The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-12-11

Peculiar Documentary Evidence
That the Accused Tried
to Conceal.
Torn Love Letters From Bank Clerk
Put Together by a Maid and
Presented il Court.

TOXIC. JAPAN, Nov 24.-The prelimi-
nary examination in the Carew poisoning
case has ended in the committal of Mrs.
Carew on the charge of willful murder.
Two sensational incidents marked the
course of the inquiry. One was the &C
cused's attempt to secrete and carry away
portion of the documentary evidence.
She appears to have totally overlooked
the contingency that she might be de-
tanned and searched. Had she been so
minded she might have left the court be-
fore the loss OF the paper had been dis
covered. But she remained made great
show of assisting to look for the document,
and was finally discov> red to have hidden
it in her own sleeve.
The second incident was the production
of a number of letters forming part of
correspondence between herself and III.
V. Dickinson, a CLERK in the Hongkong
and Shanghai Bank. From this cor
respondence it appears that the relations
between Mrs. Carew and Mr.. Dickinson
had been very intimate and that, accord
ing to Dickinson's idea, the lady was re-
ceiving brutal treatment a: her husbands
hands. But if she was indeed ill-treated
by him it is singular that no evidence of
such a state of affairs could be obtained
either from the people living in the house
with them or from outsiders. The
strangest point, however, Is the manner
In which these letters were preserved.
They had been torn up by Mrs. Carew
and thrown into her waste paper basket.
But her English maid. fearing, as she
alleges. that her own reputation might be
imperiled by her mistress doings, gath
cred the fragments Of the letters from the
basket and then got friend to sew them
together.
The new Japanese Cabinets tenure of
power has been much weakened by col
lision with the press. When the Ministry
came into office the Premier, in speech
delivered before the local Governors, gave
an indirect pledge TO effect radical
change in the position of the press. At
present the administration is competent
to suspend or suppress publication with
out any legal process and without lndi-
eating the Objectionable matter. An edi-
Tor cannot be fined or imprisoned with
out recourse to law court, but his news
paper may be suspended for an indefinite
time or suppressed altogether by order of
the Minister of State for Home Affairs.
Against that arbitrary power all political
parties have hitherto struggled IN vain,
passed bill after bill resembling the I'M
popular clauses of the press regulations.
the Upper House insisted on COM
promise, and, as neither would yield,
progress proved impossible.
1t was felt, however, that if the Govern
ment took up the matter resolutely the de-
sired object could be attained, and in view
of the present Premier's language the Gov
vernments cooperation was fully antici-
pated. But suddenly the Chauvinist Sec
ton of the press commenced most vio-
lent and slanderous attack upon the
Minister OF the Imperial Household De-
partment and upon the department
itself, the object of these journalistic agi-
tators and their political wire-pullers
being to compel the resignation of that
off cial, whose presence at the head of the
Household Department, according to their
notion, tended to render the sovereign
always accessible to Marquis Ito. the late
Premier Evidently these violent editors
and their instigators believed themselves
to be working in the interests of the pres
ent Cabinet but such excitement was
caused by their action that the Govern
ment's hands were forced and it became
necessary to suppress two periodicals and
suspend five newspapers.
1t is alleged that Iii Hung Changes So
called ''offense" in entering the palace
grounds in Pekin was not due to any care
leSSneS5 on his own part. lhueeC, every
body had difficulty in comprehending
how an old official of such long experience
could have perpetrated blunder of the
kind. The story now told is that, at the
close of his first audience with the En-
press Dowager on his return from the Oc-
cident, the imperial lady suggested that
Ii should examine the Improvements ind
changes made in the grounds during his
absence, He proceeded to do so, encoun-
terad a aunich tailed to give the man n
sufficient douceur, and was reported 10
the Emperor, who, being at daggers
drawn with the EN- press-Dowager, gladly
seized the occasion to slight her. The
Board of Punishments sentenced Lii to be
deprived of all his offices, but the En-
peror committed the penalty into the loss
of years salary.