The Portland daily press., 1892-10-12

Which Mrs. Pease Received - Judge
Walton Orders that the Letters Be
Produced in Court This Morning.
In the Supreme Court, yesterday morn
ing, before Judge Walton, occurred the
preliminary skirmish in a case that prom
Uses to be of unusual interest to the peo-
pie of Portland, the case of Pease VS..
Burrowes. E. NJ. Rand and Seth l.. Lar
rabee appeared for Pease and Judge Sy-
monds and Charles S. Cook for Burrowes.
This suit follows in the wake of the af-
fair of last February, when Mr.. K. y.
Burrowes, the extensive screen manufac-
turer of this city, was brought before the
United States District Court charged
with using the United States mails in a
scheme to iniure the business of the Port
land Screen Company, a rival concern
also doing business in this city. 1t will
be remembered that Mr.. Burrowes was
at that time discharged after short
hearing before a United States Commits
sioner. One of the incidents of that af-
fair was the allegation that Mr. Burrowes,
OF some one in his interest, had endeay-'
ored to embarrass Mr.. J. w. Pease, SUI
perintendent of the Portland Screen
Company, by sending anonymous letters
to Mr.. Pease's wife, accusing or insinu-
ating that Mr.. Pease had been unfaithful
in his marital relations with her. This
alleged persecution of Mr.. and Mrs. Pease
appears to have been quite elaborate in
its details, so far as those details have
been made public.
Mr.. Pease now brings a civil suit
against Mr.. Burrowes, making as the
basis of his suit two of these anonymous
letters. alleged to have been received May
18th and 21st, 1891. These letters are al
legged to have been written by the de-
PENDANT to the wife of the Eplaintiff, ac-
cusing the plaintiff of adultery. Mr..
Burrowes denies that he ever wrote these
letters, and is making preparation to con-
a week from Monday, in the Supreme
Court, before Judge Walton.
Yesterday, in behalf of Mr.. Burrowes,
Judge Symonds made a motion that the
two letters in question, which are now in
the possession of the plaintiffs counsel,
be delivered to the court, to be kept in
the custody of the clerk, and there be
examined by Burrowes and his counsel,
and such experts in handwriting as he
might wish to employ. The defendant
desired to do this in order to show that
the letters were not genuine.
E. M. Rand, ESQ.,, as counsel for Pease,
objected to the granting Of this motion.
He said that when the writ was served
upon Mr.. Burrowes his counsel asked for
leave not only to inspect the letters, but
to inspect them with the aid of experts.
This was refused, for the fact was that
there were two letters, one in ink and
one in pencil. Already these had of ne
cessity been handled more or less. If Mr.
Burrowes wished simply to have view
of them that would be all right; but the
counsel for the plaintiff objected to hav-
ing them go into the hands of experts to
be handled and examined. We have our
selves refrained from handling them, and
have had Photographic copies made,
which we will furnish to counsel for the
defence. We take this course because
we wish to preserve the letters. To give
them to the court and to the handling of
experts involves loss of time and posi-
bility of loss.
Judge Symonds replied that there was
a slight inaccuracy in the statement of
the counsel, probably due to the fact that
the original request had been preferred
to Mr.. Larrabee and not to Mr.. Rand.
Judge Symonds said that all he asked of
Mr.. Larrabee was an inspection of the
letters by himself. This was refused alb
solutely. At the taking of Mrs. Pease's
deposition the plaintiffs counsel both re-
fused to let Mrs. Pease produce the let
tiers or to produce them themselves.
Judge Symonds only asked that the let
tiers be placed on the files of the court.
When the authenticity or documents was
in question the documents must be shown.
There could be no substitute. The kind
of paper used, the folding, many little
details, might bear upon the question of
authenticity.
Judge Walton said that he did not
think that in general counsel should be
asked to give their case away before the
trial; but in a case where the foundation
was in writing it would seem proper that
it should be examined as to its anthem
ITCHY; therefore the letters could be pro-
duced, and under the eye of the court
examined by Judge Symonds and his
client.
Judge Symonds-And an examination
by experts also?
Judge Wa1son-I should not say so.
Perhaps experts may be here and look at
them, however.
So it was arranged that this forenoon
Of in o'oIool, tho tUo letters shall he nro-