The news & observer., 1898-02-08
WAS $4O2, 900 IN ALL
GIVEN BY PHILADELPHIA SURE
TY co. $4,000 EACH.
STATE TRYING TO PROVE MALICE
The Defense Mixes Up "a Witness Who Makes
Wrong Identification Damaging Remarks
of Deputies Sworn to, Threatening
to Shoot Down Miners.


Wilkesbarre, Pa, Feb. I.-Wlhen the
trial of Sheriff Martin and his deputies
opened this morning Judge Woodward,
alluding to the outbreak on Saturday be-
tween Attorneys Garman and Lenahan,
stated that repetition of the offense
would cause the offenders to be punish
ed for contempt of court.
Then came Il severe denunciatiOn of
the senasationalism of certain nGwspa-
pers in, as the court said, "endeavoring
to present justice by an exaggeration of
the facts of the trial i'll print and pictori-
ally" He would, he said, not mention
any names at present, but if the as
founding falpsehOods and misrepresenta-
tivcS continue, the representatives of the
paper will find the door of the court
house closed to them"
This is a court of justice" continued
the judge, engaged in the trial of a
case dealing with the life or death Of a
number of men, and is not Il concert, or
II political convention. The dignity of
the court must, and will be preserved" F"
But two witnesses were examined tEIl-
ring the morning session and they
brought out no new faces
just before the noon adjournment the
court accepted bail for all the accused
deputies and the sheriff i'm the amount of
$4,000 i'll each case, making $402, 900 in
all. Bail was furnished by the Phila-
dolphin Surety Company.
At the afternoon session George Yea
alao
and said the sheriff drew his revolver
and pointed it at the strikers. He
grabbed one and pulled him out from the
others, all the time holding the pistol at
his breast Then some one shouted to
shoot and they shot. The witness then
pointed out the deputies whom he saw
shooting.
The men Yeager pointed out as doing
the shooting were John Ze;rit, Harry
Ieirdt, Schuyler Ridgway and Thomas
Hall. The witness could not remember
any more.
after the first few shots" said the
witness, There was a volley and then
number of separate shots and eleven
men were killed iii five minutes and lots
wounded
examination that he could point out any
deputy who was present at the shooting,
and the defense imme e1iately scored a
strong point by calling in front of the
witness stand John Hampton. Chief of
the Coal and Iron police, Yeager was
asked if he had seen Hampton with the
deputies.
Yes" ne exclaimed, she was in the
line and was holding his rifle this way
and he illustrated.
The defense when its time comes, will
prove THAT Hampton was not on the
scene at all, but was in Hazleton at
the time.
Thomas Hall, clerk of the Valley Hotel
in HaZleton, testified to a remark he
had heard on the Sunday following the
| shooting from Deputy john Turner.
Turner was in the hotel talking to some
friends, and he said speaking of the
shooting:
I'VE all marched out to Lattimer AMI
as the strikers came up heard a shot.
1T seemed to come from the ranks of
the strikers, and then we opened up.
shot nine of them, and killed five"
The next witness was Christopher Bre-
said he was at West Hazlet0n when
the strikers arrived and that he talked
with BCrnheiser, one of the deputies,
who wanted him ito join THE deputies.
Bormheiser said ''every one of the id
strikers ought to be shot"
''They have as good right to strike
as anybody" the witness replied, "and
L would not stop them"
You're d--d coward" Bornheiser
said, ''Or else you would get a gun
and go out with us to shoot them."
IA few days before the shooting, the
witness had "A talk with a deputy manned
| Dodson, who said:
we Ought to get so much a head for
shooting down these strikers. would
| do 1T for Il cent q head and make money
at it,
On cross-eXamiIation the witness adj
mittod he had been in Jail for a week on
the charge of burglary but that he had
been bailed out and acquitted. His orr
Sinal story was not altered.
The last witness was John Costello,
who said he was helping u wounded
man when deputy n. 10. Hess approach
ed him. He was about to detail the
conversation which ensued and by which
the Commonwealth hoped to prove
malice on the deputy when the defense
objected. There was IL long argument
conducted by attorney Palmer and
Lenahan for the defense, and attorney
Scarlet, McGahren, Gamnan and Martin
for the Commonwealth.
The court will decide the question in
the morning.