El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-11-14
Commenced Before District
Judge WaIthaII This
Morning.
FIGHT WILL BE WARM
The Character Of Patterson And Wal
lace To Be AssaiIed With Greater
Energy Than On the Former Oc-
casiOn.-An Effort Will Be Made
To Show That They Are Capable
of Forgery And Fraud.

The second hearing of the celebrated
Burns will contest was commenced
before Judge Walthall in the distric
court room this morning at lO:3(
o'clock.
No jury was demanded by either side
but the case went to trial and issues O.
fact as well as of law were left to the
Judge to decide.
1t was expected that the trial of the
case would begin as soon as court
opened but considerable delay was oc-
casioued by the preliminaries and by
awaiting the arrival of the official
8: :enographer, ex-County Attorney
Harvey, who was late in putting in an
appearance. He finally showed up and
WAS sworn and the trial proceeded.
Only few persons we're present dur
ing the morning session, except the
parties to the contest and their attor-
neys. M. w. Stanton and Falvey and
Davis Represented Patterson while W.
M. COldwell and Turney and Burgess
looked after the interests of the Irish
claimant of the estate.
After the hearing began some fur
ther delay was caused by the absence
of witnesses and of several of the attor-
neys, who retired to the judges cham
bers for consultation.
ed to the court that counsel for both
sides had agreed to use IS much of the
written testimony of the former hear
ing as considered necessary, but nei-
ther side would be prevented from
having the same witnesses testify
again. After this both sides announ-
ced their readiness to proceed and the
witnesses were called and sworn and
the rule was invoked to apply to them.
Considerable discussion next arose
over the exclusion of Geo. Wallace
from the courtroom during the exs-
mipat1on OF Witnesses. The attorneys
for Patterson wanted him present dur
ing the trial but finally admit
ted that he was entitled
to no greater privileges than any other
witness and he retired.
Judge Falvey, for contestee Patter-
SON, read the will purported to have
which leaves to his half brother, Dav i'd
Lamb of Ireland, 5000 in money, and to
Chas. B.. Patterson, "his old time
friend, :" the residue of his real and per-
'onal property.
This will was Witnessed by Geo. E.
Wallace and w. K. Van Patten.
Judge COldwell read the plea of Da-
mel Lamb, in which protest was made
against the prohating of the will fav-
BRING Patterson and presenting for
probate the will dated Aug. IL, 1896,
oy the terms OF which the estate was
20 go to Lamb. Contestant further as
serted that if Burns made the Patter-
son will, he was ill at the time and to-
ally under control of Patterson, who,
IS city recorder, had permitted Burps's
lance halls to run wide open when it
was his sworn duty to close them and
had in this manner gained great power
over Burns, whose attorney he was.
The taking of testimony was COM
nenced by Judge Davis Offering in
evidence the transcript of testimony in
wo months ago today.
THE FIRST WITNESS.
w. X. Van Patten, one of the allee-
ID witnesses to the will of July "a, 1897,
vas the first witness called to the |
tand.
The direct examination was contin- !
led by Attorney Davis.
Witness said he was AZ years old;
lad known Burns or 9 years; saw him |
asst July "a. 1897 in Patterson and |
Wallace's office; Witness went there |
IN legal business and when he opened |
'he door saw that Burns was in the |
'oom; Witness asked to be excused |
Burns looked up and saw witness and
said "Van Patten is all right; let him
come in.''
Witness went in and sat in window;
Wallace said he wanted a witness to
The instrument he was framing and
'aid Van Patten was just the man for
he purpose.
Wallace was writing with type
writer, but soon finished his work and |
pulling out a sheet of paper from the
machine laid it on the desk and went
)ut.
Burns picked up the paper and |
landed it to witness directing him to |
'ead it aloud; witness complied and |