The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-03-30
LOEHR'S CLOCK
PROVED To Be
A FALS|F|ER
It's Owners Damning
Evidence.
BEARING ON THE ADAMS CASE
THE PRELIMINARY EXAMINA-
TON RESUMED.
Efforts to Reconcile Officer Herlihy's
Statements With Those of Grip
man Cox-Sergeant Duke
Testifies.

Much of the time at the hearing of
Mrs. Minnie Adams, charged with pois-
onlng her tWo-year-old SON. was con-
su'ned yesterday afternoon in exposing
the vagaries of Druggist George W.
Loehr's cuckoo clock Mr.. Loehr him
self testified to its utter unreliability
ana general unworth. According to the
evidence it is about as thoroughly dis
reputable a ticker as ever hung on
wall, and no credence whatever can be
placed on it. Just imagine a clock that
without any provocation viii brazenly lie
to the public by simply showing its face
and whirling its dupes on toward the
grave before their allotted time. or else
misleading its victims into lettering on
the way until suddenly they awake to
realization that the world has left them
behind, and while everybody else is go
ing to church or the ball game on Sun
day they are dragging along with the
affairs of day before yesterday! If that
clock were placed on trial for perjury it
would just naturally lie out Of conviction
by showing the Judge that it hadn't
been arrested yet.
Think of the havoc 1t might play with
Druggist Loehrs customers if they un-
dertook to take their medicines by it.
For instance, a man who had to take a
powder after breakfast would just as
likely as not have to wake himself up
when his own timepiece said it was mid
night and trapes around the bedroom
ana tall over the hassock and wake uo
the baby lust because of the propensity
of that clock for handling time so reck-
lessly. Why, IL a man started down to
the corner for half an hour ne might not
get home again until breakfast time, and
ne never would be able to convince his
wife that 1t was all due to Loehr's clock.
1t S cuckoo, sure enough, and it's a
menace to the peace of the entire West
ern Addition.
No wonder the defense fought to ex-
GUIDE any evidence in which that clock
figured to account for the discrepancy in
the time the defendant is alleged to have
left the drugstore and when she boarded
a westbound Geary street car at the
corner.
the clocks unworth, little of Importance
not already made public was developed.
Policeman Herlihy was the first wit
on the corner of Geary and Devisadero
streets, at Loehr's drugstore, on the
evening of Sunday, March. IL, and saw a
come out, and, removing the wrapper
from the bottle, tear off the label, which
she threw away, after which she boarded
as he could fix the time this was about
five minutes before 9.
Gripman Cox, who has already testified
time at two minutes after g.. Herlihy
was subjected to a long. and tedious
discrimination at the hands of Bar
rister Guilfoyle, but held to his original
story in the main. He picked up the frag
ments of the label and took them into the
drugstore. 1t was a red label, containing
the words, "Carbolc acid
A bottle on which was pasted a SINH
lar label was shown him for comparison,
which the defense vigorously objected
to, as neither bottle nor label was the
original.
Sergeant Duke stated to Call reporter
that it was impossible to find the bot
tie in which the acid was originally sold.
He said he made partial search for 1t
on the day of the poisoning, and the fol-
lowing day he went out to the Tyrrell
home to continue the search, but found
Eddy Tyrrell, defendants brother, had
carefully raked over the whole yard. 1t
was admitted, he said, that 1t was the
first time the yard had been cleaned up.
Druggist Loehr next gave his clock
a reputation for falsehood and unreliable
ity such as no honest clock would SUBJ
nit to without reSenting.
Then Sergeant Duke was called to the
and bad not concluded his
direct testimony when court adjourned
until 2 o'clock this afternoon. His testi-
mony, as far as given, was identical with
that he gave at the Coroner's inquest.
The defense will undoubtedly subject him
TO a rigid cross-examination in the hope
Of tripping him up on some points OF
vital Importance.