Evening journal., 1890-05-12
LAST LAST EDITION
COURT OF GENERAL SESSIONS.
Incidents at the Opening of the May
Term-The Private Stairway.

COURT OF GENEkAL oGooiSlNos
Incidents at the Opening of the May
Term-The Private Stairway.
The Nav term of Court of General
Sessions Of the Peace and Gaol Delivery
of the State of Delaware in and for New
Castle county convened in the County
Court House this morning. A crowd OF
men on the Court House steps, and many
carriages along the curb showed that an
event of some moment was about 20 take
place. Numbers of people kurrying
towards the building served to In
crease the idea of the transac-
tion of important business. In
the corridors of the building were
little knots of men discussing the cgming
changes in the county Offices, and the
chances of the many candidates Tor
sheriff. At the foot of the stairway
leading to the grand jary and lawyers
and witnesses's rooms was crowd OF
citizens, who were listening with much
attention while one Of their number read
the following notice.
Ordered. That no peFsOns be allowed to
come within the bar except heinDesss o. W
the bar Of this state, stlsaenIs nus
and the sheriff and clerks Of the court and
their respective deputies. an " hlaAe lhe
Il - 5ireetad that the Eriyate stairs, in the
rear Of the hall. be closed to all except the
above named officers and the baihn of the
court and also the reporters who are allcMed
10 have access to their places in that wav
BY Order Of the Court
This order stopped large number of
disinterested people from disturbing the
reporters in their work.
In the court room Chief Justice J. P.
Comegys was the first on the bench, asaG
he and Attorney General John Biggs con
versed with him for a few minutes
Associate Judge John w. Houston ar
rived and sat beside the chief justice
Very few lawyers we're present az the
opening Of the court, among them were
Attorney General John Biggs and his
deputy Thomas Davis. Walter 81. Hayes
Walter A. Bacon, William f. Smailsy,
Jr., and William s. Hilles
Crier Thomas B. Smith opened the
court at 1915 o'clock and a little later
Deputy Clerk of the Peace A. l. Osborne
called the Aames of the members of the
grand jury. j. Parke Postles of this city
was made foreman, and the jury was
sworn in by Clerk of the Peace z, r. Coch-
ran. FRANKIE Enos was made bsiliff and
the grand jury retired
The members of the general jury were
then called In the meantime the wit
,nesses for the state were being privately
examined preEious to the indictment OF
the prisoners.
Clerk Cochran and Deputy Osborne
were kept busy calling the names ana re-
ceiving the signatures of applications for
license to sell intoxicating liquors.
Apropos of The restrictive order con.
.cerning persons who might use the rear
stairway, States Treasurer William Her
bert was stopped hy the guardian oi that
entrance. "Well, if | can't go up those
stairs, " he said, II won't pay the judges.
do yo1 pay them? asked the door
keeper. On Mr.. sHerbert's affirmative
response, he was allowed to 90 up. the
door-keeper probably fearing calamity
such as be threatened.
The license applicants consumed 8
great deal of time, and after they were
through, several witnesses who had nt
further work, received their checks fol
one days attendance.
At - 20 the grand jury returned ant
presented indictments, and was dis
charged until 3 o'clock this afternoon.
In the morning session Mayor Austin
Harrington, Judge j. Frank Ball of tn
Municipal Court, w. T. Lyman, Willard
Hall Porter, Frank Biggs. Nathaniel w
Davis and other lawyers were inside tn
bar
At 1890 Deputy Sheriff Horace Allel
brought ia prisoner. JohRG Cooper, ALA
Cephas Cooper, who was charged wit
assault with attempt to commit murde
on John Culbert. He said he neve
saw the man, was drunk on the night il
question and pleaded not guilty. Waite
A. Bacon was appointed to defend shin
Attorney General John Biggs state
that William Benson, who was Charge
with similar crime, was in cell in tn
basement, but the lock would net work
and he could not be let out until it wa
fixed. The court smiled and took re
cess until 3 o'clock this afternoon.