The San Francisco call., 1896-04-19

of counsel for the Southern Pacific Com
pany, turned white. 1t was the first of
thirteen similar cases pending, and $25,-
600 was rather ominous beginning for
the unlucky mum Der.
Attorneys Delmas and Shortridge
smiled at their crippled client, George n.
Martin, who had been forced off a railway
car at lonely mountain station by en-
ployes of the Southern Pacific Company
because the company did not like his style
of handwriting on the round-trip ticket
from Sioux City to San Francisco, for
which he had paid at full rates in gold.
General Barnes rallied and asked to
have the jurors polled. The question was
put TO each of them as to whether it was
their verdict that the railroad company
should pay the plaintiff. Martin, $25, 900.
Foreman Nathan Dodge, S. Fisher. Samuel
Rosenberg, Albert Folsom, James T. Nou-
nan. Charles A. Castner, William Mocker,
G. W. Haskell and Cornelius Jensen re-
piled empbatically that such was their
verdict. Jurors G. L. Stone and James
Holland replied as emphatically that such
was not their verdict, and E. P. Rowe
replied:
'That is partly my verdict and partly
not. 1 divide it in this way. 1t is my YER
dict as to the liability of the defendant,
but as to the amount of damages think
it is entirely too SMALL
The verdict was entered, the court
thanked the jury for their services and
discharged them.
1t was afterward learned that the delay in
finding the verdict had been caused by
Juror Rowe arguing to the jury that the
wrongs which the plaintiff had suffered at
the hands of the Southern Pacific Com
pany, from the beginning of the affair to
the end of the case, were such that $75, ,0OO
could not adequately compensate him for.
Rowe called the attention of the Jurors to
the fact that as soon as Martin brought the
suit the company had put the Pinkerton
detectives upon his track and raked up
everything that they could find against
him, because he had the temerity to sue
the great corporation.
The verdict was the talk of the City last
evening. 1t was generally agreed that the
award of the jury was not excessive, con.
sidering the brutal treatment to which
Martin had been subjected after he had
paid his fare, merely because train
agent, acting under instructions from
headquarters. had conceived whim to
suspect him,
Martins physical condition is most de.
plorable. He is a confirmed invalid, suf-
fering from locomotor ataxia, and moves
about only with the greatest difficulty
He is engaged in business as fruit com.
mission dealer in Sioux City, and has been
large handler of fruit of California, Flor
ida and Massachusetts, which he distrib.
uted from Sioux City throughout the Mid
die West.
His business has amounted to 500, 600 3
year, and he usually has eight or ten car
loads of fruit standing on the sidetrack.
1t was shown in the evidence that on one
occasion he bought the whole output of
the Orange Growers Association at River
side; yet the defendants detectives tried
to make him out little better than q
hobo and a mem Der OF the beercan brigade.
These tactics disgusted the jury. They
thought that it was a very poor way to de-
fend the company against the charge.
The Southern Pacific Railroad Company