The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-11-22
WAS SILVA POISONED !?
Continued from Page u

held, which was the same colored liquid
as that which rested on the coroner's ia
bile. Medeiros had told him it was ''cof-
fee liquor" 1t had the taste Of pepper
mint and did not burn his throat
j. Gaspar saw Joe Silva C'Hotel Joe')
at old man Silva's residence He helped
dress the body. In the kitchen he and
the others found four gin TASKS of ,iq1id
and after tasting of the contents COM
menced drinking. Joe said the stuff was
good. Medeiros and Silva became drunk.
Witness drank half glassful. 1t did not
burn his throat or have any bad effect ON
him. The stuff tasted very much like
gin.
NJ. J. Simos, a groceryman, testified that
the Saturday previous to Silva's death the
latter called at his store and complained
of being i'll; but, said the witness, he had
said the same thing for the past two
years. Silva told him he was going to
buy a gallon of whiskey. Simos knew of
Siiva's having wine about his place, but
as he himself never drank, he did not
know much about it, Had given him
empty gin bottles. He made wine from
his grapes-the finest in the City, he said
but did not know of his selling it,
Antoine Piemento assisted in dressing
the body of the old man Silva He and
others drank from bottles which they
found in the kitchen but he was not
maui Sich ne lOOh lOuT uTlTkS from a
bottle. 1T was pretty hard stuff-but
tasted like GIN Silva always gave him
wine to drink when he called wine which
the old man made. The four drinks made
him slightly dizzy, but the others had
good loads on"
Nirginius Medeiros, son OF one of the
victims, saw a group of men drinking
from bottles found at Silva's. He tasted
1t but didn't like it. The stuff was the
color of tea. His father drank much of
the stuff, but he was only half and half
he was a little FULL
Before Medeiros died he sent one of his
daughters out to get some gin as he said
it would make him feel better The girl
bought soda water bottle of gin at
store for % cents
This brought out a sharp inquiry from
the Deputy Sheriff as to just where the
gin was bought, but the youngster naive
ly replied that he didn't know where it
was obtained
Mrs. Gertrude de Ornellas was at the
Silva house the day he died. Two days
before she had been at his house and had
been given a drink of peculiar liqueur'
and afterwards felt bad at the stom-
ach." AT night she vomited consider
ably She drank from glass, but after
Silva had first taken a drink.
She testified: Il said to him, 1t does
not look like wine or liqueur' He said,
son. He said, You have cheek to drink
before me- He said this laughingly.
Il asked him why he lived all alone,
and kept so close to himself all the tme.
For answer he took one of the bottles
and hugging it to his breast, said, This
Is my family I don't know much about
his making wines. He was a crank and
would not let any one around his place
unless he asked them to GOMEZ
Did not Mr.. Silva have a dollhouse in
his yard where women came and received
drinks, and the dollhouse merely served
as a blind?"
mo. sir; don't think he used it that
way. 1t was for his ferns and plants"
NJ. j. Faria went to Condon's liquor
store on Saturday before his death to
taste some liquors which Faria knew Of
Faria is a blacksmith at the Oahu rail-
way. Asked whether he had told the fire.
man of the railroad who had testified
fireman and himself, he denied such con-
versation. He said, "A week ago last
night Silva told me he was 60
ing to buy bag of sugar to fix his wine
but did not tell me he was going to put
anything else in it. He was going to
make sort of rum"
Antonio Castro said he had drank at
Silva's last Tuesday week. He was given
a drink of some strange liquor but did
not swallow 1t as he was not well then.
He knew that Silva had bought a gallon
of alcohol and mixed the liquid on the
sly. With the alcohol he had also bought
some sugar and made a drink of the two.
He had not seen the old man mix the
two but had been told Of it,
Dr. Shorey was recalled and stated that
wood alcohol could not contain an irri-
tant poison like hellebore unless it was
put there He was not sure there were
vegetable poisons which would have the
same result rs hellebore. He was asked
whether the amount of wood alcohol con-
tanned in the gin bottle would be suffi-
cient of itself to kill a man. He replied
in the negative. A pint bottle of alcohol,
taken at one time, would probably kill
certain persons.
Hellebore is not on the list of poisons
az scheduled by the Board of Health.
Such poisons can only be sold in limited
quantities and only to certain persons.
II. c. Phuger, of the HOLSTER Drug
Company said his store kept hellebore but
tives came to the store in large numbers
to buy methylated spirits. No record was
kept of such sales; the law did not re-
quire them to do so. The Deputy Sheriff
confirmed this by looking up the law in
the Penal Code. Pure alcohol sales were
Wood alcohol was poisonous in
quantities. Pure alcohol could be taken
in large quantities before producing
death.
At o'clock the jury adjourned to meet
again at p m. today. An Investigation
of the contents of Silva's house will then
be taken before hearing further testi-
mony.