The morning call., 1893-07-19
BENCH AND BAR,
Judge Morrow Takes Part
in a Dispute.
HoweIl's Lawyers Find the Court
Opposed to Their Version of
Mr.. Harris Evidence.

Attorney Campbell finished his argu-
ment for the defense in the Howell case
Yesterday forenoon and United States d s.
trict Attorney Garter at once took up his
closing argument for the Government.
Mr.. Garter at first devoted himself to a
d sse ction Of the evidence Of the three wit
nesses for the defense, Harson, Hanscom
and Vlscher. The defense had endeavored
to prove by these men that Matt Jones had
been notoriously in the business OF cOun-
terfeiting. The character of Witness
Hanscom, the Government employe. who
has stated that Jones once met him in
Stockton with proposition to embark in
the business of courterfeiting. but who
had failed to tell any one of that incident
until he told Howelps attorney after the
first Howell trial. received some attention.
During the afternoon there arose
lively dispute between Mr.. Garter and the
testimony. Mr.. Piisbury on Saturday had
read a portion of harris testimony re-
spectlng the Government agents relations
with Witness Garfield, but VIII le scoring
the point he aimed at, namely, that OF try
ing to show that Agent Harris believed
Garfield to be implicated with the coun-
terfeit-rs and had. accordingly, attempted
to coerce him into giving information
again st them, the Jealous advocate omitted
a portion of one answer, and the court
then called his attention to It, The omitted
portion was not very material in Itself.
save that 1t served to show that Mr.. Pills
bury was giving version from his way OF
looking at II, much to the dlscredit OF Mr..
Harris.
Mr.. Garter, therefore. In yesterdays ar
gument, proceeded to give to the jury a
fuller report Of the agents evidence from
the stsnographer's transcript. whsreupOn
both Messrs. Pillsbury and Campbell in
terrupted him. He sat down to give them
an opportunity to present their views, but
Judge Morrow also took part In the
matter. Mr.. PillsbuTy insisted that he had
given fair version by his reading Of the
questions and answers. and the court very
firmly insisted that Mr.. Pillsbury had left
out something. Finally the lawyer reluc-
tantly yielded.
For little while it looked as if there
was about to be an unusual turn In the
proceedings. but the forbearance of Judge
Morrow and the sensible submission OF
Mr.. Pillsbury combined to prevent an open
rupture between bench and bar.
ln Justice to MIR. Pillsbury it might be
men toned that from his point Of view he
doubtless thought he had done just what
a defending attorney had a legal right to
do; that is, pick II possible a flaw In the
| ground for his course in one of the
answers reported In the stenographer's
transcript as given by Mr.. Harris. In
effect the Queation put TO Mr. Harris had
been, had he. believing Garfield to he con-
nected in some way with the counterfeit
ers, used that to force him into informing
against them? The answer in the trans
cript is simply Yes. sir" The context.
however, apparently disagrees with such
response and subsequent answers do not
accord with it. The presumption Of Mr..
Garter is that Mr.. Harris answer was the
opposite Of Yes. sir" and Mr. Harris
himself says he could not have made any
such reply. The testimony shows Garfield
to have beeu farmer in San Joaquin
Valley.
Referring 20 the demand made by the
defense hat the Government produce
Matt Jones as witness. Mr.. Garter said
that Jones is one man the defense does not
wish to see placed upon the stand.
The District ATTORNEY will reply to the
argument of the defense in relation to the
alleged Marsh letter and Expert Gumpeps
testimony to-day. Judge Morrow will
probably charge the jury this afternoon.