The San Francisco call., 1897-07-23
WEDDING OUT
THE CRANKS
One Of the Fair Litigation
Victims Is Sent to an
Asylum.
Max Gumpel, the Erratic Hand
writing Expert, Once More
on the Stand.
he Tells About His Compensation,
and Then Dilates Upon Mrs.
Craven's Handwriting.


over the estate of the late James G. Fair
is gradually being weeded out
1t was announced during the progress
of the Craven suit yesterday that C. NJ.
Setter. that queer old man who for weeks
pestered the Jurors, court and attorneys
with his hallucination about having
claim against the Fair heirs for 500 600,
had been committed to the U6iah asylum
and would, therefore, be OF no further an
noyance. The mysterious colored man
known as Attorney MitchslPs "shadow"-
the Individual who never missed a session
of the trial until blocked by platoon OF
deputy sheriffs. and who fell into an cpl
leptic fit ore day because he happened to
be three minutes late-is also being cared
for at a hospital until he gets strong
enough for the journey to Stockton.
There are few more of them at large,
but they are comparatively tame and have
as vet developed no alarmingly Fremont
tory symptoms of becoming violent. They
are being watched, however, and if they
should begin to roth they will be bagged
in the incipiency OF their atf1 ction.
The proceedings of Yesterday in the
great trial opened with Daniel Keete, the
expert printer, again on the stand. He
had but a brief hearing, it being in the
nature of an opportunity to apply few
finishing touches to his evidence OF the
previous day, and he told nothing new.
J. T Donovan, the man who makes en-
larged photographs, came next and lden-
titled some cartoons of Mrs. Craven s
alleged contract with Attorney John K.
Aitken, and also one of the pencil sam pies
of tie lady's handwriting that she gave IN
court.
Then came Max Gumpel, the funny little
II; - hrrt-
than does Expert" Kytka, ana who has
mad trouble before on the witness-stand IN
this case. Gumpei was called by the at
torneys for the heirs to testify that Mrs.
Craven did write the pencil lnterlinea-
tions on the Aitken contract, and Max did
as he was hidden. He used his black board
again, TOO, and gave quite an Interesting
dissertation on the idlosyncrasles OF hand
writing, Just as he had done before manya
time.
The chalk that Max was using in the
course OF his demonstrations squeaked
when it came into contact with the black
board, and this did not have the effect of
an Eolian harp upon the nerves OF Lawyer
Mitchell. Now, Mr.. Mitchell is one OF
Gumpers employers, and, therefore, has
The privilege of kicking at him when he
takes the notion.
Say" said the attorney, cant you get
some chalk that won't squeak that way ?"
~ can't help dot" re Piled Max, arching
his broWs and struggling his shoulders.
when he do dot can't sthop 1t. l don't
get no notice when he going to squeak"
GumpeI resumed his ANALYSIS OF Mrs
Craven's chirography in the afternoon,
and proceeded to give more reasons why
be thought the lady wrote those words on
the Aitken contract that she says she did
not write.
He referred to the words "deeds to said
property." and said he readily detected in
them the same swing and movement that
we're characteristic of nearly all of Mrs.
Craven's genuine writing. Her method
of executing the small letter &c" was
dwelt upon at length by the expert as a
feature bearing out his theory. She had
fallen into habit of making This peculiar
letter, so he said, that she could not di-
vest herself of, try as she might. He
called attention to the word 'compro-
mise" which was found in both the dis
puted writing and the admittedly genuine,
and pointed particularly to the &c" He
claimed that the same characteristic was
apparent in both. The ''pen pressure"
and the 'swing" were, he said, the same
in both of the letters under comparison,
even though they did not, in general
way, rese m BILE each other.
Gumpel claimed he could detect in the
word value" as it appeared on the sam
disguise. Yet he could, he thought, see
the characteristics of her hand in the
word despite her effort to masquerade.
He has a great eve, this man Gumpel,
but his English, and particularly his pro-
nunciation, is not so good. While dealing
with this word value he called 1t "walue"
and caused q prolon ged litter by pro-
pouncing the letter ''v" as "we."
How would you pronounce Samuel
VellerT' asked Mr.. Delmas.
What's the matter-am l wong in my
swammarP' asked Gumpel innocentlv.
"Oh, never!' broke in Attorney McEner-
ney, and he Immediately exploded with
laughter.
The whole courtroom laughed uproar-
iously, too, and even Judge Slack s
sphynx-like countenance dissolved into a
network of merry wrinkles.
These little by-plays will crop up now
and then during the case, and they are
always welcomed as antidotes for the in
evitable ennui that goes with long and
tedious trials.
Continuing with his narrative, Gum pei
said he noticed that Mrs. Craven had a
habit of Joining two words together now
ana then in her writings and this charac-
teristic he found in the disputed writing.
The expert had no more reasons 20 give
as to why he thought Mrs. Craven wrote
the words on the Aitken contract, so he
was turned over to Mr.. Delmas for cross
examination.
How long have you been in the en-
ploy of the Fair estate2" asked the attor-
ney.
"Since the 18th of March, 1885," was
the reply.
Gum pei said he was not regularly un-
der salary, but was to receive a stated
lump sum. He had contract with The
attorneys for the heirs, by which he was
to receive $4,000 for his services as an ex-
pert before he went into court and $4,000
more after he testified in favor of his en-
ployers.
lyon would not have received that ex-
ira $1,000 had your opinion been against
the estate, would you?"
II guess not" said Gumpel, shaking his
head comicallv.
"Tben tic $1,000 was incumbent upon
vour going into cour: and testifying that
the disputed documents were not gen.
uine?
Gumpel had to Omit that this was
about the size OF ii.
The expert was directed to bring his
contract in to court to-day, so that every
bcdv could have look at it-particularly
the attorneys for the defense-and inter-
nret its provisions for themselves.
"rhis is your second appearance on the
stand in this case, is it not?'
Eyes"