Evening journal., 1892-11-03
Especial correspondence.l

gers it was at last publicly declared that
Mark Twain was ''in his capacity rs
story teller an inordinate and unscien-
tiic liar" The humorist resented these
accusations, insisting that if in any Of
his published narrations there appeared
TO be anything which justified such ac-
cusation he had written it in moments
of responsibility or insanity, and he
declared that he was willing TO stand
trial upon these charges.
Captain Dampfer, who has the power
Of an autocrat upon his ship, authorized
a court Of admiralty to be organized, of
which Mr.. Dittenhoefer was appointed
judge. Mr.. Wallach was chosen by the
court counsel for prosecution, and Mark
Twain selected the eminent lawyer, Mr..
Webster, counsel for the defense. The
Yale students We're impaneled as jurors,
and Mr.. McClung was made foreman.
The court was held on the evening Of
July IA in the great saloon of the steain-
ship. Judge Dittenhoefer took his seat
on the bench, and he never looked more
stern when he was serving as judge in
a New York city court. The jury We're
seated in a box to the right of the judge,
and the counsel We're gathered at a
table, and near them We're the witnesses
for the prosecution and the defense.
After the court was opened Judge Dit
tenhoefer instructed the sheriff to bring
the prisoner in The clanking Of chains
was heard, and a moment later Mark
Twain, with disheveled hair, with shuf
fling step because the ships irons hun
heavy ON his legs, and with his wrist
inclosed in handcuffs, was brought IN
and placed in the prisoners dock.
At a command from the judge the
irons were removed, and the trial began
with a speech from the prosecuting Off
Ger, in which he declared that he should
prove that Mark Twain had been guilty
of inordinate and unscientific lying.
Here the prisoner bent his head to
conceal his emotion apparently, and
seemed to be sobbing. Miss b. r. Dit
| tenhoefer was called as the first witness.
She read extracts from Mark Twain's
description of the jumping frog. The
| jury looked very solemn when this cvi-
dence was introduced, and Mr.. Webster
the counsel for the defense, ON cross ex.
animation demanded of the witness
what there was unscientifc in this lie, il
it was lie, and she replied that al
though it caused people to laugh they
smiled at the improbability of the story
and added that there was nothing funny
in the suggestion of filing the stomach
of a frog with shot prevent its making
a jump, and thereby causing its ownei
to lose "A bet.
Mr.. X. ID. Cheney, being summoned
as a witness, produced one of Mari
Twains books and read from il his as
sertion that he dropped tear upon tn,
tomb of Adam. When asked by Mr.
Webster what there was unscientif,
about that lie, if it was lie, Mr.. Chene,
replied that the world knew that Mari
Twain never wept and never made an,
one else weep. If he had written tha
he searched the vicinity for the tomb o
Eve or had exhumed Adams remains
that he might discover which rib wa
taken for the creation of Eve, that woul'
have been an entirely scientific and IA
tional undertaking at Adams tomb.
Other witnesses read extracts fron
"Huckleberry Finn and quoted frou
the exploits of Colonel Mulberry Seller
as narrated by Mark Twain TO prove tina
the accusation that the various humoi
ous lies there narrated We're unscientihs
and therefore improbable, and then tn
prosecution rested.
, The defense was insanity or irrespor
sibility, and the two ships physician
: were put upon the stand, each of whol
I. testified that in all their experience the
5 had never met a man who talked SO il
, nationally as Mark Twain did. The
r declared that the stories he told thei
= had not one grain of probability. an
b they indicated an abnormally disease
condition of his mind.
Mark Twain himself was put upon tn
j. stand. He testified that he had no reco
q lection of ever having written anythin
o about a jumping frog. and that he fe
like shifting the men and women VII
4 came to him and told him, as Thousand