Omaha daily bee., 1899-02-28
QUAY'S TRIAL is POSTPONED
on Motion Of the DIstrict Attorney
the Cnsc II Put over UntiI
April 10.

PHILADELPHIA. Feb 27.--On motion OF
District Attorney Rothermel the Quay con
spiracy trial has been postponed until April
10. The district attorney did not state his
reason for the motion for the postponemeut.
Though interest in the trial was intense
throughout the city. there was no crowding
in the court room because Of an order issued
by the court that only the lawyers directly
interested in the case, the panel OF witnesses
and limited number of newspaper men
should be admitted
Senator Quay, with his SON. entered the
court room, accompanied by their counsel
Rufus Il. Shapley. A. s. l.. Shields and
David T. Watson of Pittsburg The presence
of the latter was a surprise to those in at
tendance as 1t was generally understood that
he had retired from the case.
District Attorney Rothcrmel and his as
sistants held a brief consultation, at the
conclusion of which the district attorney
arose and addressing the court said that for
reasons which he did not care to state at
present he asked that the trial Of the Messrs.
Quay be postponed. He was not ready to
proceed with the trial now He stated
further that as the judges Of the court
would be engaged for the greater part of
the present month in hearing the liquor
license applications, he would ask that the
date for this trial be fixed for April 10.
Mr.. Shapley of counsel for the defense op-
posed the motion. He said their witnesses
had been subpoenaed and every preparation
made to bring the trial to an immediate con-
cusion. postponement at this time, he
said, would cause great inconvenience and
would be unfair to his clients.
Judge BETTER however, announced that he
would grant the motion, inasmuch as the
district attorney was not prepared to pro-
ceed, and named April 10 as the date for the
trial.
The Evening Bulletin says:
No sooner had the postponement been
made known than it was declared by high
authority that the cause for halting the
case was an astounding discovery affecting
the jury panel. Officials in the district at
torney's office declined to discuss this be-
yond stating that there was only one rea-
son why the trial should not go on, the
prosecution being entirely in readiness to
proceed. Rumor had 1t that a case of i'm
personation had been detected, but concern
ing this no definite information was OBJ
tainabe
After court adjourned Mr.. Rothermel
stated in reply to an interrogation: while
l will say nothing whatever about the cause
which induced me to continue the case, ex-
cept what l said in court, | can state that
the entire subject was submitted to Judge
Bettler and approved by him before l made
the application for postponement.
Upon the question of tampering with the
jury, the district attorney made a most
significant utterance in court, avowng that
the postponement was a duty to the com
monwealth Beyond that he refused to
speak, save to say that it would be unwiss
to give bis reason at present. Judge Beitler
had been informed of it and that sufiiced.
His manner and his words conveyed the idea
that proceedings are likely to grow out OF
the discovery and that no disclosure could
be made in advance of the steps that the
commonwealth might take. 81 will not say
anything about the jury panel" he said
finally.