The record-union., 1896-05-30
TALMADGE DIVORCE Case.
Il is No Longer Being Heard With Open
Doors.
Why Judge Catlin Made the Order
Yesterday to Have Them
Closed.

The Talmadge divorce case mas peen
prolific Of features that are not every
day encountered in the civil courts, OUT
most Of them have been closely inter-
woven with testimony that could not De
published
The case was being tried with open
doors, but an incident occurred yester-
day that caused the court TO close the
doors to all except the parties con-
cerned in the case-an order tnat
should, in the interest of decency, nave
been in force from the beginning
When Talmadge was on the witness
stand on Wednesday he made certain
statements concerning former case
one for breach of promise-in whlch T.
T. Jones was his attorney, one or which
related to the recovery by MI Jones
of letters held by the woman In It's
report of Talmadge's testimony the
Bee referred to the woman having
been an inmate of a crib" the name
by which the dens occupied by dlsrepu-
table women are known A similar re-
port Of the testimony was published in
the San Francisco Chronicle"
Mr. Jones is now one of the attor-
neys prosecuting Mrs. Talmadge's suit
for divorce and when the case was
called yesterday his associate counsel,
j. B. Devine, called the attention OF the
court to the publication.
The following is a correct copy of the
official notes taken by the court steno-
grapher, as appears in his stenographlc
report of the proceedings:
Mr.. Devine-If your honor please, be-
fore proceeding with the case this
morning 1 think there is matter that
at this time it is proper to draw the
attention of the court to. Since the in
ception of this case the newspapers or
this town have been reporting the pro-
ceedingS somewhat at length, part1cu-
larly the newspaper published in this
city known as the Evening Bee" In
the account of the proceedings had yes
terday in this court, contained in last
nights Bee" appeared the following
statement:
THE most dramatic scene was when
Talmadge attacked Charles 7. Jones.
attorney for Mrs. Talmadge. He de-
clared that at one time Jones had
'gouged him out of 100000, and at an
other time he had paid him and /. J.
Simmons ST, 700 for nothing. The story
of this alleged latter transaction was
brought out on cross-eXamination. Tai
madge said that he had at one time
visited crib on lower l. street, and
the woman in the crib afterwards
claimed to have obtained some letters
from him which she intended using to
make trouble for him. He told his
troubles to Attorney Jones, who agreed
to help him out. A few days later Jones
told him that he had engaged de-
teotive named Simmons to get the let
ters back, and Talmadge would have to
pay Simmons S540. He consented to
this, and later Jones told him that the
woman would settle for 5000. He paid
this amount, and afterward Jones
showed him the letters, and he saw
that they were forgeries. He explained
this to Jones, but the latter said that
made no difference as the woman could
have used them in court. Jones then
demanded and received a fee of $500"
After consultation with my associate,
Charles T. Jones, to whom this article
refers, we have thought proper to
draw it to the attention of the court,
in view of the fact that the statement
contained in this paper is base fabri-
cation, and is wholly unwarranted by
any testimony that was produced upon
the stand here yesterday, or at any
time since the trial of this case. 1t con-
tains such a gross, unwarranted, cruel
and indecent aspersion upon Mr.. Jones
that l think it proper to draw the at
tention of the court to set Mr.. Jones
right before the public, that the court
may state that no such testimony was
given, and there was no testimony in
troduced in this case that would war
rant any such article.
Mr.. Jones stands at the bar, we'll
known to your honor and everybody in
this county and the whole bar through
out the State. Concerning his standing
as to professional integrity, l think he
is the peer of any member of the bar in
this State The article to which l all
lude is so cruel, so indecent, so unwar-
ranted and such a gross imputation of
a professional wrong to Mr.. Jones, l
think IL is no more than right that the
court should say from the bench it
believes it to be false and unwar-
ranted.
l don't know from where or from
what source the reporter who penned
this article obtained his information
At the time Mr.. Talmadge was testify
ing concerning some other matters, the
reporter who wrote this article for
publication in the Bee" (Mr. Brown, l
believe is his name) was not in court.
saw him come in court after Mr. Tall
madge had relinquished that part of
the testimony and gone to some other
portion. l do not know from what
source he obtained the alleged facts
upon which he based this particular ar
ticle If he obtained them from some
body else, the person from whom he
obtained them evidently gave him a
perverted and unjust account of the
facts. maliciously. If he drew it from
his own imagination, he has most
vivid and perverted one.
The Court saw that article late
last evening in the Bee" / believe it
was as late as IL o'clock. / have no
hesitation in saying that the statement
to which counsel has just referred is a
grossly false statements gross fabri-
cation There was not the slightest
ground in the testimony of Mr. Tai
madge upon which such a statement
could be based, and it is a reflection
upon Mr. Talmadge, as much, perhaps,
as 1t is on Mr.. Jones. Mr.. Talmadge
WHV IICE