. Turning. to the
serious matter in hand, he SOL
EMMY asserted that every word
in the Home Diary was true, and
that he would not abate one
jot or title or retract one line. Has
Gals, thieves and destrOyerS were the
choice terms he applied to Villas and
other directors of the Madison Fire In
Surance company, as he once more went
over the story of the rise and fall OF the
company. He claimed it not only as
right, but duty to expose the vlllalny
of the wreckers. He thought that they
deserved thunder and he believed IN
giving it them. The copies OF the home as
Diary he had mailed to prominent Of
fciais were sent because he
thought they might be instructed.
In the course of his argu-
ment, he at times became almost
frenZied with excitement and would
lean toward the jury with his eyes glar-
ing and hands trembling with sup
pressed emotion. He higgled not over
terms, and when he meant to say man
was dishonest he called him thief and
robber without hesitation. 1nvectiveS
poured easily from his lips, and his
supply of vituperative adjectives seemed
endless. He spoke until noon, and when
court reaSSembled took up the thread OF
his argument and continued for an hour,
closing with the solemn asseyeration that
bis published statements were mild,
considering the facts, and he had not
word to retract.
THE PROSECUTORS ARGUMENT.
County Attorney Davis then began to
sum up the case for the state. He
seemed to be nettled at some of the
comparisons made by Mr.. WEIGH and
commenced his speech by sarcastlcally
remarking that he preferred to stand
upon higher plane than that mapped
out and pursued by the defend
ant with idle jokes and buff
foonry. This defendant, he con-
tinued, has seen fit to make charges
of corruption against certain of his fei-
low-men, certain men of high official
position, one of whom occupies at the
present time the position of secretary OF
the interior in the cabinet of the preSl-
dent of the United States. He even re-
fers to these men as helpers, and yet he
says he is not inspired by malice,
but that these men are his friends,
but that they had committed wrong on
the policy holders of the Madison In.
surance company, and that he believed
it his duty to show them up. Now just
think of accompanying man to that
disgusting, diseased outcast, leper,
and then saying that he has no malice
against him, and that he is his friend!
There is consistency for you.
"The court will instruct you in this
case that there can be no excuse for this,
libel. and that the defendant must
either show that it was true or false;
and your verdict must state that 1T is
either libel or the truth. Now the de-
PENDANT says there was no malice on his
part in publishing this libel, and yet
while on the stand he said there was
but 100 copies of the paper containing it
printed, and we find that he sent
one copy to Grover Cleveland. Now
what did~the president of the Uuited
States care about the affairs OF the Madi-
son Insurance company, or whether 1T
was wrecked, or not? One copy was
sent so Mrs. Cleveland. SO she could
know what was
THE TOPIC OF GOSSIP IN MADISON,
the old home of the Villas family. A
copy was sent to Carlisle, the speaker
of the house of congress, so that he
could inform himself in regurd to the
winding up of the affairs of this Madi-
son Insurance company, you see, he
sowed this seed wherever he thought he
could hurt this man Villas. We then
find that this defendant went to the ed
itor of the great daily newspaper of the
Northwest, the Minneapolis Tribune,
and sought to have this libel published
in it's columns, but the editor told him
that the Tribune was local paper,
and that he should publish it in
one of those great metropolitan dailieS
that circulated all over the country.
''My paper is too much of local paper"
the defendant says the editor of the
Tribune told him. You see he then
concluded that local paper was not
what he wanted, and the matter was,
consequently. printed in the Home
Diary, and sent in private letters where
local paper would never have gone,
and vet if he had really intended print
ing this for the information of the pol
icy holders, why local paper was just
what he wanted. He then writes to
Buel E. Hutchinson, who was then the
receiver at the United States land office
at Aberdeen, OAK, and asks him the
following question:
"'As you were the late secretary of
the Madison Insurance company /
would like to have you tell me what
amount of the assets did each of the di-
rectors of the company get. Villas told
me some time ago that he got $4,000 as
his share Now, he had already charged
the directors with having divided
this money among themselves,
and yet we find by this
letter that he admits he does not
know for certain whether they receive
anything. Again he asks: What was
done with the money in the surplus
fund?' which shows that he was even
in doubt as to whether there had ever
been any division of this money among