The San Francisco call., 1898-04-09

Such was the opening statement of MT. Chapmans purposes" this morn ing, but the prosecution did not pur- pose that MT. Chapman should carry out such a vigorous programme, and therefore the defendant was dismissed
 The trial of the Coffin case to-day produced some peculiar testimony and ended in a farcical manner. Harry Melvin, who represented the District Attorneys office on behalf of the people, had the thankless task of conducting a prosecution in which the prosecutors did not care to prosecute.
 The main witness for the people was Sanitary Inspector Smith, and had he been for the defense he could not have made better witness. MT. Smith stated that in the complaint as filed in court were allegations that he had never sworn to; that the complaint was inter- lined after he had signed it, and that had he seen 1t or had it been read to him in the condition in which it was filed he would never have sworn to it.
 EX-Mayor Chapman, who appeared for Coffin, turned MT. Smith into a most excellent witness for the defendant, and the prosecution was at the very outset shown to have no case. Had the suit been tried at the time it was filed
 
 water companies were fighting for pat ronage, it would have provoked a very warm contest. Now the companies hav- ing shaken hands there is no longer any desire to prove on either side that the water of the other company is full of microbes and pollution and conse- Quently the Sanitary Inspector who owes his appointment to the Board of Health which owes it's appointment to Mayor Thomas, who is commonly sup posed to have been helped in his cleo t1on by the water companies, certainly has no object in testifying contrary to the wishes of those who keep him in of flee.
 It was seen at the beginning that the case was to be allowed practically to fall through, as only J. H. T. Watkin- son of the Contra Costa Water Com pany, of all the prominent witnesses summoned, put in an appearance. He did not hurt the case one way or the other, his testimony being mostly stricken out after he had left the stand. It was the intention of MT. Chapman to have produced evidence to show that Attorney Herrin of the Water Front Company came over here last spring, consulted with political managers and water company mana gers as to how Oakland should be gov erned during the coming administra- tion, but, owing to the evident desire not to hurt anybody, his plans were thwarted, and after the prosecution had put in its powerful side of the case it was so eminently favorable to the defendant that he was dismissed.
 MT. Coffin was charged with willfully and all other kinds of ways polluting public water supply against all kinds of public health, peace. dignity and similar civilrights. The evidence showed that he had not polluted the wat CTS, that there was no water to pollute; that if there had been any water it was not supplied to the people of the city of Oakland, although it might have got into the pipes in some manner, and 1t was also proved that MT. Coffin was not the lessee of the premises, and that if nuisance consisting of the high misdemeanor charged had been main- tained, 1t was maintained by John Avala, who is a tenant of Coffins, and that therefore the allegations in the complaint did not in any way concern the man who had been arrested and prosecuted.
 Such is the fate of the case which was begun by one of the water com- panies and which both of them were anxious to quash when it came to trial Their anxiety was quickly relieved