Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-11-29
MINSTREL FIELDS GIVES
SELLS GOOD CHARACTER.
SAYS THE OLD SNOWMAN DID NOT
MAKE HIS WIFE LEARN
TO RIDE.
SOME IMPORTANT PAPERS
ARE IN MRS. sELLS's HANDS AND
SHE SEEMS INCLINED TO
USE THEM.
Special to the Register.

Special to the Register
COLUMBUS, O., November 2S.-Al-
fred Graswell Hatfield was put on the
stand in the chancery court to-day as
a character witness for Peter Sells, the
Snowman. Mr.. Hatfield is better known
to the theatre-going public as Al.
Fields. He proved a good witness for
the plaintiff in that he bore out Mr..
Sells testimony regarding the charge
that the Snowman compelled his wife
to learn the bareback riding. In max
ing this charge, Mrs. Sells's attorneys
had said 1t was IN the ring barn here
only a month after her marriage that
Mrs. Sells learned to ride. Mr. Field
said he was present all day long each
day OF the training season in the
spring of 1878 and mat Mrs. Sells had
visited the barn only once and that was
to see the performance practiced. Mr..
Field said also that years afterwards
he was dining with Mr.. and Mrs, Sells
at Burdick's in Cincinnati, when the
conversation turned upon Mrs. Sells's
riding experience. All three laughed
about it, and Mrs. Sells said she never
had ridden but once and that was in
the parade. The noted minstrel, who
confessed to So years Of age, gave some
of his own early experiences. In 1878
he had travelled with the French Show.
That season he said he was press agent,
clown, ticket agent, made a stump
speech in the concert after the show,
Juggled board, got the show licenses
and was general utility man. Mr.. Field
said Mr.. Sells was considered a high
minded, honorable man in all the clIes
that his show visited. Field was con-
nected with Sells shows Earlier in
the day Peter Sells was still under
cross-examination. The defense in
troduced letters written by Lyons to
Mr.. Sells's daughter. The date of the
letters as Mr.. Sells pointed out showed
they were written when his daughter
was a child of twelve and thirteen. Mr..
Sells listed $4,000 worth of jewelry
which he had bestowed upon his wife.
The witness reiterated much he had
said yesterday relative to his property
and the management Of shows. He ad-
ded that after the disastrous season
o. 1897 he thought of making an as
Segment, but was persuaded not to by
his wife. He also claimed that the
shows i'll luck in 1897 contributed to
hasten the death OF his brother Eph-
RAIN. The defense flashed on Mr.. Sells
a long list Of dates and asked him if
Lyons was at his home at these times.
These dates were taken from a diary
which, it is said, Mrs. Sells kept and
which included the names of callers
and amounts each had lost or won at
penny ante poker. The defense also
showed to-day that it possessed balance
sheets of the show. Other papers are
in the defense's hands also, though how
valuable they are is not known. When
Mr.. Sells ieft his home for good and
ali he did so suddenly and impulsively
and ne took nothing with him but the
clothes on his back. All his papers
are in his wife's possession. Mrs. Sells
to-day had fully recovered control of
her nerves and calmly leaned over to-
ward her lawyers from time to time
and made suggestions which they used
IN the >cross-examination of her hus-
band.
An outside incident varied the course
OF the Sells to-day. The two import
ant witnesses, Eliza Donahoe. the
housekeeper, and Peter Walsh. the en-
gineer who courted her at the Sells
residence were nlarrier