The San Francisco call., 1898-12-30
Attorney Hosmer Will Close the Case of the People To-
 Day. 1t Will Hardly Reach the Jury Before Wednes- day of Next
 Week.

THE dying days of the year 1898 will
 not bring to Mrs. Cordelia Botkin
 surcease from the. conflicting emo-
 tions that beset her as her trial for the murder of Mary Elizabeth Dunning draws near its close. Contrary to expec- tations. Frank McGowan, in his closing argument in her behalf, occupied the en- tire day. District Attorney Hosmer will consume all of the allotted time to-day. and this will carry the celebrated case over until next Tuesday, when the attor- neys for each side will make their prayers to the Judge regarding his instructions to the jury.
 This charge will be of vital importance, as the construction placed by the court on the law and the evidence in the case will have, if anything, more weight with the jury than anything else. There is a possibility that this will consume the greater part of Tuesday. so the day on which the jury will be charged and the case placed in hands can hardly be earlier than Wednesday.
 Senator Frank McGowan had the last say to the jury on behalf of Mrs Botkin yesterday. Like his co-worker, George Knight, he spread his argument over too great length of time and wasted his elo- quence on matters that can have no pos sible influence on the minds of the jury men. Instead of dwelling on the .alibi by which Mrs Botkin proves she was in Eureka on the day one of the anonymous letters was mailed in this city; on the fact that there is no record on the books of the City of Paris showing tho sale of handkercSiefs to a person residing at the Hotel Victoria, and such other mat ters where it is difficult to connect Mrs BotNn with the case. they are trying to prove that the box of candy never went through the mails to Delaware, that the women did not die from arsenical poison ing, and are spending time in such con- tentions.
 The attorneys for Mrs Botkin take diff ferent points of view regarding certain phases of the case For instance. MT Knight admitted that Mrs Botkin had not lived that life of high ideals that all ad- mire, but he declared she desired a chance to live down the past and blot from her memory those violations the code of morality which in part have brought her to the bar of justice and placed her on trial for her life. Mir. McGowan takes 2 different view from this. He affirms that there is not blot on her escutcheon, not a word breathed against her fair name except those that flowed from @ sn-pol- luted lips of Dunning"
 The burden of his argument was the shadow of doubt that hung like a. pall over almost every link in the chain of circumstantial evidence welded by the prosecution in the effort to connect Mrs. Bctkin with the heinous crime of poison ing two estimable women. He held that the fabric of the case for the people had fallen to the ground when they failed to connect her with the purchase of lump ar senic. He dwelt at length on the fact that Professor Wolf when he analvzed the candy in Delaware found only lump ar senic. In keeping with this he intimated broadly that the police had fixed the candy so that when Professor Price an alyzed 1t in this city he found the DOW dered drug. They had to do this to hear out their theory as formed against Mrs. Botkin.
 One by one he paid his respects to the witnesses for the prosecution. It was thought that everything possible in the way of vitriolic words, both written and