Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1889-02-23
HELD FOB MURDER.
RESULT OF THE PRELIMINARY Eek
ANIMATION IN THE PAGE CASE.

Oh inc risonoA
Child to Repeat Her Evidence.
The preliminary examination OF Mrs.
Maggie Page On the charge OF having ad-
ministered poison to her husband last Fri
day was held yesterday in the Probate
Court before Judge Irvine. County At
torney De Witt prosecuted and the pris-
oner wal represented by Charles O'Donnell,
ESQ. The evidence produced consisted
chiefly OF that produced at the inquest held
on Saturday last, which has already been
published. 49,.
In addition the prosecution brought IN q
Young man named John Bonner, b was
ACQUAINTED at the house where Page died.
He testified that he was there the morning
after the inquest when Mrs. Page gave him
a bottle that was labelled sulphate OF NOR
phia with a request that he would take 1t
away and dispose OF it for her. She
changed her mind, soon. and took it back
in a few minutes saying NO, may need
it," or IL may need it again." or WORDS TO
that effect. Subsequently he o it away
with him and he handed the bottle to
Under Sheriff Reynolds, telling him the cir
cumstances under which he had got it.
This wa corroborated by Under Sheriff
REYNOLDS as to the action OF Bonner In
handing him the bottle in question and he
produced it in court. The bottle was one oil
the ordinary kind manufactured by Powers
& Weightman, Philadelphia.
Both Under Sheriff Reynolds and Deputy
Jailer Blake testified to conversations with
Mrs. Page since she has been in pr son,
when she asserted positively that neither
her husband nor she had ever had a bottle
of morphine about the house; that they
l,o-lr -vA,eIA- f,no1- hnt naunr had anv
poison about the premises.
The result OF the testimony, 50 far, was
to prove that Page had died from morphine
poisoning, as testified to by DR.. Howard;
that he had been sick during Friday when
his wife had, about 4 p. M, come out CT
the room where he was lying, and told Lii.
lie Sterling, who had come to the house at
her request in the afternoon, that she q
given him a drink of whiskey, adding, with
a short laugh, "Hell not bother us any
more for a while;;" that his death occurred
a few hours later; that she had given Bon
ner a morphine bottle to dispose OF former,
and that she had told Reynolds aud Blake
several times that they never had any NOR
phine about the house.
In the afternoon an effort was made to
clinch this ARA y by getting Julia, the o.
year-oId child of the prisoner, to repeat
what she had told Mr.. Bordeaux after the
Coroner's inquest in refutation of the evil
dence she gave the Coroner's jury, to the
effect that her mother had obliged her, I'M
der threats of punishment, to say she saw
her father swallow q quantity OF some
white powder while lie was cutting wood in
the yard. She had been kept at the Poor
farm since Saturday night, and it was rea-
sonable to suppose that, being away from
her mothers influence during the interval,
there would be no trouble in inducing her
to repeat the revelations she made to Mr..
Bordeaux when she a sent under his
char to find the bottle she said she saw
her father take the white powder out OF
and then throw away.
When she was brought into the court
room only the Judge and Clerk Sproule,
tt prisoner and her counsel, the County
Attorney, the Under Sheriff, the official
stenographer and a couple OF reporters
| were in the room. She did not seem in the
least disconnected as Under Sheriff Reyn-
olds led her in and seated her in a chair in
advance OF that where her mother sat, the
back of which screened her from her OBJ
| servation. AS soon as she sat down, how
ever, she half turned to her mother, and
from thence forward was tongue-tied.
The County Attorney talked pleasantly
to her, asking her if she understood how to
tell the truth. and he and Judge Irvine de-
cided to administer an oath to her which
the Judge did in a fatherly way. The
J County Attorney then endeavored to in
| duce her to repeat what she told the Cor
oner, but she began to sob, and thereafter
all efforts to get a word out of her were un-
awaiting. The child was evidently afraid to
repeat it in her mothers presence and
with the acuteness of childhood saw that
the best way for her was to keep up the ap.
pearance of crying vs. the most unanswer-
able method OF shielding herself under the
circumstances. The patience OF the court
was exhausted after ten minutes OF this
obstinate silence, and the County Attor-
ney had to give it up
Mr.. ODonnell then moved that the
prisoner be discharged as the evidence
failed to show probable cause for the crime.
He also impugned the character OF the tes-
timony for the prosecution but offered
Lothing in rebuttal.
Judge Irvine, however, decided that there
was testimony enough to hold the prisoner
for willful murder without bail for the
grad jury, and it was so ordered. The
witnesses Lille Sterling and John Bonner
were held under $500 bond, each, which
being unable to give, they are detained IN
Jail. The child Julia was returned to the
Poor Farm in the course OF the afternoon.