The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-05-25
THE WRONG LAW.
Both Attorneys Were satisfied With
Rather Obsolete Authorities.
From the Washington Star.

From the Washington Star.
Il had "A singular experience several
years ago in a court trial in New
York. remarked "A treasury official the
other day. ''and it goes to show how
people get things mixed. The particu-
lar case was that of a suit brought by
the government to secure from the
bondsmen of an army officer the
amount he was short in his nancia
accounts. The ease was on trial for
several days. and | was sent there with
the records from the auditors office,
the vouchers of the officer other
official papers on which the suit was
based. The army regulations with re-
gard to the duties of disbursing off,
GERS played a prominent part in the
proceedings, as may be imagined, and
the particular regulations as to the
duties of the officer concerned We're
read several times during each day of
the trial. Though l was and am ia
miliar with the various paragraphs re-
lating to disbursing officers, l did not
pay much attention to the paragraphs
as they were read, s%upposins, of course,
that they were all right. Just as the
government was ciosing it's case the
district attorney read a paragraph.
saying that on it he would ask a ver-
diet for the government. 1t struck me
hat there was something wrong in
the paragraph, that 1t contained more
words and went into more detail than
the paragraph that l was accustomed
to hear read or had read myself often.
Judge Brown, who was presiding
over the court, had announced "A brief
recess, at the conclusion of which the
arguments Of the district attorney and
counsel for the defense were to be
heard. AS the court room cleared out
stepped over to the district attorneys
table and took d look at the Army
Regulations that he had so frequently
read. and upon which he had depended
so much for his verdict. One look sat
isfied me as to why their reading Jared
me. They were army regulations all
right, but they were for the use of the
| army of the Confederate States Of
America. 1t appeared that the district
attorney had sent n of his law clerks
to the office library for a copy of the
Army Regulations, and the clerk
brought the first boo he saw bearing
that title. taking 1T for granted. of
course. that the volume was the one
wanted. Strange as IL may seem. both
district attorney and the counsel for
the defense had quoted from the book
during the entire trial. and neither of
them had even looked at the authority
for the publication of the same. l
quietly picked up the book and went
7 DdCh W tDt = " 2 ~
with it. Upon a search ] found the
Army Regulations of 1885, signed by
the then secretary of war. Upon COM
parison OF the paragraphs in relation
to disbursing officers l found that the
language was practically the same, the
confederate army regulations having
been copied from h regulations in use
in the army for many years prior 10
the war. In his argument the district
attorney used the regulations of tbs
United States army. n upon them
secured the verdict he desired. II
would have been rather rough had ht
secured a verdict on the regulations OF
the confederate army. though i believe
the error would not have been dis
covered had ! not more from curiosity
h anything else glanced at the vol
ume which had been used, and which
as l say. covered the same grounc
practically and used different words in
doing So"