New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-02-27
GARDINER MAY TAKE HOLD.
LIKELY TO CONDUCT ADAMS INQUEST
PERSONALLY TO-DAY.
HIS PLAN FOR GETTING EVIDENCE TO WAR
RANT AN ARREsT-CORONERs CAL
ENDARs BECOMING CHOKED
THROUGH DELAY IN
POISON INQUIRY.

ENpARs BECOMING CHoKED
THROUGH DELAY IN
POISON INQUIRY.
District-Attorney Gardiner may personally
conduct the examination of witnesses at 'he
Adams poison inquest to-day. He VIII can 10
the stand several persons on whom he depends
70 aid him In making good his past DECLARATIONS
as 10 the result of the inquiry. II the Distri''-
Attorney adheres TO his present plan IL VIII ne
his second public appearance In the active WORK
Of handling the witnesses. The first was maze
when Assistant District-Attorney Johh +. Nc
Intyre was called. Colonel Gardiner content'd
himself M that time with asking only the
stereotyped questions which led up 10 the state
rnent given by the witness. No cross-examna-
ton was attempted There is no absolute GER
ta,nty that Colonel Gardiner will actually take
charge Of the investigation to-day, although
that was the plan yesterday. but. like other
r,sns made during the eight weeks since Mrs
Adams's death il may be changed within few
moments OF the hour for holding the inquest
The District Attorney desires 10 be in at the
close Of the hearing and produce the witnesses
who will aid him. in a slight degree at least IN
v,ndicating himself as 10 the methods used In the
case. and thus give him an opportunity 10 make
the arrest which he and the police have planned
These witnesses are Nicholas A. Hickman VINO
has a private letter-bOx establishment IN west
-second-st: Miss Miller. who sold the silver
holder in Newark; Mr.. Kinsley. handwriting
expert. and william c. Fischer wig-maker OF
Newark who is supposed TO have sold RED
beard and wig which might have figured in the
case.
TWO STAR WITNESSES
From two Of these Hickman and Kinsley,
Colonel Gardiner hopes to get enough testimony
10 warrant an arrest The testimony or MT
Hickman has been in the possession Of the po-
lice for weeks, but was not considered as OF
great value Mr. Kinsley. the writing expert
also made his report some time ago, and had re-
ported adversely 10 the present plans A new
specimen of handwriting, written under his
direction by the suspect and in careful imitation
Of the address on the poison package. caused
him TO make a supplementary report, which says
there is some similarity between this specimen
and the address the package. If the Dis
trict-Attorney has any other more discriminating
evidence against the suspect he is keeping it
dark from both the police and the attaches of
his own office
The harmony which is now apparently pre-
vailing between the Dlstrct-Attorney office
and the Detective Bureau is striking when com
pared with what has been going on in the in
vestigation up 10 the last two days. In fact
now Captain McClusky and his men are working
with renewed zeal and are in frequent con-
ference with the District-Attorney. That the
captain and his men are not fully satisfied that
the suspected man is actually the guilty person
is common gossip at Headquarters and the old
men around there express the belief that orders
have been given to the detectives TO help sus-
tain the District-Attorney and extrcate him
from the embarrassing position he would be in
IL his inquest proceedings should result in a
water haul
Coroner Bausch is Directing to the long drawn
out inquest and in conference yesterday with
Coroner Hart asked him to adjourn the inquest
IL the testimony was not completed by Tuesday
night and Coroner Hart has agreed to do this
Coroner Bausch gave as reason for his de-
rnand that there is no prisoner In the Adams
case, and that therefore the interests Of justice
would not suffer by a few days delay. While, IN
several cases on the Coroners calendar theTe
are prisoners on bail and in confinement. he
saws that justice demands that the evidence
against those prisoners should be heard without
fun ther delay.
HARRIS CASES PILING~ UP.
Coroner Harris own cases are piling up. and
he will have TO work day and night for couple
Of weeks to catch up with the inquests that
have accumulated since he began the hearing
in the Adams case. Coroner yucca has three
homicides. besides four accidents and half
dozen other deaths to investigate. and Coroner
Fitzpatrick has at least eight more or less i'm
portant cases awaiting a hearing. All the Coro-
ners have held minor hearings in their private
rooms, but they have found it impossible TO
pursue that course where several witnesses nave
10 be examined
Colonel Gardiner. under his plan OF arrestng
a suspect as told in yesterdays Tribune. eX-
poets surely 10 complete the inquest by Wednes-
day and thinks that by that time the several
thousand pages of stenographic notes or IN
ferences and impressions, with a small amount
OF evidence. might warrant an arrest. IL his
plan fails and the Coroner insists on adJourning
on Tuesday il means that the inquest Will not
be completed for several weeks TO come.
Colonel Gardiner and his assistants say in eX-
PLANTATION of the ng-dIaWn-Out inquiry with no
result that all COrOners inquests are only
"nshng excursions" \ lawyer, in speaking OF
this Yesterday said: well. on this fishing trip
Colonel Gardiner and the police surely went out
with a net large enough 70 catch whales, and
seem 10 have dragged the whole ocean Of evil
dence. with the result Of obtaining only few