The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-19
MAY GET 1T WEDNESDAY.
tyson Case Will Possibly Go to the
Jury by That Time,

|
| There are indications now that the Tv.
son conspiracy case, for several days past
on trial in the Federal District Court, will
go to the jury several days earlier than
has been thought possible previously
There are hopes that by Wednesday night
the jury will have the case under consid-
Grafton.
District Attorney Erwin expects to CON
clude the evidence on the part of the gov
eminent certainly by tomorrow This is
his hope, but 1t seems TO be founded on
the assumption that counsel for the de-
tense Will not cross-eXamine the witnesses
he will place on the stand to-day and TO-
morrow with any greater thoroughness
than the witnesses predecessors have
| been subjected to by Judge Twiggs ard
his associates. This assumption, posi-
bly,, is bit violent, as the witnesses may
testify to facts that will tend strongly 10
criminate the defendants and severe and
protracted cross-eXamination may follow.
The expectation of an early conclusion
of the trial is based on the furthe assumD-
Uon that no very large number of wit
nesses will be introduced by the evidence,
and that very long time win not be re-
quired 10 conclude their testimony. This
assumption may likewise be shattered by
future events.
So it is that while the district attorney
says the case will be likely to 80 to the
jury by Wednesday evening, he does not
venture upon prediction that has in 1t
the element of certainty. Whatever opin-
ion on the subject he may hazard is in the
nature of a guess almost purely,
as the conclusion of the trial is dependant
upon half dozen possible contingencies,
any number Of which may interpose to
cause delay.
Every effort consistent with a proper re-
gard for the health of the jurymen and
the court attaches, is being made by
Judge speer to hurry the trial to as
speedy a conclusion as is possible. I'm
der any circumstances the trial must have
been protracted, and it was impossible to
Trake it a matter of one or two days. The
jurymen listen each day to the introduce
ton of evidence consuming about six
hours or more In it's delivery by the wit
nesses, certainly as much is they can
reasonably hope to digest.
AS the trial proceeds it becomes appar
ent that some of the men who are being
tried are guilty more of lack of brains
and intelligence that of any really fraud
ulent intent, and that, for the purposes
of the conspiracy, they have been but as
clay in the hands of its leaders, moulded
and fashioned into the form of business
men and held out to the world thus, used
as long as they retained their usefulness
defendants may have had knowledge that
| they were embarked in an enterprise vio-
| lative of the law, it is reasonably certain
| that they had no share in the profits,
other than possible largesse, thrown to
them occasionally TO still their con-
| sciences and their mouths. OF this class
of unfortunates ]. M. Harrell is possibly
| the most conspicuous example.
From the evidence that has been given
| and from the statements of the witnesses
outside the court room, it appears that
| in the section of the state in which the
defendants operated 1t is no uncommon
practice for a man to sell his name
that is to say, that if the prospective pur-
chaser has been in business for himself
and has exhausted his credit and under
| mined his standing with the houses
| throughout the country from which he de-
sires TO buy goods, he will buy the name"
| of some one else and carry on business
under it. The man whose name is thus
used will have, possibly no further con-
| nection with the business.
1t would seem that the principals in
| the conspiracy trial did rather extern
| sive business in this line. When business
houses began to be shy of selling goods
| on credit to those already in the scheme,
| they would rope in some country innocent
| and induce him to permit the use of his
| name. As the innocent's name, in a bust
ness sense, was probably of no use to him,
| this was no difficult matter. If the man
whose name was to be bought insisted
| upon a share of the profits share was
| promised him; If he did not demand the
| promise, he did not get ii; at any rate,
and in either case, he never got anything
| else This is doubtless the situation in
| which some two or three of the defend
ants find themselves. 1t is their conten-
| ton. certainly and the evidence so far in
troduced by the government does not neg
| alive it.
1t is intimated that before the trial comes
| to an end some of the defendants are 60
| ing to lie down very heavily upon some
| of the others These former are the men
vino claim that they have simply been
| used as decoys and that they were as in
nocent of any criminal intent as were che
victims who were defrauded through the
| use of their names. These men do not
propose to suffer through any ohivalric
| attempt to shield their guilty companions.
xrAGnNITEG ARE At WAR.