The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-05-24

legged, sterilIzed the Soil and His Trees
and shrubbery Die in Consequence
How it was Done and What Season has
to Do With 1t.
In the district court yesterday a very
| interesting case was decided. 1t was
the case Of A. B. Wright against the
Wichita Gas and Electric Light com
pany, and the decision was IN favor of
Mr.. Wright.
During the winter of 1894 the gas main
| in front of AR. Wright's residence
sprung a leak and Notwithstanding the
| fact that it was soon observed it was
not repaired for some time.
The succeeding spring It was noticed
that the trees, grass and shrubbery for
a radius Of fifty feet around the spot
where the gas leaked did not grow and
the gas leak was blamed for 1t. The re-
suit was that Mr.. Wright sued the gas
company for damages TO the extent Of
| 81 600 George Lehman also sued for
| similar amount and last winter ne got
verdict for $13.
| The decision yesterday gives Mr..
| Wright $500 for four dead trees and
| some shrubbery.
| The principal witness was Professor
j. NJ. Naylor of Lewis academy, who
gave expert testimony in favor of the
plaintiff concerning the effect of leaking
gas on soil. 1t seems according TO the
science Of the thing that gas kills not
only all animal life but vegetable life
as well. 1t sterilzed the soil and de-
stroys the nOuriShing substances from
] trees, grasses, etc, derive their vitality.
For instance, 1t was demonstrated that
| flowers and plants die as surely and
rapidly in a room where gas escapes as
a person would under the same cirCum-
| stances.
When the jury was satisfied of all this
| the next thing to be done was TO prove
the damage OF four shade trees tail of
stature. wide of limb and thick with
leaves. Nearly all the real estate men
in town We're taken up to the court to
give their opinion as TO the damage
and from their evidence the jury found
it to be $500.
Now, Mr.. Lehman, who was damaged
equally with Mr.. Wright, is wondering
why he got only S13 but the reason is
plain II was in the dead of winter
when his case was tried and Of course
a juryman does not realize the value Of
q. tree ike he does in the summer time
and thus reasons have great deal 10
do with law. They estimated the value
of the trees like they would value of a
dish of ice cream In the winter time
with the mercury below zero no man
| believes that dish OF ice cream is
worth 2 cents, but in the summer time
when the mercury is 100 in the shade
the same man thinks that a dish of ice
cream is the cheapest thing on earth
for 10 cents. The value OF the component
parts of the ice cream are the same in
| winter as well as in summer. The fact
| is the winter jury estimated George
Lehman's trees by the value as chord
wood, but the summer jury estimated
them by their value as shade. Moral:
If You bring damage for shade trees
postpone your case until the Fourth OF
July.
Then, again, the lawyers are effected
by the seasons when talking about
shade trees. Mr.. Stanley grew more
eloquent yesterday over those trees than
he ever did in his life. He made the
jurors believe that life was not worth
living without a summer shade. He
talked them way out into the fiat dreary
prairie and held them there for over an
hour with the hot sun pouring down on
them He had every one of them per-
spring so that four or five of them
came within an ace OF falling dead in
the jury box from sunStroke. Then he
brought them in and gave them q seat
under the shade of one of Abe Wright's
trees and while they were there he gave
them a most elegant and eloquent song
and dance about the beauty Of home
life, with the lord and master sitting
under his vine and fig tree and his wife
and children huddled about him enjoy
ing the evening shade. He even saw. in
his minds eye, Mr.. Wright when he was
a young man sitting out those trees and
drew a nice picture Of the young men
coming out into Kansas to build a
home and he was quite sure that every
one of the jurors had wives and families
of their own whom they loved TO gath
er about them under the weaving leafy
branches of a tree on a summers even
ing after a hard days toll
Wall & Brooks had the other side OF