The San Francisco call., 1898-12-13

tOAo lO lllS that IS IIyluS
 Mrs. Cordelia Botkin for the crime. The prosecution began the ac- tual presentation of evidence yesterday morning, and before the day was over every incident in the dreadful scheme of assassination had been described. Even the cold, dry Journalism of the law could not rob the recital of it's dramatic interest.
 The host of listeners that crowded the court room of Judge Cook followed with eager, silent attention every de- tall of the plot of the poisoner as 1t was presented in question and answer by the officers and witnesses of the State. A picture of the Pennington household at Dover and the devasta- tion that the murderous impulse of some fiend swept through it was drawn slowly and clearly as each witness came and went
 And when the day was over not one word had been said to indicate who the cruel assassin Is. The prosecution has not come to that development of its proof, but is expected to do so to- day. It will now begin to present it's case against Mrs. Botkin to connect her directly and maliciously with the awful murders at Dover and to de- mand of the jury that her life be given in exchange for those taken in murder.
 The scene in the court room yester- day was most dramatic. As the rela- tives and friends of the murdered wo- men told in chapters the story of the crime every eye was turned upon Mrs. Botkin, who maintained a composure that seemed almost to be unconcern. It appeared to be most unusual oc- currence that the prosecution should, during the day, win its most import ant point through slip of the guarded movements of the defense.
 The prosecution will seek to demon strate tfTat the fend who mailed the package of death to Mrs. Cunning also wrote the anonymous letters which that woman received more than a year before her death. An effort will then be made to prove that Mrs. Botkin is guilty of both acts. At the stage reached yesterday in the proceedings the prosecution could find no legal way in which to connect the letters with the package. John B. Pennington, the father of the murdered woman, was on the witness stand, and, as a matter of fact, believed from a close comparison that the letters and the address on the package were written by the same per- son. The prosecution was not per mitted to introduce this fact yesterday, but the defense did so through a ques- ton asked in cross examination by At torney Knight This will relieve the lawyers of the State of much prelimi- nary legal fencing in placing what they believe to be the facts of the case be- fore the consideration of the jury
 The first witness for the prosecution was Thomas NJ. Gooden, the postmaster of Dover, Del. The introduction of this witness as the first in the case indicated the plan of the State to pre- sent the dreadful facts of the murder of Mrs. Cunning and Mrs. Deane in chronological order. Tn dry, legal, halting way the recital of death was to be made to the jury. The first witness was nervous, excitable, emphatic. He was sure of his ground and fretted un- der the cross examination of Attorney Knight.
 Gooden related on the witness stand no fact that was not already known to the public. He told the circumstances under which the package of poisoned candy reached Dover on August of this year The prosecution, it was evident, had determined to trace the box of bonbons on it's mission of death from the moment 1t arrived in the mail at Dover. This method of proof In itself excited interest. It was thought that the facts and circumstances con- meeting Mrs. Botkin with the purchase and disposition of the box would first be shown, but Assistant District At torney Hosmer and Attorney General White of Delaware preferred to estab- fish first the fact that a crime had been committed and then to expose the per petrator. This plan of procedure will make the conduct of the trial excep- tionally dramatic.
 Postmaster Gooden told how the package, which he identified on the Etand, came through the mail to Dover and was placed, after the distribution of the mail in the postbox of J. B. Pennington. Attorney Knight badger ed the witness, but did not break him in his position. A tilt between Knight and Hosmer followed and then the prosecuting officer proceeded to trace the box of death into the Pennington home.
 The next link in the chain was sup piled by Harry c. Pennington, nephew of the murdered women. The boy told how he took the package from the postoffice and carried it to the home of his aunt. where he was spending a 1 vacation. The young witness related | the incidents that followed, the opening | or the box, the eating of the sweet | meats the subsequent sickness, suffer- ing and death. It was while this how ish witness was on the stand that the defense indicated the first eIener+ ne | its plans.
 Every effort will be made to intertaot | the single element of reasonable donbt | that will be sufficient to save Mrs Rot kin from conviction In Knigbt,s | cross-examination of Harry Pennine-