Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-12-07
THE GARRETT CASE.
malia,s Neither Put ON the w itn es
stand Yesteraay.

YHE dAhhE Ell OASE.
malia,s NEITHER Put ON the w illness
stand Yesterday.
Judge Cheney's court was the center
of all legal attractions yesterday. A
large crowd of prurient-minded people
packed it to sufocation in order to hear all
the dirty details OF this extraordinary
case, The witness who was on the
night before, Miss Josie Corbett, still
held the stand. S. M. Peyton had her
in hand. He made little stir by pro-
ducing the famous threatening letter
supposed to have been meant for Mrs.
Davidson, q friend of Josie. 1t was as
follows:
"Los ANGELES, August II, 1889.
Mrs. DAVIDSON, HAG-The object OF
this letter is to warn you to keep your
mouth shut or might wish you had,
and advise you. Ito do.. .......
Won have been doing. By this | mean
do not let the reporter in at the back
door and run your children out at the
front. That l must say is nice way
to do. l will take your old bones and
yatler them all over that deired reporter
look at your old shabby eyes and l
think you must be in q pretty mess.
Not only the reporter do you with but
your-every that comes along you are q
perfect devil in human form. ...........
what is spoke all over Los Angeles. ....
:. would have kept your mouth
...Iw would not have wrote this
the Gods if you don't keep
darn mouth shut YOU and
Watson both will get in
trouble. Want to hear
no more from either.
BIS W and III E G."
This letter was written on bit of
yellow paper such as the printers call by
the technical name of chemical" 1t
was ruled as legal cap, and this sort of
paper is smooth like letter paper. This
PAPER had been torn to shreds and
patches and pieced together by being
pasted on another sheet of paper. Miss
Corbett's story is that she was given thie
paper in W. T. williams office. 1t was
meant to frighten Mrs. Davidson from
taking any further interest in the Gaze
against Garrett. Some one came in, and
the paper was torn up and thrown out OF
the window. Josie told Deputy District
he went down with her to get the scraps.
They got them, and in Peyton's law
Office Diehl pasted them together 30 as
to make the letter above. Here the
good.natured Josie was turned over
from the gentle and encouraging
manipulation of Mr.. Peyton to
the very diverse processes OF
Mr.. Williams in cross examination.
The effort of the attorney for the defense
was at once directed to the past record
of his victim. He piled her with the
same questions in protean forms until the
Court threatened him with fine. The
attorney tackled to windward and began
getting out of the witness the details of q
conversation he had with her at his
office. Miss Corbett, who is decidedly
bright, and who bubbled over with good
humor nearly ali the time she stood this
terrible ordeal, between redhot lega.
brands, said she remembered Mr.. Will
.::ams at that time to,,Ia her he was sick
and tired of Garrett. Williams did not
want that part of the conversation, and
possibly fearing to bring out more in the
same vein, he veered again. This time
he asked her as to her testimony
given in the other trials. She
put q bold face on tie matter and
said that it was nearly all false.
Her justification was that che was in
Garrett's power, and fearing his threats
while trusting his promises to take care
of her, if she told the story he wished
her to tell, she testified as he dictated to
her. Williams here out -Heroded Herod
by asking her who paid for the clothes she
was wearing. Josie is poor, and the in
uendo in the question was plain. But
before an objection could be interposed,
Josie said, with much frankness: "They
belong to Mrs. Edgcomb, who lent them
to me, 80 I cannot tell you when they
were bought or who paid for them.''
Nothing taken aback, MIR. Williams next
asked her where she was getting her
meals while in attendance on the court,
bnt the Judge threw the question out.
An interlude was put in here. Henry
G. Dibble, ESQ.,, an attorney from San
Francisco, here defending the Examiner
in the Lucas libel case, was put on, as he
was about to leave for home. He
stated that he knew Captain Garrett in
New Orleans, where Dibble was from
1851 to 1877. He said he had not heard
Garrett's character discussed, but he be-
lieved it was good. He acknowledged
that he knew nothing of Garrett's pri
vate life. Major Dibble was in the army
during the war, and lost q leg in battle
He is Grand Army man, as is also
Captain Garrett.
In the afternoon Miss Corbett wal
again put under cross-examination. Mr.
Williams took up the conversation on the
street corner where Garrett told her O
his relations with Malta. Then he wen
into her life at home, her acquaintance
with Mrs. Davidson, her going to Mrs
Watson; but nothing of material ma
ture was elected. The same question:
were reiterated again and again, until The
Court interfered, and told Mr.. Viii
liams not to 60 over the same
ground 80 often. He then wen
into the paper found outside his owr
office. His effort was to prove tha
Nettie Keyes wrote the letter at the die
tation of some one. The purpose of this
would be to show conspiracy to ruin
Garrett. Miss Josie said she did moi
know who wrote the letter. In some
respects she thought it resembled Gar
rett's hand, and in others Nettie's
Williams asked her if she ever saw any
such paper as the letter was written on
in his Office, and she replied very
promptly that she had seen plenty of it,
and had seen Garrett take some of il
away.
Then the attorney went back to the
street-car episode and closely questioned
her as to all the circumstances connected
xx5fkt !. hA~. ko11 De- L.