The age-herald., 1901-10-27

S- A< been admitted to probate, and the heirs to whom s25O,OO0 was bequeathed have agreed upon the payment of an ad- ditional like sum by the Metropolitan Museum to withdraw from any further contest. The trustees have consented, and what not only promised to be sen sational litigation, but a menace to the Museum funds of seven millions has
 come to an end.
 Barnard College Is to receive the sum of s20O,0OO from John Rockefeller upon his usual condition that an equal sum shall be contributed by others.
 I mention these two benefits for the reason that these two men who viewed life from widely different standpoints, who earned their money in different ways and who were both givers with the same object in view, arrived at the determina- tion to give only after pursuing the same system of rigorous investigation.
 | MT. Rogers frequented the Museum He asked questions, obtained reports, closely observed the management, and not ap- bearing like man of means and preserv- ing his identity, was scornfully smiled at by the attendants as an inquisitive busy body He wrote to General di Cesnola and criticised reports he asked leading questions, he caused the directors to be interviewed. He went about it as though 1t was a business proposition.
 MT. Rockefeller sent his counsel to Barnard College. He insisted upon an examination of the books, and of the min utes of the board He ascertained wheth- CT the money expended had been wisely put out and whether the management was vested in one or two controlling persons, or by board of several. Both were sat isfied, and the liberal donation and be- queath was the result. I believe these facts will have beneficial effect on oth- CTS. It will enjoin caution on other boards of managers of institutions and make them more circumspect and 1t will also give other princely donors the idea to investigate the condition and manage ment of charities, libraries and hospitals before filling their treasuries.
 The return of Molineux to the Tombs upon a writ issued reversing the decision of the trial court which found him guilty and sentenced him to death, gives the | public an assurance that the Court of Ap- peals surrounds human life with safe guards During the last fifteen years this high court has done much to prove itself not only a high law court, but high court of good, sound, common sense.
 It not only fits the statutes to the case,
 but it goes a step further. It sifts the facts down to measure of common sense; hence 1t truly becomes court of justice. No judge was ever more remark able for this than the late Judge Smyth when he was the Recorder
 | Many a time I have seen him brush the | network of legal construction away-nets made by the district attorney to secure a conviction-and go to the assistance of | the prisoner at the bar. Often the be- wildered, badgered witness or prisoner responded to the questions put with new l hope and lifted himself out of his dan | gerous predicament Sometimes the kind | ly interposition allowed the truth to come out, and while 1t lost a conviction for the prosecuting attorney, it saved poor devil from being railroaded to prison.
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 The crimes with which Carlisle Harris and Roland Molineux were charged were of such nature that the evidence must necessarily have been of that most dan gerous of all evidence-circumstan | Some lawyers declare that it is the best of evidence because 1t demands a chain of incidents and events, and that if a link is missing 1t Is completely broken. I do not think so. I have witnessed many | trials and have heard much evidence of the circumstantial variety that had no | flaw, provided all witnesses told the | truth.
 | That men lie and witnesses are infu- | enced for many reasons is fact every | lawyer knows only 100 well. 1t seems incredible that men will wilfully swear
 away another mans life, 1t staggers hu-
 man reason, but they do so all the same. | Often then minds are made up by minds
 stronger than their own. The pressure of
 public opinion the influence of newspa-
 pers and some idle remark which they
 made, was seized upon by an interviewer,
 put into words, with the result of commit | ting them to it, has much to do with the statements of witnesses.
 The introduction of expert testimony is, in my experience, dangerous precedent in criminal trials. It is of value when it