The San Francisco call., 1896-03-11
O'Clock An effort will be made TO have
DR.. Brown called as the first witness.
DAMAGING LETTERS.
Mr.. Woodlands Openly Assaults the
Credibility of Miss Matte
Overmap,

1t was II o'clock yesterday morning be-
fore the council emerged from their meet
ing-room, and it was observed that Judge
Advocate Woodlands countenance wore
determined and business-like expression.
Lawyer Parkinson, another council men,
Der who had been absent for several meet
ings, made his appearance and sat at the
left hand of Moderator Mclean.
Mrs. Dr. Brown and her son Valentine
arrived early; then came DR.. Browns
physician and DIR. Browns lawyer, Mr..
Nagle, and after them all came Miss Mat
tie Overman, very much improved IN ap-
pearance since the last time she appeared
before the council.
Mr.. Nagle, who was totally unconscious
Of the thunderbolt in store for him. asked
the moderator for an explanation of the
action of the council in having adopted
the Deacon Williams resolution and after
ward having rescinded and expunged it
from the record.
The moderator replied that the council
had refused to commit itself on the point
as TO DIR. Brown having had clandeStlne
meetings with any woman, and refused to
bind itself not to hear further evidence on
that point. 1t had been stipulated that
the council needed no further evidence
that Dr. Brown was in the habit of going
to or from the church with any woman
other than his wife.
Miss Julia A. Paddock was the first wit
ness called to the stand. Miss Paddock is
petite and gray, and assists her vision with
pair of gold trimmed spectacles hung by a
fine gold chain. She produced notepaper
memorandum book, as clean and as un-
rumpled as though it had come fresh from
IL. ton
by Mr.. Nagle, read the following note en-
tered therein under date OF December IS,
1895:
Church this evening. Anniversary of my
own dear mothers death. Raining little most
OF the day.
On that evening, said Miss Paddock,
Mrs. Davidson either read q chapter from
the Bible or prayed, the witness could not
tell which. If it was a prayer it was full
of scriptural quotations and did not sound
like a prayer. Mrs. Davidson had her
head bowed and held a prayer book in her
hand.
DR.. Brown did not say anything to or
about Mrs. Davidson, but he presented the
appearance of:a person in mental suffering
or intense mental anguish. He made no
remarks upon Mrs. Davidson's prayer or
reading. The witness was positive that
DR.. Brown did not call upon Mrs. David
He didn't open his head-or rather his
mouth" explained the witness, in worldly
fashion. This hyperbolic expression
caused a smile.
The witness, i'll reply to Mr.. Tenney,
said that DR.. Brown seemed i'll during the
whole evening.
Miss Matte Overman, at the request of
Mr.. Nagle, was recalled for the purpose
of further cross-examination. In response
IN firS r
hams she said that at the time she rewrote
and changed the letters written by her TO
Mrs. Tunnell she also rewrote and
changed five letters written by her TO Mrs.
Davidson. One of those letters was pub
lished in the newspapers and the four
others were torn up and the pieces thrown
away by her. She had done the rewriting
by request of Mrs. Davidson.
The witness repeated, in reply to a
further question by udge-Advocate Wood
hams, that she had brought down with
her from Tacoma the remainder OF two
writing pads and some scraps of writing
paper in her trunk. She also brought her
ink with her and box of pens. She did
not remember whether they were Gill
iotte's No. or Spencerian.
At this stage of the proceedings Mr..
Woodlands announced that he had, per-
haps. dozen letters written by Matte
Overman TO her beloved friend Mrs. Da-
wilson, and that he proposed to have them
identified and introduced III evidence. He
read the following sentence from one of
the letters dated February 3, 1895:
lem so glad TO know that am discussed by
yourself and DR.. Brown, even on any subject.
That was in the original letter, sir.
don't recollect what il referred to.
Mr.. Nagls, who appeared to be very
much annoyed when the letters were in-
troduced, rose to his feet and objected. He
demanded that he and his client be per-
mitted to read each letter through before
II was put in evidence.
"Mr. Woodlands, what did you wish to
say about that?" asked Mr.. Mclean.
Il wish to say" replied the judge advo-
cate, with an lce-cream-freezer glance at
Attorney Nagle, ':hat propose to conduct
the examination in my own way"
Moderator Mclean Immediately piled on
an iceberg by announcing that Lawyer