The Portland daily press., 1895-03-02

Today-The Prisoner Was on the
Stand and seemed Greatly Aztec ed
Especial to the PRESS.)
Bangor, Me-, March 1.-There WI
great interest in the Cowan trial this
forenoon, and the court room contained
a larger crowd than on any previous
day. The husbandof the prisoner was
recalled by County, Attorney Bailey AT
the opening of court, and he was ques-
toned on few points regarding the
usage which the child had from its
| mother. Mr. Cowan said that he had a
conversation last Monday with his wife
about the rat poison, and she said that
she did not mix it, but that ne did, and
she spread some on biscuit, and put it
up stairs.
! Re-cross: Mr.. Cowan said be did not
| remember whether the insurance on
their buildings had run cut before h g
married Mrs. Cowan.
| Or. King was recalled, He
said that convulsions occurred some
| times in arsenical poisoning. The case
| Tor the prosecution ended here.
| Lawyer j. +. Robinson made the OPEN
ing argument Tor the defence. He spoke
| of Mrs. Cowans' character her early life
and said that Mr.. Cowan knew her be-
| fore he married her; she was not a
stranger to him. There is motive in
this case. The government says that
one OF the motives is gain. He thought
that another motive was that the child
was an incum brance. She did like him.
| She taught him his letters, and when
| he died prepared his remains with her
| Lo,, <Jo g., s,1 ~ L:
spoke of her motherly care of the rest Of
the households; how she worked out TO
earn money to fix up the house and buy
clothes for her little boy.
The attorney spoke of the child s
health, and said he was taken on the
Etna campground with the same symp-
toms which he had before experienced,
and died from them. Her near neigh
bors ought to know something about the
child. The government had summoned
them, but they had not appeared on the
stand.
| Mr.. Robinson said that he would ad-
NIT that the child died by arsenical
poisoning. 1t belonged to the govern
ment to show how the poison got there.
Mr.. Robinson thought that there had
been hundreds of cases where people had
died from arsenical poisoning, coming
from the medicines that the ply aiciay )
| gave them.
Mr.. Robinson cautioned the j. -.
beware of Mr.. Posyess E.s~.G. II a. NJ
I q uent, and they did not want to lel ans
eloquence influence them. Mr.. Robin
son said: II believe, as / believe in my
God. that this woman is innocent of
this awful crime"
i Somewhat of a sensation was caused
4 when Mrs. Cowan took the stand. She
said she was 33 years old, and WAS born
| Go~ al C1ax 70 0rlr eov ~
Cowan in 1891, and staid there until she
| was married. The child was then six
years old. She taught him to spell and
read. He was called very frail child
by nearly every body, and was not well
when she went here. She was married
on April 18th. 1892. They lived there
4 until the buildings were burned. Mrs1
Cowan told nf the mortgage on the farm,
| and how sheeworked to fix the house up.
About the 10th day of August, 1852,
the child's grandfather took him fori a
visit, and took him to the Etna Camp
ground about the latter part Of the
month. The boy complained shortly af-
ter his father, arrived of being ILL., They
returned to Dixmont, and the child greN
no better. 9i 4s9g
| q Mrs. Cowan toldaof DR.. MerrilI's visits,
and said that sneiowas taken sick amd
had the same symptoms as the child,
| UGG uIu uOt Cdll any puJSlSldu. Lie W1tE-
ness said that the boy ate some fruit,
which she thought caused his sickness
When she and Mr.. Cowan had the talk
| about the property she asked him to
give her life lease of half the property,
| but he did not want to divide it up.
The witness said that she bought some
"Rough on Rats, and put it around the
house in several places. She said she
| missed the poison. The child ate some
| ~, a., -, 1, ors N oHbar orpap stuH o1d 10
was taken very i'll on Friday. Toe. wit
ness testified that she gave DR.. Browns
medicine as he prescribed it. The boy
grew no better, ard on Saturday the
doctor again called. She asked him
about the case and whatsbe thought allied
the child. The boy died about 5. 80
O'Clock in the morning, in the presence
| of herself, husband and Mrs. Prescott, a
neighbor.
thing about the suspicious that she had
poisoned the child She never had ia
bit of poison in her life. Dir. Brown told
i her she had, done everything ior fhe
achild that could be expected of her. Sne
| said she loved the child and wanted him
/ to love her. The witness said she bad
been sick since She was in Jail, and DC.
Robinson attended her.
| AT the openingnof the cross-examina-
tion Mrs. Cowan said she never studied
medicine or attended any lectures o on
medicine with her first husband. The
witness stated that she bought the rat
poison sometime in the newinter a year ago
last winter, bnt could not remem Der
where she bought it, and never bought
any before and had not bought any
since. She remembered writing to her
husband that she had used some of it,
and that the mice had left the house,
The witness had no very distinct recol-
lection of buying the rat poison or when
she first found it in the house. She
thought her husband must have bought
it some time, but he said he did not,
and it occurred to her afterward that
she must have bought it. The witness 5
said that she administereds DIR. Brown
medicine according to directions, once
every four hours, or oftener unless he
improved. He did not keep any of the
medicine down very long time. He
vomited all ssof the medicine. The in
struc ctions DR.. Brown gave on SATURDAY.
morning were in regard to two medi-
cines to he taken alternately every hour.
/ making it once in two hours when each
medicine was given. The liquid medi-
cine he kept down pretty well, as it was
1 mixed with milk. The witness also
gave the boy some of the powders DIR.
King had left, but4the boy did not keer
themd own. She gave Willie the medi.
| ..o,r /f fba tiy,on