Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-05-28
ABOUT THE CITY.
The Flag Cottage Case Still
in Progress.
TESTIMONY OF THE DEFENDANT
Inquest on the Body of Pratt-Main
and Tenth Street Hotel Meet
ing-Other News.

trial all day yesterday before Justice
Austin and jury. The courtroom was
crowded with people. The case for the
State continued with the testimony oi
Joseph Graft, the son Of Mary Graf, who
is the chief complaining witness. He
swore to having seen great many queer
performances in and about the house,
and to having heard on all sides that it's
general repute was bad. On cross-ex-
animation, an effort was made by the
attorney for the defense to prove that
the conduct OF Mrs. Graft was very far
from being what it should be. The witness
Indignantly repelled the insinuation.
The second witness was o. w. Seely,
who lives in the vicinity of the Flag Cot
tage, and who testified that the reputa-
ton of the house was very bad. He had
seen hack containing two men and two
women, and had heard one of the women
call out murder" and saw the hack
driver try to pull her out of the carriage
by the foot.
| William Henderson, Sam Howard,
| William Burkhart, John Davis, N. @.
Anderson, j. l.. Lovett, A. King, M.
Classen, Mrs. Annie Anderson and Mrs.
Mary Graft, all of whom either live near
the Flag Cottage, or have had occasion
to visit at the house, testified as to its
bad character and to the strange pro-
ceedings which took place there. This
closed the morning session.
In the afternoon, at 3 O'Clock, the trial
began again in the presence OF the usual
crowd. DR.. Hiram Sinsabaugh, the ex-
Councilman, ,swore that the general repu-
tation of the house was bad and that he
had heard it was place of assignation.
DR.. M. M. Bovard, President of the Uni
versity, gave evidence to the same
effect, as did also E. P. Dolley, of Uni
versity street, a fruit raiser, and T. G..
| Warner, pastor of the University Meth
odist Church. This closed the case for
the prosecution.
| The first witness for the defense was
the defendant, himself, Charles McCor-
mack. His testimony occupied great
part of the afternoon. He talked along
without questions from the attorneys for
the defense, or objections from the pros
ecutions, and succeeded in getting in a
good deal of free advertising for himself
and pretty fair plea for the jury. He
said that his house was nothing more
nor less than a first-class restaurant. He
had stock of $4O0 worth of groceries
and liquors. He had three and hall
barrels of whisky, half barrel oil
gin, another of sherry, etc. There
was no one about the house except
the witness and his wife and a China
man. 1t had never been a house of ill
fame. He did not allow women of ill
repute there. There were only two bed
rooms, and it was only in case of emer-
gency that people we're allowed to stay
all night, for he did not pretend to keep
hotel. 1t was merely wayside resort,
where people who are out driving could
stop aud get refre hments. The house had
only seven rooms altogether. One of
these was spare bedroom, which was
kept locked all the time. Mrs. Graf,
the complaining witness, had come to
him some time ago and asked for work
as she was quite poor. She and the wit
ness had always been friends until she
filed this complaint. She once objected
to the performance OF two drummers from
Chicago, whe were there with their
wives, and the witness had remarked
that she need not look on if she did not
wish to.
The defendants little girl had been
away at boarding school. She came
home only once week. OF course the
proprietor could not be sure that the
visitors to his house were married,
neither could any other man who con-
Quoted restaurant. He couldn't re-
quire them to show marriage certif-
cate. Judge Sexton asked him
what he would sell his lease for,
and he replied 81 ,O0O Sexton said that
perhaps the church would be willing to
pay $3.50 to get rid of him. He had had
house.
peated that there were only seven rooms
his own cards, which said that there were
house. He was unable to account for
this, thought it must be misprint. He
received anybody at the house who came
along that looked respectable, behaved
in gentlemsnly or ladylike manner and
paid his or her bills. The names of sew
eral visitors from the city, members Of
the demimonde, were mentioned, and
the witness was asked whether they were
specimens of the "frst.class people" he
had talked about. He answered that
Lney pdlu DTbu-Cldsb pTlCeb. lue IedsOu
why all this fuss had been made was that
he sold liquor, and the straight-laced
people OF that vicinity objected.
The next witness was John Kilroy,
who lived a short distance from the
house and had delivered, milk and chick
ems there. He had never seen anything
going on in the house, but had heard that
it had a bad repute. Charles F. Turner,
hack man, gave testimony to about
the same effect as did also the following
persons Frank Ransome, Mary Linn,
w. @. Yates, ]. w. Tryon, G. r. West
colt, Sarah Slocum, Bertha Fowler,
Mary Newman, Maria Whittier, w.
Ahem, J. J. Frowine, A. A. Coburn, W.
W. Slocum and Mr.. M. Stewart. Mr..
Classen was called in rebuttal by the
prosecution to testify that the house had
twelve rooms, and Mrs. M. Stewart, a
former cook in the establishment in sur.
rebuttal to swear that it had only ten
rooms.
The case will be submitted to the jury
this morning after speeches by the
attorneys. The session will begin at
O'Clock.