The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-12-30
GRAND STAND
PLAY WAS
ATTEMPTED
In the Celebrated Molieux Trial By
One Of the Chief Prosecuting
witnesses.
THE EXHIBITION OF CORNISH
AS to How he Drank Bromo-selzed
Was Suddenly Stopped By
the Courts Order.

NEW YORK. Dec, 2s.-The most In
teresting Incident to-day in the trial of
Roland B. Mollncux charged with the
murder of Katherine j. Adams, occur.
red during the oss-examlnatlon Of
Harry Cornish by Barlow S. Weeks,
defendants counsel.
Mr., Weeks asked the witness to step
from the stand. sit down at the end OF
the table occupied by the attorneys for
the state. so through the performance
Of opening the bottle of bromo seller,
show how he knocked the contents into
the glass; how he poured the water
from one glass to another, being care
full to get approximately the same
amount of water that he used in the
preparation OF the fatal dose on the
morning of the murder of Mrs Adams.
Cornish complied with the request and
proceeded to demonstrate about how
much he drank Of the mixture, also
about how much Mrs. Adams took OF
the poison. 1t was not until Mr.. Weeks
asked the witness to drink the water
in this pantomlmlc reproduction OF the
scene on the fatal morning that the re-
corder objected.
Mr.. Weeks assured Cornish that the
water would not hurt him. but the
court remarked: This dumb show has
gone far enough"
Assistant District Attorney Osborne
then good naturedly told the witness to
go ahead and drink the water, and the
witness picked up the glass with the
remark "Wel!, / will drink it, At
this point Recorder Gofr again inter-
fered with the statement that he would
not permit anything Of the sort to take
place in the court room. Mr.. Osborne
said that, while Cornish did not like the
tactics adopted by the attorney for the
defendant, he had no objections to
drinking tho water II allowed to do so
by the court. To this. however the re-
corier would net consent,
Two Of the most important witnesses
for the prosecution were on the stand
during the day. They were John D.
Adams, ex-secretary of the Knlcker-
booker Athletic Club, and Cornish. Mr..
Adams was the first witness called The
most interesting point in connection
with his testimony to-day was his posi-
tive Identification of the handwriting
on the poison package as that of Moli-
neux. The testimony of Cornish con-
sisted largely of detailed descriptions
of the scenes on the morning Of the
murder at the Adams fiat. Recorder
Goff refused to allow Mr. Weeks to ask
any questions as to the present where
abouts OF Mrs. Cornish, the wife Of the
witness, and why Mr.. and Mrs. Rogers.
the latter the daughter OF Mrs. Adams,
had separated. Few new facts were
ellclted in the attempts to trace the
poison package from the KnIckerbock-
or Athletic Club to the Adams flat. 1t
was, however, discovered that Cornish
deposited the bromo seller bottle in his
desk at the club in the presence OF p. S.
Flnneran, that he lost his key to the
desk, and that 1t was afterward found
on the floor of the Adams fiat, after the
death of Mrs. Adams: that Just before
the murder It was necessary for the
engineer ut the club to break open the
desk for the purpose of removing var
lous articles, ana that the desk was re-
paired in a make-shIrt fashion. Cor
nish also testified that he was mis-
taken in his statements to the news
papers Immediately after the murder
MS to the time when he brought the
poison package from the club to his
room at The Adams apartments and
that he had refreshed his memory by
talking with Mrs Rogers concerning
the matter.
Adjournment was taken until next
Tuesday.