Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-31
A LUDICROUS TRAP.
An Expert ON Insanity in the RawsOn
Case Falls In.
Taking of Testimony is COncluded-The
Trial of Guiteau Recalled in
Sensational Manner.

CHICAGO, ILL, Jan. 2S.-The trial OF
Mrs. Meckie L. Rawson for shooting the
lawyer of her millionaire husband fol
assailing her character ended this after
noon SO far as the hearing of testimony is
concerned.
The feature of the day was the
ludicrous trap into which fell one of the
noted experts who were put on the stand
70 show that she was not insane The
victim was Dr.. j. G. Herman. His
testimony was notable for its rather SEN
satiOnal bearing on the evidence which
sent President Garfield IS slayer to the
gallows. Mrs. Rawson' s lawyer, Seth
Crews, had asked the witness if he did
not testify at
THE GUITEAU TRIAL
that the assassin was insane.
He said he did.
"StiIl, - continued the lawyer
"Guiteau was hanged. -
eyes, but the experts who swore that
he was sane perjured themselves. They
gave testimony contrary to their own
opinions. l want to say, too, that sew
eral of them have since been dismissed
from the institution which they con =
trOlled for mismanagement. The So
called prosecution III that case were paid
by the government, while the experts for
the defense were dragged to Washington
by the government and got nothing
After this outbreak on the Guteau
case Mr.. Crews picked up a book which
he said was ''Ray's Medical Jurispru-
dence.'
"Now, doctor - Crews said in bland
way, g [ want to read You two cases
which l read to the experts who testified
before you. They are as follows:
OK. j., a woman aged forty years;
cause of attack, great domestic trouble.
She is a woman of quick, active, strong
mind, and among that class of women
known as strong minded. The physician
in charge of her being asked how a
woman OF such d mind could become in
sane replied, she could not bend,
HENCE SHE BROKE.
F' A. J. a woman OF very active, strong
mind and of highly nervous excitable
temperament. This cause, like the pre-
vious one, was the fault of domestic diff
ffculties of trying character, which had
mortified her greatly. She had shown
suicidal tendencies, but her friends had
supposed these were overcome. She had
shown great excitement, at times fol-
lowed by great prOstratiOn. The excite
ment was aroused on the mention of the
name of a woman she supposed her hus-
band to have been intimate with. She
became incurably insane.
DR.. Norman thought the lawyer was
reading from book, but those who were
sitting behind Mr.. Crews saw he had two
sheets of manuscript closely written in
side of the volume.
''That first case yOu read, - said the
witness, 81 remember very well l have
read it but that was a case of hysterical
insanity -
''Look here doctor, - said Crews,
tearing the two sheets Of paper out of the
book and handing them TO the witness,
These eases are not i'll the book nor in
any book. 1 made them up myself -
The DOCTORS face became very red
when he saw what trap he had walked
into. ''They are very similar, Mr.
Crews, - he said, to many cases in the
books in their general features. -
MIR. Crews said he had based his fcti-
tious cases on Mrs. Rawson' s history and
symptoms. The doctor was allowed to
depart, while Mrs. Rawson leaned back
in her chair and laughed till the tears ran
down her cheeks.