St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-12-16
How He Became Ac quainted
With the ch-Talked-Of
Miss Van Vie.
'The Woman in the Case"
Knew Horton Was a
Married Man.
Erwin's Eloquent Plea to Es-
tablish the Drowning as
Accidental.

vi tno uclcnSe OIL WalUer l.. Horton, III
dicted for the murder of his wife in the
| Mississippi the night of Aug. IA last
| In anticipation of the opening of the de-
| Tense there was a crowded attendance
| of spectators. Women We'd with men
! to secure seat either in the galleries
or on the floor of the court room. OF
itself the fact that the great criminal
lawyer was going to address the Jury
was sufficient to draw big crowd, but
when there was added the absorbing in
terest in the Horton trial and the curl
osity evlneed as to the line to be pursued
by the defense, it was quite natural that
hardly one-third of the people desiring
admission could be accommodated in
the court room. Consequently, during
the whole of the day, there was big
jam in the corridors, and scores of men
and women pressed their faces against
windows and glass panels in the doors
in the VAIN effort to catch a glimpse
of the prisoner or hear an odd
sentence as it fell from the
eloquent lips of his counsel.
MIR. Erwin was most methodical in his
opening address, and, in his resume of
Horizons life, the history of his family
and the events which led up to the
drowning of his wife, nothing could
have been more forcible or more clear
before jury. Mr.. Erwin does not do
things by half. He usually addresses
the jury in slow, conventional style.
He speaks in very low tone. excepting
when he wants to drive any particular
point into the far recesses of the jurors
train, and then his voice is raised to a
hi IN key, his hands gesticulate wildly;
it is as if tornado Lad struck the court
house, and then in calm, easy and
pleasant manner he suddenly drops
from these rhetorical flights and quietly
resumes the thread of his story.
Mr. Erwin at first touched upon the
duty the jury had to perform, enlarged
upon the jury system, paid his respects
to sensational newspapers, and then in
laundering tones he requested the Jury
to invest themselves with this idea
that he believed in the absolute limo
cence of the defendant. Horizons early
life yTas portrayed. He was born on a
farm. and raised there. In 1876, when
nineteen years old, with his father he
removed to Stevens county. The next
year Walter went back to Mower cOun-
ty, and worked four months for a man
named Parker, who bought his fathers
farm. The story continued:
How He Met Nellie.
Some Of the boys in that vicinity went to
La Crosse to attend q business college, and
Horton accepted an offer from Mr. Parker
who advanced him the money to pay his ex--
penses. with the understanding that he would
come back the next summer and work ont
the Indebtedness. He went to the La Crosse
business college. worked i'll the family of Dr.
worked On the railroad and levee.
Wnile living at the house of DR..
Ballard he first met Nellie Hanson.
They were married i'll 1879. came to st.
Paul; visited day or so and then went to
Hancock county and remained with his wife
during the winter. The next spring the
young couple went to the frontier in Dakota,
where he had previously been to locate
home. They located at Wabey lake. and at
that time there were only two white families
in the settlement. During the early summer
of 1880 Horton harvested the poor mans
first crop, when q son was born to them. The
only lady of any experience in the neighbOr-
hood was completely blind. 1t was fifty
miles to the nearest doctor, and this defend
ant was obliged to usher his first-horn into
existence. The same summer Horton came
back to Minnesota and worked in the har-
vest field. He returned with S72, and this
was all the money the family had to live on
until the year leS2.
Mr.. Erwin here dropped the thread of
his story and interpolated:
There will come time when all such
hardships as these will be celebrated Ill
poetry and prose, and the men who under
went the hardships and tolls of frontier life,
while some of us, perhaps, in the hurry and
hustle of metropolitan life, know nothing of
the borderland of civilization, where the
forces of nature were being blended to the
theories OF civilization under the influences
OF the cross of the Redeemer, that synonym
OF peace on earth and good will to men.
Frontier Life.
The trials of frontier life were
brought out. and then Horizons flight
from the territory because he had 10
money with which to meet a note OF
$3.50 which fell due the next day: his
temporary residence in Big Stone
county. Saltwater and Minneapolis.
From Jan. l, 'S4, to July 4, 'S6, Horton
worked with surveying party inspect
ing timber lana for the Northern Pa
citic, and in that time rose from the po-
sition of COOK to chief Of the party.
kesigning his position with the railway,
he was seized with the iron craze, Wis
tied Tower and the other iron centers
Ill The northern part of the state: re-
turned to the company several months
later: went into the field again. was
seized with an affection of the kidneys
returned to ST. Paul and was working
i'll Mr. PoStlethWaite' Office at the me
of his arrest.
Dir. Erwin now took a backward tack.
and, in low, modnlated voice, yet with
great dramatic force, he said:
There occurs time in every mans life a
place where he seems to be the victim of
cruel, unkind fate. 1t often occurs in Il very
crude fashion. under the most unKiud circum-
stances; but doubt if any man on this jury
can imagine circumstances more unkind
and cruel than overshadow the defendant
at this moment The mischief-maker fouLd
its inevitable way into Horizons home. The
matters | now refer to we will prove were
never spoken of 10y the man most interested
i'll them, except to the family of his wife. the
wife herself and an intimate friend. These
were matters which ordinarily produce in
the minds of men the utmost incoherency,
the widest storms, unless that man has the
character and manliness to carry in his own
bosom, as Horton did. all this Storm alone.
Was Egelund Guilty.
With this, by way of introduction, Mr..
Erwin proceeded to unfold the alleged
story of Egelund committing adul-
terry with Mrs. Horton at Brainerd, in
the absence of her husband. The fam
lily were living in the house of Ben
Snortall. He proceeded:
In July, 1886, Horton came home and
found his wife sitting in chair pale and
sick. She told him that she was ILL., Horton
tried to engage girl to look after the house
hold cares, but could not succeed Shortali
al that time made a startling statement TO the
defendant and said that mrs Horton could
not live in the house any longer. Horton
made Inquiries of Shortall. and learned that
a man had come to the house. remained all
night. and as result Mrs. Horton had been
iii. Shortall told the defendant that he had
better learn the full particulars of the
affair from his wife. The next day
Mrs. Horton went to see Dr. Paten.
The doctor pronounced her able to under
so q journey. and Horton therefore told her
10 pack uD her things and come with him.
They came to ST. Paul. where Horton gave
her $50 and left her, returning to the head
quarters of his party at Motley. " hat passed
between husband and wife the testimony OF
this defendant can alone disclose. AfterWard
Mrs. Horton wrote to her husband that she
had been robbed of the money he had given
her. and he sent her $40 more. Upon the
defendants request DR.. Paten had written
Horton Il letter describing the nature and
Tho 1Fh xr-ifa