The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-07
GUILTY OFF HOG STEALING.
Law, Fun and Farce in Y. NJ. G. A,
Mock Trial.


Mock Trial.
There was fun for everybody at the en-
tertainment given last night in the gym
nasium hall of the Young Mems Christian
Association.
The occasion was an entertainment In
the way of a mock -trial, and the proceed
ings, as taken down in shorthand by the
court stenographer, would fill book that
would rival in point of racy reading the
publications of Mark Twain, or ever-glo>
rious Joe Miller's joke book.
Mock-trials are usually very funny
amusing and bright, but those who had in
hand the trial at the Young Mems Chris
tan Association certainly are experts
when it comes to making out a case brlm-
full of mirth-provoking suggestiveness.
Hon. A. H. MacDonell, the judge wear,
ing that ruthless, juggernaut countenance
which is stereotyped on the faces of the
average judge of modern times, crossed
his patent feathers under the rickety table
on the stage, and rapping for attention
while Sheriff ]. H. Willink demanded that
the court come to order and Clerk R. l..
Colding, who is much at home when look
ing over the big docket books in the city
court, began to call the jury.
The case as made out in the indictment
brought Messrs. Harry Cheat Anderson
and Boston Pollard Coleman up for the
| alleged stealing of a pig. Messrs. j. f.
Cam and Robert NJ. Hitch, attorneys, an
sWered for the state and Messrs. Francis
M Oliver and John Nicolson, attorneys for
the defendants, responded that they were
ready for the trial.
The jury was sworn in a most original
way, and so were the witnesses. The
| oaths that Clerk Colding made them take
were as idle and ridiculous as batch of
New Years resolutions. The witnesses
for the state were A. NJ. King Frank
Cooney the newsboy, J. l.. Sweat, Jack
Davis and WHY Bridges. The defendants
entrusted their fate to w. S. Coyle, j
>. Hires, Allen Sweat, Julius Caesar Au-
gustus Bonaparte, a negro preacher we'll
up IN the art of hog stealing, as his testi-
\ mony showed, w. G. Sutlive, Jim Null
doom, a red faced policeman, and Miss An
ge-ina Hamstring, the latter being pc
tite, and altogether charming young lady,
who heroically ventured the testimony
that one of the culprlts, Mr.. Anderson,
was paying her a call the night of the al
ieged hog stealing and hence sought to
establish an alibi
The testimony was artistic, not to say
arttul. me plot thickens with the rapidly
of a South Atlantic cyclone, as the wit
nesses for the state successfully took the
stand. There were plays and by-plays on
the part of the wiry lawyers, and quite as
many "call-dOwns" as might occur when
Jesse James was looting a train.
The speeches of the attorneys were
as bright and clever as the song of the
man before the big tent at circus. The
audience was kept in an uproar, and when
finally the jury returned a verdict declar-
ing the prosecutor to be guilty and his
lawyers along with him, the ridiculous
farce wound up with a fitting climax of
incongruities.
Inc court was more fortunate than the
real courts of to-day, in that it had but
one case on the docket and succeeded in
getting that one off without any post
ponement.