The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-06-26
ROBBER SQUIRES' WARD.
The Inquiry as to His Fitness as
an Adopted Father.
Postponement Of the Contest to Permit the
Child's Grandmother to Show Juris-
dictional Defect.

LV0TypOuy IN inoI III
dragged down by everybody" Poor Mrs.
Squires wept so loudly as she uttered these
words that Bailiff Barry had to lead her
from the courtroom and the intended pro-
ceedings of the morning to revoke the
adoption of pretty little Alice o. Decio by
j. III. SQuires, now on trial for jury-bribing
in another department of the Superior
Court, had to go over until the afternoon.
The attorney for Mrs. Deborah A. Phil
lips. the grandmother, who is making the
contest, was ready to proceed, but Squires
and the little girl we're not present, nor his
attorney, John d. Whaley. Mrs. Squires APP
pealed to the court that they could not 20
on with the case or serve in the courts.
They had not subpenaed witnesses, and Mr..
Whaley had been too busy in the jury
brbing case to prepare for this matter. Mrs.
Squires was labOring apparently under
great mental strain. She succumDed 10 this
strain aud burst out crying.
The matter came up again In the after
noon before Judge Slack and the proceed
ings then were not without frequent excit-
able Interruptions from SQuires, his wife
and Nellie Steele, very denonStratlve
young woman in deep black, being the
same person who testified SO strongly IN
SQuires' behalf on his trial.
NOT READY.
Mr. Whaey insisted that under the cir
cumstances he was not ready TO proceed,
pleading also that il would be cruelty to
force on the hearing on account or the ply
steal stress and mental excitement under
which SquiTes and his wife were labOrIng.
He asked for continuance, but Mr.. Moore
for the grandmother, resisted the motion,
declaring that SquTes had admitted con-
victiOn of stage robbery and incarceration
in the peDitentiaTy for 20 years, arguing
therefrOm that the moral faint Is there TO
unfit him for the guardianship OF little
Alice
This aroused Squires and he interrupted,
saving II admitted nothing OF the kind,
while his attorney reminded the court that
his client had been pardoned and restored
to honorable citizenship. But Judge Slack
was inclined to go on with the hearing as
far as he could, and Mr.. Whaley, who had
by this time become thoroughly aroused.
excitedly exclaimed that lie would not be
forced to proceed and ruin the case OF
Squires when he was not prepared TO AZ
tend to It properly. Il am not nlTed at
torney in the case" he said, "ani l know
of no law that will make me 90 on now. l
distinctly refuse TO do so. | am in this, i
repeat. simply for motives Of humanity"
And l." said Mr. Moore, Fam also in this
case simply out of kindness and charity. l
look for my reward above"
Then you ought to have little mercy IN
your OVID composition and give these people
q decent chance" broke in Mr.. Wbaley.
soUIREs GETS EXCITED.
Mr.. Moore still insisted that the hearing
proceed to ascertain whether it is for the
child's moral and physical welfare to remain
with people such as these" and Mrs.
Squires then jumped up excitedly to remind
Mr.. Moore that she was born lady. Then
a statement by Mr.. Whaley was denounced
by Mrs. Phillips as lie, and when next
Mr.. Moore in "A further statement declared
that little Alice was Ill fed and clothed,
Miss Steele gave vent to her excitability by
loud and prolonged Mss; All these little
ebullitions kept Bailiff Barry on lively
Jump from one to another to quiet the re-
speetive litigants.
Judge Slack took the little girl up on the
bench ana questioned her between her sobs.
Mrs. Phillips was Intercepted and the
point OF her testimony was that she had
heard SQulres testify on the adoption pro-
ceedngs that the little girls parents were
dead, but that she was so dumfounded
that she remained passive and permitted the
declaration to go unchallenged. Sauires
also declared under oath that Mrs. Phil
lips and the Decios were utter strangers to
him, and when the grandmother told him
that the little girls parents were dead he
believed her. having no means OF knowing
to the contrary.
There was other testimony that Alice
does not appear as bright and rosy as when
u.
with another and Mr.. Whaley, who, while
he had declined to 90 on with the case, still
remained in the court. put IN heavy slap
when he said:
~ our Honor, we can show you here to-
day If you like the rags which the child
wore when she first came into my clients
care. We can't show you the sores and the
vermin with which she was covered because
we removed these. The fact is. the woman,
the grandmother. used to lake the little
one about with her TO help her in begging"
"a liza black, black lie" Kissed the
grandmother in the ears Of the reporters.
Judge Slack. who is always calm and
dignifed, was OF the opinion that as the
matter stood Mr.. and Mrs. Squires were the
natural parents of this GIRL and he could
not separate them unless fraud was shown,
and certainly not because the father had
been convicted Of felony or is on trial for
another. IL did not appear that A ice was
being abused. The adoption proceedings
must be attacked on the ground of defect
or fraud before ne would set IL aside. The
father being alive is a jurisdictional defect,
because his consent is necessary TO adop-
ton. If that can be proved it might cause
the adoption 10 be set aside.
With this understanding the matter then
went over until the 9Th prox.