Arizona republican., 1892-11-29

gers it was at last publicly declared that Mark Twain was "in his capacity as a story teller an inordinate and unscien- tifc liar" The humorist resented these accusations, insisting that if in any of his published narrations there appeared to be anything which justified such &C., cusation he had written it in moments of responsibility or insanity, and he declared that he was willing to stand triad upon these charges.
 Captain Dampfer, who has the power of an autocrat upon his ship, authorized court of admiralty to be organized, of which Mir. Dittenhoefer was appointed judge. Mir. Wallach was chosen by the court counsel for prosecution, and Mark Twain selected the eminent lawyer, Mir. Webster, counsel for the defense. The Yale students were impaneled as jurors, and MT. McClung was made foreman.
 The court was held on the evening of July IA in the great saloon of the steam ship. Judge Dittenhoefer took his seat on the bench, and he never looked more stern when he was serving as judge in New York city court. The jury were seated in box to the right of the judge, and the counsel were gathered at table, and near them were 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 moment later Mark Twain, with disheveled hair, with shuf fling step because the ships irons hung heavy on his legs, and with his wrists inclosed in handcuffs, was brought in and placed in the prisoners dock.
 At 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 evi- dence was introduced, and Mir. Webster, the counsel for the defense, on cross ex. animation demanded of the witness what there was unscientific in this lie, if it was a 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 filling the stomach of Q frog with shot to prevent it's making jump, and thereby causing it's owner to lose bet
 MT. K. D. Cheney, being summoned as a witness, produced one of Mark Twain's books and read from it his as. sertion that he droppeda tear upon the tomb of Adam. When asked by Mir. Webster what there was unscientiic about that lie, if it was lie, Mir. Cheney replied that the world knew that Mark Twain never wept and never made any one else weep. If he had written that he searched the vicinity for the tomb of Eve or had exhumed Adams remains, that he might discover which rib was taken for the creation of Eve, that would have been an entirely scientific and ra- tional undertaking at Adams tomb.
 Other witnesses read extracts from "Huckleberry Finn" and quoted from the exploits of Colonel Mulberry Sellers as narrated by Mark Twain to prove tlaat the accusation that the various humor- ous lies there narrated were unscientific, and therefore improbable, and then the prosecution rested.
 The defense was insanity or irrespon- sibility, and the two ships physicians were put upon the stand, each of whom testified that in all their experience they had never met a man who talked so ir- nationally as Mark Twain did. They declared that the stories he told them had not one grain of probability, and