The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-11-26

rear came the district attorney and ms
assistants. At about the same timG
Burt, the prisoner at the bar, walked
into the room through the window, as
usual under guard He stood facing the
crowd as the handouts were removed
and then took his seat. DE took ms
hat off Immediately without any assis'
lance and settled back in his chair; not
to sleep, however, as he did on the Gay
previous. He never closed his eyes until
nearly the adjourning hour, when he dld
finally close them, very slightly, ana LOT
few minutes only. AS rule; now,
ever, he was alert, and while he ma not
| pay any too much attention TO the pro
| ceedings, keeping his eyes intenuy 1as-
tened on the desk in front of him. ne
was nevertheless able to see every wit
ness that went on the stand, and, 4 pos
sible, hear every ward that was sad, Il
he is at present capable of understand
| ing, as it is claimed that he is not. Al
any rate, he was awake yesterday morn
| ing and did not even have his eyes smut,
giving any opportunity for surmlSes as
to his being asleep When he walked
| into the room he had that same 1roWI
on his face as before, and the crowd
almost to a person, arose i'll tier seats
| to look at him. All during the trial yes
| terday morning he kept his bearings as
usual, but when he went to get up ana
walk out he staggered around like he
was very weak. He apparently slept
sound during the afternoon, but. on me
whole, he was not so sleepy as on the day
previous.
The defense was in the saddle rester,
| day morning with their testimony, ana
at the very opening of the testimony MAJ.
-, +l,t ha IL
tention of the defense to plead i'nacy,
and, if possible, prove it hereditary causes
and the like. He sketched the proposed
defense as follows:
'In order that you may the better
understand the purport of the line, OBJ
ject and purpose of the testimony III be-
half of this defendant, | deem it proper
to state to you in brief way what we
can establish, or try to establish, i'll the
way of defense in this case, in the event
the jury shall conclude the state has
made is case. Whether the case IS
made or not is not now proper for dis
cussion. The defense is insanity, III
sanity at the time the murder was COM
mittcd. That part of our testimony we
tender to you now. The defendant, as
you have observed him, as he has come
into court and as he goes out, you have
a perfect right to observe, and from that
conclude as to his condition.. We ask
you to fail not in diligently observing
him. We propose to introduce further
testimony to show not only was the wife
murdered on the 24th or 25th of July,
but there were murdered two little girls,
and placed in that cistern, and that hey
were found there and not only found
with the mother, but were also mutilated.
We will try to show you that between
this man and his wife and children there
was perfect love. affection and devotion.
We propose to show that he was borne
in the womb of his mother at time she
was wild. strangely insane, to show his
grandfather for years of his life not con-
fined in an insane asylum, but restrained
and kept under guard many years. We
will try to show he had an aunt on the
maternal side eccentric, yerging into in
sanity, if not insanity itself. On his
mothers side he had an uncle likewise
eccenric, who volunteered in the Con-
federate army and died some twenty
years ago That he had an hysterical
aunt so afflicted with neuralgia, and if not
insane insanity was present. That he
also had an insane aunt on the same side,
who was insane from neuralgia. Others
on that side afflicted with neuralgia,
rheumatism. hysteria, etc, species of
insanity. That he was born n moral
idiot, was a natural born thief, that for
years there has been descent and retro
grade in his intellectual life, in his habits
and his moral rectitude, that without
cause he became alienated from his
brothers, three of them, the father and
mother being dead. That he is suspi-
cious, revengeful, secretive. That there
was no motive that can be traced, meas
ured or conceived why he should have
committed the atrocious massacre. On
this line we propose to introduce medical
evidence with reference to his RESPONSE
bility and accountability for crime which
he may have committed, or about which
he may have been charged"
All the testimony introduced yesterday
morning was from the persons living i'll
the ncighborhood of the defendants late
home, save in the case of some of the
state witnesses that were recalled. The
trend of the testimony was to prove that
Burt had always treated his wife and
children with the utmost kindness and
and that, in short, he was
a model husband. The testimony in
troduaed from the ncighbors went to
prove that Burt was very kind and con-
siderate of his children and his wife,
During the afternoon the taking of tes-
timony on the part of the defense was
continued and progressed fairly well,
though nothing particularly sensational
was developed until DR.. Wallace was
placed on the stand, He was the de-
fense's witness and it was supposed that
he would be n very strong card in their
behalf, but, on the contrary, his tcsti-
mony was very much to their detriment.
He testified, in a nutshell, that Burt
was not crazy, but was merely dissimu-
lating and that he would swear to his
sanity. This created a small-szed SEN
sation in the court room, in as much as
DR.. Wallace is acknowledged TO be quite
an expert in the matter of lunacy dag
nosing and is fully up in the medical
world This was the sensation of the
day and also marked the close of the tes-
tmony for the day. While Burt at
times during the afternoon was appar-
entity asleep, he was awake during DIR.
Wallace's testimony and when it was
concluded he was wide awake and did
not have to be awakened by the sheriff.
AS on all previous occasions, an I'M
mense crowd was out in the yard to
watch the officers take Burt back to the
Jail and during the passage to the Jail
he kept his head down and walked along
without looking ut any one.
Thus is the first week of the Burt trial
ended. The taking of tcstimon. will
be resumed tomorrow, beginning at .
o'clock, and it is thought the defense will
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