Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-28
So Far as Contestant Truman H..
 Aldrich Is Concerned.
DEMOCRATS AND OTHERS
Put on the Stand, But Nothing of Serious Damage
 Brought Out.

Three commissioners were busy yester- day in vestigatipg the November election. They were D. F. Myers and Thad Weath- erIy jointly, R. D. Tn ompson and J. G. Crews.s
 Wade Mothershed was on the stand be- fore Commissioner Thompson nearly all day, but there was little or nothing in his ,. statements either beneficial TO Mir. AL { adrIch or injurious to MT. Underwood. eq MT. Mothershed was at the Southside box, beat 21, most of the day, and the dep e ilty sheriffs and police arrested him about half dc zen times. He said Robert L. Hous- af ton, the Aldrich manager at that box, fixed the ballots until Robert Warnock went out there and had short talk with one of the managers. After that Houston 4 fixed no more ballots.
 He said G. B. Burkhalter fixed some of the tickets. Burkhalter, said he, had the reputation of being a ballot box stuffer. z He said when he was arrested there were z thirty or forty negroes gathered around the polling place, and the excitement incident 4 to his arrest caused the negroes to leave. ( Some of them returned, but most of them, { he thought, remained away.
 The witness has been in the counties Of I Hale and Perry for several weeks getting up evidence in behalf of MT. Aldrich. While there he claims to have had conver-
 
 election. Judge Christian of Hale county, he said, refused to let him have a copy of the poll list when he first applied, stating he didn't have the lists of all the beats. Two or three days later he again went to the judge and obtained copy of the list of the beats but one. He said F. H. Wal Ter, registrar for beat 2, Hale county, claimed to have been removed because he refused to forge additional names 10 the registration list. He claimed to have reg istered fifty-eigh voters, and the registra- tion list, Mir. Mothershed said, contained BOA names at the August election.
 T-He said D. w. Ward, a manager at the Cedaryille box, told him the democrats counted the republicans out, and when it got so they couldn't do that they would Join the republicans and then count them out.
 A great deal of the witness testimony was in line with the above.
 He said he made number of speeches during the campaign and attended others. He said the Birmingham daily papers greatly exaggerated the number of negroes who attended democratic speakings.
 sfi COMMISSIONER CREWS.
 J. c. Crews took John M. Crooks depo- sition. Mir. Crook lives at Bessemer. He was interrogated mostly as to one H. Echwabach whose name appeared on the Bessemer poll list. He said H. Schwabacher had been dead about four years, but man named U. Schwabacher resided in " tered, but did not vote.
 MYERS AND wEATHERLY.
 The first witness called was MT. Meissner, who had officiated as republican Inspector at the court house box. MT. Meissner was examined at some length and developed the fact that the election at his box was fair. He knew of no illegal votes having been cast at the court house, and did no challenging. The witness seemed grati- fled at the conclusion of his examination .--~ x.t r. ~f Ak., court with a smile on his face and a mur- mured assurance that he would keep ont of politics hereafter.
 Next followed Mir. l.. E. Friend, who testified to having seen MT. Mac Ritten- berry in Hon. Joseph H. Montgomery's office and Mr. John c. Carmichael standing in the hallway outside. The witness ap- peare6 to be burdened in mind with the idea that the presence of Messrs. Kitten berry and Carmichael in such close prox- in1ity to each other, with a wall between them, was remarkable coincidence. He testified to having seen some registration certificates on the desk in Mir. Montgom- ery's office, but could not remember by whom they were signed. Mir. Friend stated that he was an ardent supporter of the Jeffersonian candidate in the past two eiec- tions for governor, had voted for Aidrich for congress, and had now determined to be and remain republican.
 The next witness called was a colored voter named Diffey from Elyton beat. His evidence was anything but helpful to the cams of the contestant, MT. Aldrich. Hen D. F. Myers, the presiding commis. sioner, who testified at some length on Monday before another commissioner of his treatment at the hands of MT. T. 8. Smith, Ionged for a corroboration uf his evidence by the witness Diffey. Witness Dffey, however, surprised the commits sioner and those in attendance by frankly stating that he knew nothing of any trouble between the commissioner and MT. Smith. He. claimed to have been at the Eyton polls all day in the interest of Mir. Adrich, that every colored voter whom he identified was permitted to vote, and that he did not recognize as residents of the beat those who had been challenged and failed to vote. His testimony in regard to the department of MT. Smith toward MT. Myers was concIusively to the effect that it was most exemplary.
 Hon. Joseph H. Montgomery, who had been summoned to appear and give evil dence, made his appearance upon the re- neys for the contestant had decided, how ever, that they could conveniently get along without any moro testimony from democrats, and therefore excused MT. Montgomery from further attendance as q witness.
 Hon. William Vaughan then took the stand and testified to varied trials and tribulatfous he had experienced in his bumbly conducted effort to elect republi- can congressman from the Ninth Congress sioual district. He explained what trans- pired at Bessemer on the eventful Novem- Der election day, and dwelt with solemnity
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