Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1895-12-28
WINDSOR COUNTY COURT.
STATE vs. ]. MARsToN RYDER.

STATE vs. !. MARSTON RYDER.
The evidence adduccd on the part
of the state was to the effect that in
the fall of 1904 at Rochester. Cora
NJ. Smith, being with child by one
Fred Austin, needed the aid of Il
physician. Austin arranged with
the respondent to go and attend up
on her. Soon after such engage
ment the respondent came to the
house of George Sheppard. father of
Cora. to see her. She then said to
the respondent she wished she was
dead and her babe too. to which he
replied it there was any dying to be
done. he would attend to that. 1t
appeared that at I'm interview be-
tween respondent and Fred Austin,
the former said to Austin: "All
right. I'll fix the matter"
On the night OF October 23rd re-
spondcnt was summoned to attend
Cora, whose labor pains coming on
indicated the services of the phys-
clan would be wanted. The re-
spondcnt attended to the young
mother Il few hours and said he
should want help. Thereupon Mrs.
Ryder, wife of the respondent, was
sent for and came. When she came
respondent said, ''Now for bust
ness The state claimed that what
the respondent did had Il tendency
to retard labor, hut this claim was
not supported by the evidence of the
medical men. During the progress
of the confinement respondent made
remark to the effect that he wished
the child was in hill. The evil
dcnce of the mother of the child and
Mrs. Sheppard, and also of the re-
spondcnt, was to the effect that while
the child was being delivered it ut
tered one or two cries indicative of
life. Mrs. Sheppard asked to see
the child and was told she had better
not sec it, and then if called into
court she could have nothing to say.
Just before the child was deposited
in crib ready for it the testimony
of the state tended to show that the
respondent made the remark that the
child was still-born.
The state relied upon evidence
coming from the Shcppards to the
effect that IN the cot had been placed
clean sheet and that when the dead
body of the child was observed in
the crib, this sheet was saturated in
blood, which the state claimed must
have come from the child. Further.
the state relied upon testimony i'll the
nature of statements from respond
ent as to the best means of disposing
of the body, either to burn it, or to
go and bury it and forget where it
was buried.
These remarks, Mr.. Sheppard
said, excited his suspicion and the
body was not buried, but kept down
cellar in the Sheppard house. Ten
or eleven weeks after this the body
was taken to DR.. Huntingtons office
at Rochester and postmortcry ex-
animation was made of it. This
disclosed, IN the opinion of the med
ical men, that the child was an in
FAINT of full time, and was in a
healthy condition at birth, and was
born alive. The doctors who made
this examination were DR.. VIM. M.
Huntington, his son VIM. d., and
Doctors Fish of South Royalton and
Green of Bethel. 1t was the opin-
ion of these medical men that death
had resulted from loss of blood-that
the infant had bled to death.
1t was claimed by the state that
the respondent had wilfully and
naliciously caused the child's death
in this manner. That if he did not
do so, yet his course was so negli-
gent and careless and unskillful that
he thus caused the child's death.