The herald., 1895-08-26
"REV." C. HOWLAND'S CASE
The Northern Papers Attempting to
Excite Sympathy,
With a View to Obtaining an Unconditional
pardon-Their Statements Corrected by
Evidence Given at the Trial

The northern press, especially some OF
the San Francisco and Sacramento
papers, has been vigorously azitating the
matter of an unconditional pardon for
the Rev" II. Z. Howland, who was
sentenced by Judge Smith OF the superior
court of Los Angeles to two years in San
Quentin on charge of perjury. Accord
ing to the statements appearing in the
papers alluded to, Howland was rail-
roaded to the penientiary because he
testified that certain spritualistic meet
ing, viii ,h it was alleged had been dis
turbed, was a religious meeting the
courts here having decided that such a
gathering was not religious meeting.
and with the result that the reverend
gentleman was adjudged guilty of per.
jury.
An investigation of the evidence taken
by the official reporter at the time of the
trial reveals the facts of the case to be az
outlined below.
The Rev" Howland swoIe to com.
plaint before ]. G. Rossiter. recorder Of
the city of Pasadena. charging one G. s.
meeting on the 7th day of October. 1894,
at the city Of Pasadena, which complaint
reads as follows:
'.The said C. S. Howard, at the time
nd place last afore said did willfully and
unlawfully disturb and disquiet an as
emblage OF people, met for religious
worship, by noise, rude and indecent
behavior, and by Unnecessary noise,
within the place where such and said
meeting was then and there held, said
defendant using opprobious epithets and
casting them upon the complainant, then
and there denouncng atfiant as a fraud
in a loud and boisterous manner"
c. S. Howard was tried upon the afore-
said charge and found not guilty. Not
only were all the allegations in the COM
plant disproven. but it further appeared
and as sustained by good and sufficient
evidence that the charge itself had been
brought by Rowland, seven days after the
alleged turbance occurred. and as a
matter of spite growing out of dispute
between the two parties to the suit.
The district attorney then filed bill OF
information, charging the Rev" II. Z.
Rowland with perjury. When the case
came to trial 1T was SHOWN by large
number of witnesses that no disturbance
had been made, and that every separate
charge alleged against Howard and sworn
to by Ho Wand in his complaint was
false.
In an interview with Deputy District
Attorney Charles c. McComas, who prose.
cuted the case for the people, the question
was asked as to the importance attached
to the question of the meeting having
been religious one. the gem tleman re-
piled that the question as TO whether the
alleged disturbance occurred at religious
meeting or not did not enter into thu
issue incidentally it was proven that th'
meeting referred to in the complaint wa.
more of fortune telling affair than any
thing else, and that some of the proceed
ings conducted by the reverend" gentle
man we're Of too low an order to be re-
peuted in respectable company. That
however, was not the poiht in question
The count upon which Howland was con-
victed was that OF having sworn to com
plant, evey detail and every allegation
in which was untrue.