The San Francisco call., 1896-06-25
BRITAIN AS A SCORCHER.
Burning Words Directed at the At
torneys of the Fair
Children,

Children.
Mrs. Craven was not disposed to do
much talking in reference to the matter in
which she is now the most conspicuous
figure, but she had this to say regarding
the latest development-the acknowledged
existence of the compromise contract:
~ have no copy of the compromise
agreements. which / understand is held
by Mr.. Dey, nor have ever seen the orig
inal. My attorneys have demanded that
it be brought into court and Mr.. Dey has
said that we should have it. expect to
see it Thursday night for the first time.
II have heard about its contents, but
what they are 1 cannot say at this time. :"
F. S. Britain, who is acting as the legal
adviser and protector of Mrs. Craven dur
ing the absence of s. M. Shortridge and the
illness of d. M. Delmas, was more COM
municative, and freely gave his opinion
on the very interesting situation created
within the past few days.
This present series of counter-proceed-
1ngs," he said, coming up ut this time
after long calm, was primarily brought
about by the filing of Mrs. Craven's deeds.
The gentlemen on the other side have
pressed the matter of the taxing of Mrs.
Craven's deposition on the ground that
they were taken by surprise by the filing
of those papers. AS matter of fact they
have known of the existence of those
papers for year and a hail. and it was in
view of the existence of those papers and
the will of September "a, 1894, that they
entered into that compromise contract or
rather had the children of Senator Fair
enter into it, and which document Mrs.
Craven, through her counsel has de-
manded to be produced in court Thursday
night.
Until yesterday those gentlemen have
all of them-denied both publicly and
privately the existence of that contract.
They now admit that during the year and
a half they have had the contract and
have known of its existence.
"They have made many statements to
discredit Mrs. Craven in the eyes of the
public, yet by their present admissions
they show that they themselves have de-
ceived the public during all of this time.
I'm the proceedings on Monday night
they sought wholly for an opportunity to
say, under the license granted to them as
attorneys, what the newspapers prior to
that time could not publish, even at their
instance.
"In that proceeding they sought to
accomplish three things:
"First-To take the deposition of Mrs.
Craven.
''Second-To have her sworn and the
jurisdiction of the court admitted.
"Third-On her refusal to be sworn to
have her adjudged guilty of contempt.
"In the excitement of the occasion it
was overlooked that in none of these three
things were they successful. Her deposi-
ton was not taken she was not sworn
until she was advised by her counsel to
take the oath, and she was not humiliated,
as they had hoped, by being even mo-
mentarily imprisoned.
''On the other hand, Mrs. Craven wanted
positive ruling on the sufficiency of the
affidavit and notice of the taking of the
deposition, in order to found counter
proceeding to see whether the gentlemen
who tell so many conflicting stories to
reporters will tell the same stories under
oath.
''These gentlemen, after having for a
year and half kept secret the existence of
the compromise contract, are now seek
ing to explain to the press the terms of
the contract. They will have an oppor-
tunity to state those terms under oath in
all probability, and, having been found
false in one thing, it will be a question in
every ones mind whether they are telling
the truth now.
SIN regard to the contract the public
must draw its own conclusions until Mrs.
Craven has had an opportunity to show
what the terms of that contract are At
present we cannot, as her counsel, give
any information as to our understanding
of the legality of that document"