Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-01-18
CONTE MPT CASES.
Managers of Two Newspapers
Before Judge Bond.
They Claim They Had No Intention Of
. Violating the Prophecies and the TeIe-
gram Says 1t Copied from the
Gazette.

The cases against Austin P. Cristy Of
the Telegram and that against the Ca
zette Publishing Company for contempt
of court, were called in tho superior
court before Judge Bond at AS Monday
afternoon. There was large gathering
Of members of the bar. Mr. Cristy sat
inside the rail with his counsel, David
Manning, while d. B. Rowland and ].
II. Jewett Of the Gazette, occupied seats
on the outside There were large
number of interested spectators.
David Manning, addressing the court,
said the proceedings for contempt were
summary in their character, for the
defendant has no trial by jury and no
right Of appeal. Especially where the
alleged contempt is committed without
the court, or outside any process of the
court, he thought the court would give
the consideTa ton full weight. The COM
plant in the Telegram case is a COM
plant that the newspaper has pub
lished a report of the court proceedings,
in which 1t stated that the town of Hol-
den had made a certain offer, and that
the plaintiff had wanted something fur
ther. The article in question appeared
first in the Gazette Of the evening pre-
y, utlS
charge Of the court work for the Tele-
gram, made his article in the Telegram
a substantial copy OF the article pub
lished in the Gazette the night before.
1t was written by Mr.. Mccarthy about
supper time, thoughtlessly and hastily.
MIR. Manning then made a few remarks
about the number of men employed on
| the Telegram, and said Mr. Cristy had
nothing to do with the men, except to
employ them and give them directions.
AS matter of fact, the reporters had
| been cautioned not to comment upon
cases on trial, and to be cautious in re-
porting evidence. 1t would be inpossi-
pie for Mr.. Cristy to go through the en-
tire paper. MI Cristy had been on a
trip through the south, returning only
thursday afternoon, and had not seen
the copy, as he found a large amount
OF business awaiting his attention. Mr..
Hurd, the sub-editor, had been absent
in Maine, returning Friday, the day the
article was published, Under these cir
cunstances this article came to be pub
nsned. In view of the fact that Mr..
cIlsty was not responsible, and it was
beyond his power to prevent it, it would
pc serious thing for the court to pun
ism a man for an act that was absolute
~ beyond his power, and to be held
responsible for an error and accident of
MS employees 1t was impossible to pre-
vent accidents in newspaper Offices, and
II seemed that the power Of the court to
punash, ought not to be exercised ex-
cept in case Of fragrant abuse. The Wit
neSses Will show that it happened pure
~ by accident, that there was no intent
IN the case, and that the result was not
erected by the publication. If iurynen
read the article they could see that If
was mistake, as town witnesses testi-
heq thaf the damage was $500 or $500.
Judge Bond at this point remarked
that II was not a question what damage
was done, but what damage was intend
| ed to be done
Mr.. Manning said that he was very
eonndent that he could show that no
infringement upon the proprietaes of the
court was intended but it was an acct
dent - 49,
Austin P. Cristy, Charles o. Hurd and
James MCCARTHY were then sworn, the
inst named taking the stand. Mr..
Crlsty sald that he was editor and man
| aSer on the Worcester Daily Telegram.
| Asked what his duties were. he said n
would be difficult to give the details,
| Witness said he could not read all the
| copy turned in, but employed sub-edit-
ors to do that. He never saw any of
1t unless his attention was specially
called to 1t. He did not see the article
In question, and the first he knew of it
was when he was pulled out of bed bv
the deputy sheriff, Friday morning
When asked what Instructions he had
given In regard to the publication of
court reports, witness said they were
not 10 print any comment or the his
tory of cases ON trial, nor that a case
had had a former trial, nor to make any
explanation of this feature or that.
Those instructions he had given them
of NJ
editor, and that he had given him and
the reporters instructions as stated.
Judge Bond here asked Mr.. Cristy if
he did not previously have trouble for
publishing the same kind Of an article.
Mr.: Cristy replied that he had been
called down to court.
Judge Bond again asked the question,
and Mr., Cristy said yes, SIR
Judge Bond inquired Of Mr.. Cristy if
he did not know from the previous case.
that the publication of an offer was a
wron thing to do. and the latter replied
that he did know before that 1t was
wrong, and that If he had known of
tine presence OF the article, he would
have stopped 1t. Mr.. Cristy added that
II was not his business to influence trials
or to comment upon them.
Mr.. Cristy was asked if the reporter
WHO had charge of courts at the pre-
vlous incident, was now doing the work
and Mr.. Crlsty said that he had re-
moved him and trie1 another
Judge Bond inquired how long the
present reporter had been doing courts
and Mr.. Cristy replied that the new man
had reported courts since last Nav
Judge Bond then inquired who the other
reporter was, and Mr.. Cristy replied:
r. c. Finley" Judge Bond asked
where he was now employed, and Mr.
CriSty said that he was now In the
Office After the first case Of contempt,
Mr. Cristy said that he had spent the
week instructing the reporters. In fact,
he had done nothing else that week
Judge Bond interposed with the query
OF Mr.. Cristy, IL he meant to say that
he had instructed the present reporter.
Mn. CTtsty replied: 81 do. have in
structed them ALL
Charles o. Hurd then took the stand
and said that he was sub-editor his
title being night editor" He had i'm
mediate charge Of getting out the copy.
He had charge Of six men who read the
copy Thursday evening he was in
Ellsworth, Me-, having been called there
to attend funeral, and did not return
until Saturday. The instructions in
court news had been to exercise the
greatest of caution in handling court
news and specifically to print little evil
dence in cases on trial, and to see that
the reporters maze no comment. since
the incident of the first case OF con-
tempt Mr.. Cristy had given special and
particular instructions. He said that he
had made 1t a point to read the court
copy himself, and when he could not to
watch over those who did read it.
James Mccarthy, reporter, next took
the stand. He had reported court since
June. Mr.. Cristy had instructed him
to be very careful and make no COM
mont He wrote the article in question
at about $50 o'clock, copying from the