Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-07-26

the Stillson books. AS the forgery 3
siad to have been a laundering one, Il
seems hardly possible that he could haze
sat there to Judge whether or not tie
horse he owned at the time of the ALLEGED
service got this great trotter, and allow
ed his own books, bearing a patent fo%
gerry of the entries in question, to have
been presented to him and the other two
fellows for inspection. We are inclind
to think it must have been done by his
servant without his knowledge, and th:t
for some mysterious reason he had ne--
err seen the entries till the book was pr.
sented in evidence. But it must have
been an interesting spectacle.
On the main question, two other maj
tiers only remain to be considered, ard
both make strongly in favor of the Plum
wood claim. The first is the fact th,t
Humes, at the sale to Conklyn, repr,-
sented that the colt was out of the bads
mare. This black mare was on the farm,
was owned by his brother William. aid
had been raising colts by WEIGH. Other
colts of hers by that sire were in the
same pasture. 1t is perfectly obvious
that, If he was going to lie about the colts
sire, having then no reason to suppose
that Converse would "back him with tie
books" as to the gray mare, he must d.
so, to avoid detection, lie as to the dam
He knew that the Welch books contained
no entry of service of this gray maze,
near enough in time so that he could
ever possibly resort to it in case of trou)-
lie. This is upon the assumption, Of
course, that Plumwood was the actu,l
sire. Now reverse the position, and as
sumo that Welch was the true sire. and
where is the motive for lying about the
dam? Here was colt bred on both sides
to suit the customer; there is no sugges-
ton that Conklyn preferred the black
mares colt; Humes has exactly the goods
the buyer is after, and everything is
straight, square and honorable; and vet
Humes tells disgraceful lie about the
dam, which is not only liable to be detec-
ted to his confusion, but is actually de-
tected and brought back to him. and he
is put through the pleasing exercise of
swallowing it. Is it conceivable that a
man would put himself in such a situa-
ton without motive'
The last consideration is the law suit
No better method for determining an is.
sue is known than this, and the question
whether Plumwood was or was not the
sire of Civilization was the issue in this
case. If the evidence showed that he was
then his owner was entitled to judgment
FOR the service fee involved, and if not, hi
could not recover, as the defendant breC
to Plumwood on the owners representa-
ton that he was such sire. The advant
ages which this tribunal had for ascer
tanning the truth over the board of cen
sors in New York are obvious. Tn,
court was held at the home of the contes
tants, where everybody having any inter
est could be present; the censors sat so
miles away. In court the hearing wa
public, the witnesses testified in opel
court, under sanction of the penalties o
perjury, and were subject to cross-exam
nation, most necessary test of truth il
\ all controversies the board sat in Mr.
Wallace's private office, the evidence be
fore them was not made public, and tn
evidence itself consisted mainly of "affi
davits" taken by each party behind tn
others back, neither knowing what state
ments he had to meet, and no checl
whatever being interposed either to un
due coloring or to gross mis-statement
for, although the popular impression
may be to the contrary, these affidavits
being taken for no purpose authorized b.
law, witness swearing falsely therei
! cannot be reached by a prosecution 70
perjury, and is guilty of only the otfenc
of ordinary lying, against which, unfort
unately, there is no law but the mora
one; so that, in pedigree investigation
out of court, the process of Swearing
witnesses is merely piece of divertin
rigmarole, pure farce. Finally, there
no question made but that the court wa
impartial, while the board of censors wa
predetermined on general principles, an
one of the three was the owner of one G
the horses in dispute. The court decide
one way; the censors the other. Tn
public will Judge which of the decision
is the more respectable.
= PEDIGREE OF JULIA c., 22o.
AS some of our esteemed contempol