Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1891-04-04

sumption O.
sOundneSS, H..
details of the com,
Usher had made " 5
methods Of trading. 20
see the fury and horrC.- ..,eu upon
the countenances of the cholcric Mr. AID.
Olson and the cadaverous MIR. Roscoe when
they saw the most cherished secrets of
the customs of the trade, as practiced at
Nelson's, thus paraded in the open light
of day, while dozen swift penciled re-
porters took every detail down.
Then, at last, Augusta was told to stand
down, which she did thankfully enough,
and Mrs. Thomas, the wife of Capt
Thomas, was called. She proved the find
ing of Augusta on the island, and that
she had seen the hat of one of the sailors,
and the rum cask two, thirds empty, and
also produced the shell out of which the
men had drunk the rum (Which shell the
judge recalled Augusta to Identify. What
was most important, however, was that
she gave the most distinct evidence that
she had herself seen the late Mr.. Meeson
inferred, and identified the body as that
of the late publisher by picking out his
photograph from among a bundle of a
dozen that were handed to her Also she
swore that when Augusta came aboard
the whaler the tattoo marks on her back
were not healed.
No cross-examination of the witness
worth the name having been attempted,
James called a clerk from the office of the
late owners of the R. NJ S, Kangaroo,
who produced the roll of the ship, on
which the names Of two sailors, Johnnie
Butt and Bill Jones, duly appeared.
This closed the plaintiffs case, and the
attorney general at once proceeded to call
his witnesses, reserving his remarks till
the conclusion of the evidence. He had
only two witnesses-Mr Todd, the law
yer, who drew and attested the will of
Nov. 10. and his clerk, who also attested
it, and their examination did not take
long. In ross-eXamination, however,
both these witnesses admitted that the
testatOr was in a great state of passion
when he executed the will, and gave de-
tails of the lively scene that then &C.
Cured
Then the attorney general rose to ad-
dress the court for the defendants He
said there were two questions before the
court, reserving, for the present, the ques-
ton as to the admissbility of the evidence
of Augusta Smithers; and those were
first, did the tattoo marks upon the ladys
BACK constitute will at all! and, sec
ondly, supposing that they did, was it
proved to the satisfaction of the court
that these undated marks were duly exc
cuted by a sane and uninfuenced man, in
the presence of the witnesses, as required
by the statute He maintained, in the
first place, that these marks were no will
within the meaning of the stat
ute; but, feeling that he was not
on very sound ground on this point,
quickly passed on to the other aspects of
the case. With much force and ability he
dwelt upon the strangeness of the whole
story. and how it rested solely upon the
/ evidence of one witness, Augusta Smith
ers. 1t was only if the court accepted her
evidence as it stood that it could come to
the conclusion that the viii was executed
at all. or, indeed. that the two attesting
witnesses were on the island at all. Con-
/ sidering the relations which existed be-
tween this witness and the plaintiff, was
/ the court prepared to accept ner evidence
in this unreserved way? Was it prepared
to decide that this viii, in favor Of a man
with whom the testator had violently
quarreled, and had disinherited in conse-
! quence of that quarrel was not, if indeed