Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-09-19
STILL In PROGRESS.
The Trial Of ALT. Evans, the Incen
diary.
Continuation of the Evidence in the
the Carbon Cliff Case-Expert Testi-
mony.

entire afternoon was occupied by evidenc'
on the part of the defense to show an in
sane streak in the Vandruff family from
which the defendant is a descendant OF
his mothers side. and also such facts ant
circumstances In the life of Evans which
showed a manifestation of insanity il
him. There was only one episode tina
occurred to relieve the tedium of dreary
afternoon of cry details, and that wa.
when Geo. Griffin, an old palsied man Of
seventy>nine years. was Oh the stand Mr.
Griffin had married daughter of Joshu,
Vandruff. the ancestor of the defendant
claimed to be insane. He detailed cir
cumstances in the life of his father in
law from which he claimed him to be in
sane, such as MS hunting around tn,
house for imag nary cats and dogs, ant
vagaries of like character. Upon cross
examination, the states attorney endeav
ored to show that the supposed insanity
OF Vandruff was really the effect of hare
drinking, but the witness claimed thai
these spells occurred when be had no
been drinking.
The first witness called was LOUISE IAN
druff. at present living in Rock Island
who named Jacob Vandruff. She testi,
fed 10 his having insane spells with lucid
intervals. and that in one of his spells
ne committed suicide by hanging. His
particular insane hobby was religion and
fear that he could not live such life as
he ought to.
George Griffin. who married Vandruff's
daughter, and Andrew West, who mar
ried Griff1n's daughter, testified to acts
and conduct on the part of their wives
and also members of the Vsndruff family
tending to show an unbalanced condition
OF mind in the Vandruff family. Mr..
Gr fin said that the particular form of in
sanity of his wife was desire on her part
to burn his clothing James Goblin. of
Watertown. stated that the defendan,
worked for HIM about three or four
months four or five years ago and from
his conduct he thought that the defen-
dant was queer to say the least, and such
substantially was the testimony of James
frigate, of Moline, with whom, as fore>
man of the barn of Dimock, Gould & Co.,
the defendant worked for about two years.
The defense then introduced the insan>
ity records of he county court, showing
judgments of insanity against Mrs. Reed
and Jacob Vandruff, ancestors of the de-
PENDANT. E. j. Evans, the father of the
defendant. detailed acts of his SON
spells or fits be called them-from which
he inferred that his son was not mentally
balanced. John Silvis. the turnkey at the
Jail, testified as to Evans setting fire to
some clothing in the Jail. thus tending to
connect the particular form of alleged in
sanity in the defendant with that of Mrs.
Griffin. Charles Lofgren and A. A. An.
gel, fellow prisoners of the defendant,
were called to detail, his conduct. At first
he appeared lucid and natural, but for the
past two weeks he has been wild and un>
natural, and witnesses, especially Lof-
gren. were afraid of his doing them per-
sonal injury. On cross examination it
was sought to show that this change be-
gan to be noticed about the time his
friends and counsel came TO see him, in.
sinuating thai his insanity was suggested
to him rs the best defense he could make.
But witnesses said it was perceptible
from about the time of the preliminary
examination or about two or three weeks
back
1t was quite late this morning when the
court resumed the evidence in the case, so
much time being taken up by the argu-
ment of the demurrer in the case of
Eggleston VS.. the Ferry Company, but
the testimony being of formal nature
was rapidly laken.
There is no perceptihle change in the
demesnor of Evans; he is more nervous,
if anything and keeps up moving of
his lips as ough talking TO himself He
preserves a stolid appearance as though
obvious of the surroundings and the pro-
ceedings which portend so much to him
an indifference which even the noise and
excitement Of Barnum's parade in passt
ing the court house failed to affect The
defense called but two witnesses, Doctors
Cowden and Sale, who testified that 1t
was practically impossible to determine
whether party was insane by personal
examination, aud that it was in short very
often impos sible to determine the uues.
ton accura ely.
The rebutting evidence is pointed to
two phases only-that of medical expert
testimony as to Evans sanity and then to
an absence of any acts or conduct of the
defendant in his lifetime he retofore OF his
ancestors from which an inference of in.
sanity could be drawn-of the latter
class. Ben jamin Goble. the defendant
grandfather, testified that his wife and
his whole family. as well as Joshua Van
druff. were sane, but on cross-examina-
ton he admitted that four of Vandruff's
children had been insane, and also some
OF the descendants of those children
Merritt Goble, his son, corroborated his
father.
| VIM. Sunblade. Milton Nelson and
Harry Dimock. employed at Dimock, Goult
g. Co. g., testified that when the defend
ant worked there they noticed nothing in
i him indie afinp insanity. and Geo. F