The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-04-15
District Attorney Rothermel Gains
a Decided Victory
In the Admission Of Test many Which May
Establish the Suit Of Defendant.
Proves by Expert Testimony That
the Red Book Found in Cashier
Hopkins Desk After the Lat
ter's Suicide Was Necessarily
Book of the Peoples Bank.

LAPi
ent. keen and brilliant argument be-
tween District Attorney Rothermel on
the one side, and Messrs. Watson,
STANLEY and Shields on the other, upon
the admission of testimony which may
go a long way to establish the alleged
guilt of ex-United States Senator Quay
was the feature of to-day's trial. ana
1T eliminated in a decided victory TOT
the prosecution.
The red book found in Cashier Hop
kins' desk after his suicide, and upon
the admission of which the Common
wealth so largely rests it's case. was
the shaft the District Attorney aimed
at the defense. To pave the way lor
the final effort to introduce the DOCK
itself, he succeeded, after frequent
clashes with opposing counsel, soihe-
times bitter and personal, in presenting
expert testimony to prove that the DOCK
was necessarily a book of the pahk,
as accounts in the books admitted I'M
der the courts ruling would be maze
intelligible by the red book.
Before starting his exhaustive exam
ination Mr.. Rotherme1 read to the court
a statement of what he intended 70
prove. The expert, he said. had mace
q thorough examination of all the DOCKS
in the case. He found that previous
to April 30, 1891, the Peoples BANK
paid interest on the State deposit 10
the State Treasurer, and that recofos
of such payments were kept IN a reg
ular way on the books OF the panN.
After April 80, 1891, when Mr.. Hopkins
appeared on the scene, new system
was adopted. This entailed the aooi-
ton of another book-now known as
fore kept by the bank.
Never Goldsmith, an expert account
ant. was the witness upon which the
Commonwealth depended to accomplish
is contention. During the whole course
of the experts examination objection
after objection was made by the de-
tense. and as frequently overruled
by Judge Biddle, while the Dis
t1ict Attorney in logical sequence drew
from the witness his conclusions as TO
the book. based upon comparison OF
what was written on its pages Win
what appeared in the other books. iWo
accounts out of upward of 1.oOO In the
regular books were incomplete and IN
accurate. unless explained by entries
in the red book One was an item OF
S1,5l9 entered in the individual ledger
to the credit of the person who receiver
II The witness was not permitted TO
designate the persons by name lie
found this item on the stub of the
Cashiers check book, but what it rep
resented he could not say until he nad
examined the calculations in the reo
book Here he found the indications
that it had been paid. In another rem
of i.325 p he found the same item
in the red book dated October 80, 1851
He stated that there were other en-
tries in the red book which explained
transactions in the regular pooK' put
the two instances specified were the
only ones in which he had reached ae-
curate conclusion as to their nature
and purpose.
Mr. Goldsmith said that when he first
opened the red book he did not con-
slider it a book of the bank, but when
he compared the calculations entered
on its pages with transactions in the
other books he was forced to consider
it a book of the bank. He explained
this by saying that prior to 1881 cat
culations such as appeared in the req
book were regularly entered in the
ledger. but since then the red DOCK
had been substituted and fulhlled anu
fixed the same results.
During the cross examination of TINS
witness. which was conducted by Mr..
Shields. he testified as to a page which
was missing.
The defense repeatedly endeavored to
get from him the statement that there
might be figures and words on that
page that would explain the entries on
the other pages, and that the book as
it now stands is unreliable.
This was ruled out, following an OBJ
lection by the District Attorney rms
would seem to indicate that when the
final effort to present the book in evil
dence comes tomorrow the defense Will
make another determined opposition on
that ground even If the court shouia
decide that with relation to the trans
actions testified to it is book OF the
bank.
During all the examination touching
on the book, with the exception OF the
two items mentioned, no intimation OF
the amounts or names. were allowed 20
reach the jury. The prosecution all
along, however, has alleged that TINS