The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-04-10
NO verdict At MIDNIGHT
Jurors in Dickinson Case Had Not
Agreed at That Time.
CLOSING ARGUMENTS TO JURY
Made by Major Everett Warren and cx
Judge Daley Charge Delivered by
Judge Achcson In Submitting the
Case-Juror Grccns wife Dead.

Monday afternoons dramatic occur
renee at the trial of the Dickinson
case before Judge Acheson In the
United States circuit court, attracted q
morbid throng to the federal building
yesterday to hear the closing argu-
ments to the jury by the counsel on
both sides. The case was given to the
jury at 3.l5 p. m. and at midnight a YER
dict had not been agreed upon.
Major Warren, at O'Clock, opened
for the defendants ana concluded his
address at II o'clock. Those who list
ened to ii say that for comprehensive
ness and elaborate, uneXceptionable ar
gument, it deserves TO rank among the
foremost of pleadings to q jury in this
part of Pennsylvania. He paid high
compliment to Miss DicklnsOn's bril-
liant life. and said that the acti"~
which the defendants Were present in
court was made necessary in the in
terest of humanity. He siftcd the evil
dence from the time that It had any
bearing upon the suit until the day of
her confinement in Danville asylum.
She alleges that she was sane when
testimony stands alone against that Of
her sister her true friends and three
reputable physicians WHO had only the
purest and most humane motives in
seeing her removed and cared for at n
place a noble institution of its kind,
where the treatment she would receive
would reinvigorate her and make her
again the Anna Dickinson of old. And
for this she has repaid them by bring
ing suit for damages against them.
She must either be an insane being or
else one of the most wicked women
living. Major Warren refused to be-
lieve that she was wicked and pro-
ceeded then to unfold to the jury one
after the ether. the numerous actions
and events, all of which have been
brought out on trial, to establish her
mental unsOundness. Last of all was
her attack upon him, and he denomi-
mated it one of the most low-lived,
dirty and outrageous charges ever in
vented.
Judge Dailcy's Display.
Judge Daley followed and his ad-
dress did not conclude until O'Clock,
when court adjourned for dinner. 1t
was an eloquent effort. and its equal
in word painting and establishment
would be difficult to discover He be-
gan with Miss Dickinsons girlhood in
Philadelphia. her experience at youth
full age on the lecture platform, where
she won 4 reputation that extended
from shore to shore her glorious SER
vices to her country during the war;
her success upon the stage, and then he
drifted through all the evidence re-
lating to her incarceration in an in
sane asylum at the instance of de-
signing persons whose animus was to
get possession of her property.
Precisely at o'clock Judge Acheson
began his charge to the jury. He in
formed them that the suit which they
had heard tried, was an action of tres
pass, brought by Anna Il. Dickinson
against John Courtright. DR.. Gideon
Underwood, DR.. John Il. Heilman, J.
Harry Dryden, George B. Thompson
and Allan EgglestOn, all of West Pitts
ton borough, but Mr. Courtright, the
first named defendant is dead, and the
action is therefore against the others.
That two of the physicians are doctors,
one practitioner Of forty years ex-
perience, the other considerably less
than that, but both men of considerable
experience.
Court then explained that previous
to the removal of Miss Dickinson TO
the Danville asylum she and her sister
Susan lived in West Pittston, and Miss
Susan was the lessee of the premises.
The plaintiff alleges that on Feb. %,
1891, the defendants broke open her
room door and by force and against her
will removed her to the Danvlle In
sane asylum, where she was confined
and remained for five weeks and one
day. The evidence, the court said
shows that the room was burst open,
and during the trial the plaintiff and
her witnesses have characterized and
condemned the actions of the defend
ants on that occasion as inhuman, etc
But the jury should proceed with only
the light guided by the evidence. Tho
defendants maintain that their evil
Gence has proven that at the time of her
removal, Miss Dickinson was not in her
proper mind.
Question for the Jury.
Tt is for the jury, then, to decide
whether these allegations of the de-
PENDANTS are true 1t not only appears
from the testimony adduced at the
trial, but 1T is matter of common
knowledge that one OF unsound mind
is said to be deranged, but that does