The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-03-06
OVER A MILLION.
Hillmon Record Contains That Many
Words.

c. H. Nettels has completed trans
cribing the evidence in the Hillmon case |
and the record has been made up for |
filing in the United States court of APP |
peals at ST. Louis. 1t is the most pro- |
digiouS document ever made up in the |
Kansas division of the United States |
circuit court, and ismade up almost en-
tirely of evidence.
The document has been served by the
attorneys for the defendant insurance
companies on the attorneys for Mrs. |
Hillmon-Smith, and they have 20 days
in whichsto go through the record and
see if it is correct. On April both sides
will come before Judge Hook, and if
the plaintiffs have any amendments to
offer to the record as prepared by the
defendants, they will do so then and
Judge Hook will pass upon them, after
which the case will be filed in the court
of appeals at st. Louis.
The record of the case, including only
the pleadings and the evidence intro
duced at the last trial, make up a vol
ume of about 5000 typewriter pages.
or this number the pleadings occupy
only 200 pages, and the balance is evil
dence.
clerks in the office of George r. Sharitt,
clerk of the United States circuit court.
1t has been just 20 years since the petit
ton was first fled which was the start
ing point of the most famous insurance
litigation in legal history. Since that
time hundreds of papers, big and little,
have been filed. These have been ship
ped back and forth over the country to
the various trials of the case, they have
been examined by attorneys hundreds
of times, yet so carefully have they
been watched over that the chain of
pleadings is complete with the excep-
ton of one minor motion concerning
small bond. The journal shows the fill
ing of this motion years ago, but it is
missing from the other papers. But the
loss would not be known were it not
corded by Mr.. Sharitt and it has no eff
feet on the case.
The early pleadings in the case were
! all written in long-hand. They were
| filed before the days of typewriters, and
the advents and Improvement of the
| writing machines can be traced by look
| ing through the documents in the case
The record as it will be filed will bear
| no evidence whatever of former
| trials. No testimony will be shown
| except that which was introduced at
the last trial at Leavenworth, on which
the plaintiffs secured their verdict. 1t
would be a physical impossibility, in
| fact, to make a record of the evidence
OF the first two or three trials, for the
| reason that it does not exist At the
time of the first trial the science of
| stenography was still in it's infancy, and
| most attempts at writing shorthand
were very crude compared with the
| present methods and speed. There were
probably very few persons in the Uni
ted States capable of taking correctly
the evidence in a court case. Court
stenography was just coming into use
at the time of the first HilImOn trial,
and while attempts were made to take
part of the evidence, they were suffi-
GENTLY successful to furnish a trans
cript of the evidence
Mr. Nettels, who took the evidence at
the recent trial. has had a tremendous
task on his hands in preparing the rec
ord of the evidence. For a solid month
Mr.. Nettels took the testimony in short
hand, and all of this had to be trans
cribed on the typewriter. The lawyers
were undecided as to having the work
done until a few weeks ago. and as the
time was too short for Mr.. Nettels to do
it all himself he had to employ help.
During part of the time he has had II
stenographers and typewriters working
night and day to get the record compile
ted in the time required.
The volume is made up of approx
mately 10000 folios, or 1000 600 words If
the sheets were pasted one below the
other they would form a document con-
siderably over a half mile long If the
typewriter lines were placed one after
the other they would make. an unbroken
line - miles long. It required approx
mateiy 5,SSO,000 strokes on the type
writer to make the record.
The completeness with which the rec
ord was made up is a triumph for mod
ern StenOgraphy.