The herald., 1897-10-02

nth should explain why certain of tn
checks were forgeries. Witness refused
to attempt to analyze and compare tn,
respective signatures, saying that h,
had practiced his signature/ for forty
years, and the man who wrote the for
gerry had beaten him at his own game o!
penmanship. As a matter of fact, how
ever, witness knew the several checks
were forgeries for the reason that hi
had drawn no checks on those dates
{, Sometimes. in order to pay small bills
| in the office, a check for the, aggregate
amount would be made out by Mr.. Bir6
and made payable to himself and signed
by Mr.. Griffith, in order to defray these
| expenses. Defendant attended to all the
bank business and knew all of witness
business. and, as Mr.. Griffith stated, a
| little more than he did himself.
Witness stated that he had called nc
experts to pass upon the signatures
but conceded that the opinion Of Mr.
| Gibson OF the First National bank, who
after looking at the alleged forgeries
said that II Mr.. Bird signed them h;
was dangerous man to be outside oil
prison, had some little influence upon
him in arriving at determination.
| A spat between opposing counss
broke the monotony Of the examination
| at this point The defense wanted ar
adjournment to allow time for witness
to produce in court all Of his checks
bearing his signature. The prosecution
| objected, holding that as several good
checks were in evidence they were suf-
| fcient for purposes OF comparison. The
defense urged that the checks were re-
quired, not only for comparison, but as
Mr.. Griffith had not been very apt in
identifying his own signature, they
| wanted him to identify his several sigma :
lures as they went along. Mr.. McComas
held that the requiring of all back
checks made payable to Bird was not
legitimate cross-examination, being
wanted simply for comparison. Mr.
Meserve asked prosecuting counsel il
he would be pleased to permit him to
know his own mind and his own busi-
ness. He wanted these checks for other
reasons besides comparison.
DULL ROUTINE KNOCKED OUT
The spatting between counsel pro-
ceeded merrily Mr.. Pendleton quoted
law in support of Mr.. Meserve, and
Gen. Pierce quoted the dog Latin of the
school books, while Mr. McComas had
his own spirit of combat ativeness height
ened by the quiet promptings of Judge
Campbell, who lay back in his chair,
quiet and serene.
Finally the court held that the de-
fense was entitled to reasonable num-
ber OF the checks and Mr. Griffith was
ordered to produce in court at o'clock
all checks made payable to Mr.. Bird for
year past.
Meantime Detective e. J. Bradish was
put upon the witness stand He stated
that he knew the defendant. On August
18th he had occasion to 60 to the First
National bank in the course Of tracing
a $50 greenback. In connection WITH
the matter he went from the bank to Mr..
Grfith's office and heard Mr.. Grifith h
answer a message over the telephone.
1t was then about O'Clock.
D. L. Grove, paying teller at the First
National bank, testified to knowing the
defendant as the clerk Of Mr.. Griffith.
He identified the forged check for 5000
as the same one he saw at the bank
on August 10th. The check was paid
by witness to Bird. Witnees remem-
bered seeing Detective Bradish on that
day. when the latter made some In