St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-28
POLICY AS EVIDENCE.
Court Allows It-Mrs. Perkins Cross
Examined.

Examined.
Judge Belden took up the Perkins case
again yesterday, but no witnesses were placed
on the stand, the opening being taken up
with argument on the all-important question
to whether or not the policy could be in
troduced in evidence without the accompany
ing contract. The point was that If the pol
icy would be allowed to stand alone for the
plaintiff the burden of proof, as the defense
argued, would be thrown on the defense.
Mr.. Hail. for the plaintiff, claimed that they
had only pleaded contract and the policy was
the contract. The point was quite hotly con-
tested, the court being of the opinion that
there was not any material difference either
way, as the defense would have to show the
falsity of the warranties in any event.
Judge Belden finally decided to allow the
plaintiff to introduce the policy without the
warranties and at that point after intro
ducing 1t in evidence, the plaintiff rested its
case, and Mr.. Thompson opened the case for
the defense to the jury. He was not long at
1t, simply showing the points that the appli-
cant for the policy had warranted on her ap-
plication, and asserting that the defense was
ready to prove that there was hardly true
statement upon the paper.
Lora Perkins was called to the stand by
Mr.. Severance for cross-examination under
the statute. 1t was spirited examination
the witness being quick in her answers
Witness went on to say, under examination,
that she was as far as she could learn, left
with the Donovan family when she was about
a year old, in 1871. That was in Buffalo, N
Y. Then they went West Donovan was a
good for nothing, almost always in Jail. She
thought Mrs Donovan was her mother until
her daughter died, and then she learned diff
ferently. She never thought Donovan was
her father, on account of his treatment Of
her. for he used to call her little black
Spaniard" frequently. She admitted that she
always went by the name of May Donovan.
When about eight or nine years old she went
with her aunt to Spain, but could remember
little of the trip except the water voyage.
There was an argument over the questions,
during which Mr.. Severance asserted that it
was the opinion of the defense that the Span
ish aunt was myth, and the rest of that
story romance. The noon recess cut short
the argument.
In the afternoon witness forgot how long
she had been married and at what place the
wedding took place. She was twelve years old
when she ran away and married her husband
and they travelled so much that she could not
say where the wedding took place. The mar
riage certificate was burned in a fire, and so
she could not tell the date
The defense then took up the reading of the
fdIiOuS UcPOSIJlOuS, WHICH nave Deen taken
throughout the country for the months pre-
ceding the trial, the majority Of which have
been made public. They bore upon the past
history of Mrs. Hawkins, showing that her
mother had died in Des Moines, of consump-
tion, at the age Of forty years. This COM
batted the language of the application, which
asserted that she had died after childbirth
at the age Of twenty-seven, supposedly of a
fever. Mr.. Hall made many objections dur
ing the reading, upon which the court ruled,
and the afternoon was very tedious for the
jury and the people in the court room. Sew
eral photographs of Mrs. Perkins and Mrs.
Hawkins, taken in the several towns in which
they had been, accompanied the affidavit,
and were exhibited to the jury. Six deposit
tions had been read, when the court ad-
Journed until morning. 1t was shown that
Mrs. Hawkins name, before she was mar
ried, was Atkinson, illegitimate child of
Lena Atkinson, of Noble county, Ohio, the
fathers name being Cooner.