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

had been connected with the land Office,
from '56 to the breaking out of the war.
from '16 to 50. He was chief clerk then.
In reply to his ability to compare hand
writings, he said: II have had the credit
of ferreting out all the land forgeries." /"
.Cross-examined: 'Yes, l have Just
picked up my knowledge of comparing
handwritings. l know of no system gov
erning it,
Here some letters were handed to the
captain for comparisons by District At
t0rney Burleson,. one being letter from
Burt and the Others being the scraps of
paper picked up at the house on the day
the bodies were found. He said that ii
took no expert to say that they We're e
written by the same man. The labels
taken Off the boxes were also brought
in and Capt. Fisher said they were writ
ten by the same patty who wrote the let
ter.
Cross-examined: The witness was
asked to explain to the jury as to what
he based his testimony on. The witness
called attention to the word "please" in
the letter of Burt to Covert & McCarty
and the word please" in the scraps Of
paper and stated that they were alike.
The capital "Cs" and the its" were alike
as well as the small SIS" throughout the
'oiiouo itttNiS VI lttteTS.
The witness said if he had time he
could go into the explanation at length.
Maj. Walton, for the defense, assured
him that he had plenty of time. The
witness testified that the use OF a pen
or pencil made no change in the fOrma-
ton of letter by the same person.
o. II. Gibson testified that he was q Do
liceman. Knew Eugene Burt. Saw
him last on Saturday morning the last
of the month. 81 am certain it was
Saturday morning. saw him come up
Pecan street. l merely spoke to him.
saw him the Wednesday before about Il
check. 1t was on Marcus & Anderson,
signed by King. 1 don't know what in
itials. L had another check signed by
him. told him he had better take these
checks up. He said give him time and
he would do so. He went away and came
back in the afternoon and paid me the
money, and gave him the checks. was
called to the house he occupied ON Ninth
street on the Thursday before, no, after
the Saturday on which saw him. There
were quite a number there when l ar
rived. | went as fast as 1 could after
being called. When got to the cistern
in the rear of the house l noticed good
many flies around the cistern and consid-
NiuuiC CANitShChs was SOluS vi. We
had to cut the floor with an Ak to get into
the cistern. There seemed to be four or
five feet of water in the cistern. 1t was
quite a large cistern. l assisted in TAX
ing three bodies out of the cistern. One
of them was the body of Mrs. Eugene
Burt. The body was wrapped in a
blanket and ropes were tied all around
the body to keep, the blanket on. l as
sisted in taking the body to Miller's un-
dertaking establishment. As soon as the
blanket had been removed at the under
taking establishment l went in and saw
that the head was badly slashed with
some instrument. l did not see any
jewelry on the body 1t was the body
Cross-examined: Did not know Mrs.
Burt personally, but knew her as well as
anybody in town, as he had seen her oft
en-. When the body was taken out Of
the cistern, with the exception of the feet
the body was entirely covered with the
blanket. 81 helped take the bodies out
of the cistern and saw them carried to
the undertaker's wagon. The bodies ar
rived at the stable about the time ! did
The feet were swollen double sized. The
head was swollen SOME, but not double
sized. The face was slightly discolored,
being little blue under the eyes. never
noticed any mutilatiOn on the face.
never noticed particularly. | noticed
several bruises on the side of the face.
Notwithstanding these mutilations and
the discoloring l recognized the dead body
as that of Mrs. Eugene Burt. The face
was sunk in little and was swollen.
There was a wound on the head. |
noticed handkerchief tied either around
the face or neck. think 1t was around
the neck made no critical eXamina-
ton of the body. was there as an Off
Ger, to keep the crowd out.
At this juncture, the hour of noon hav-
ing arrived, the court took recess for
dinner until 2 o'clock