The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-02-22
TAKING THE EVIDENCE,
Thornton Sergeant Appoin ed as Referee bJ
Judge Reed.

The Law and Order league recevershil
| is in the hands of the referee.
When The case was called in the distric
court yesterday Judge Reed was too bus!
with other important matters to handle it
and, with the consent of both sides, Thorn
ton W. Sargent was appointed referee Il
hear the evidence, or, as one old attorney
expressed it, ito umpire the game"
When Mr. Sargent was informed of th.
| confidence reposed in him by tha
court he very promptly went to th.
court house to assume his duties, hut al
the steam heating fixtures were in bad re
pair in the common pleas court, the hear
ing took place i'll the county attorneys
Office.
In the instructions Of the court all evi.
dence was declared admissible, whether
incompetent, irrelevant or immaterial
The object in doing this is to get out all
the facts, and Judge Reed will then take
cognizance of the legitimate evidence only
in determining the case finally.
The attorneys, of course, still re-
tanned the right to make exceptions
but no power was given the referee to
overrule them.
Stenographers were sworn at o'clock
and the case commenced.
The first witness put on the stand was
Rodolph Hatfield, and he first introduced
the contract between the Law and Order
league and Jackson, the spotter. This
contract recites that jackson assumed the
position of spotter on the 14th of Novem-
Der, and went to work Immediately. The
compensation for his services was to be
81 per day and s1.50 per day for
his assistant. Jackson's duty was
to procure evidence against saloons.
gamblers and bawdy houses and he was
required to get evidence in the courts
against each one. Hatfield hired the spot
ter in company with committee further
consisting of NJ. l.. Carver and w. b.
Smith. The plaintiff voluntarily applied
for the job and got it. He was bound to
submit daily reports to Mr.. Hatfield and
did so regularly till December 9 when Hat
field claimed to have discharged him for
the reason that being publicly known as a
spotter on account of his contest with
Daisy he was of no more use to the league
il procuring evidence.
league was organized but in a very
indefinite manner as to details, such as the
persons present, etc. He claimed that
Bentley & Hatfield were never attorneys
for the law and order league, and
stated that in the prosecution Of whisky
cases they were employed by people of the
community in which the law WAS violated.
In answer to a request from the county
attorney to produce the books in which he
kept the account OF monies received for
prosecuting whisky cases he declined to
produce the books, and Attorney Boone,
for the defense, asked the court to issue an
order compelling him to produce said
books.
In answer to questions relative to the
bill of the Topeka Capital, he
said that the bill was for the
publication of the article referred
in yesterdays paper, in the Capital, and
also for 1000 copies of the paper. He
stated that it was he who transcribed the
article in the form it was published in the
Capital He refused at first to answer
certain questions relative to this matter
and tie referee was asked, under the in
structions Of the court, to compel him to
answer, but it was not necessary, for Mr..
Hatfield finally consented to answer them.
n. b. Hagin was the second witness
called and his testimony was mainly
about the books OF the league, but his tes-
timony was not all in when court ad-
journed and it will be continued this