The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-06-16
.OOUSE TELLS
HIS OWN STORY
DEFENDANT GIVES HIS VERSION
OF EVENTS LEADING UP TO
BURNING OF YAMAGATA.

The direct testimony of Alfred Douse
in his trial for manslaughter was not
concluded when Judge De Bolt adj
iourned court yesterday afternoon, and
it will be resumed on Monday morning.
Under questioning by Attorney Kinney
Douse told detailed story of the
burning Of Yamagata and denied any
intent to do him injury During the
discussion of an objection raised by
Humphreys to one of Kinneys ques-
tions the prosecution stated that it
did not rely upon negligence to estab-
lish manslaughter. but claimed that
the crime was committed by a direct
assault Kinney remarked that he re-
garded this announcement as a valu-
able concession.
After relating preliminary events and
telling of seeing man in the mill with
a can of gasoline, Douse said i'm part:
1T was Yamagata. He was about
10 feet from the tool room, He had
can in his hand with a spout on It
| like the can on the table there. He
was carrying it in his left hand
drew his attention i'm some way and he
| turned round and walked towards me;
we both met pretty close together. I
asked him what he had there and he
told me coal oil. 1 saw gasoline in the
tin about two or three inches of the
stuff. He told me he was going to
clean shafting.
81 cuffed him on the back of the
neck and then struck him behind with
the flat side of my foot. 1 didn't take
hold of him. He didn't move very far
when kicked, not more than a couple
of feet, probably not that much He
turned round and said to me.
"'Mr Boss, please excuse me-, or
words very similar. l was satisfied
then and told him all right and told
him to go off to his work.
81 called him back. After I had
kicked the fellow 1 thought maybe he
didn't understand why l had cuffed
and kicked him He was not more
than five or six feet away from me
when I called him back.
Il told him to hold up the tin, or,
hold out the tin. He did so and pull
ed out a box of matches and lit the
tin He held the tin by the handle.
l held the match a few inches above
the tin and it ignited and blazed up six
or eight inches. l said, There you
see,' and 1 hardly got the words out
of my mouth when the flames seized
the front of his jumper. The jumper I
think was made of bingham.
when my eyes struck it, it was
just the front of the jumper. There
was a burst of flames in the air be-
tween us and then it caught on his
clothes. The first thing | did was to
! try to put it out But my arms around
him, embraced him, held him close to
me to smother the flame out.
81 didn't succeed i'm doing what I
wanted the flames seemed to have got
around to the other side of him. The
hair on both my arms was singed off,
one of my fingers was slightly burned,
enough to raise a blister, and my mus
tache and eyebrows were singed
Looking about l saw a man with
hose fastened to u faucet in one of the
| columns. The man was abut 80 feet
away. I got the hose into my hand and
| turned around to put water on the man
| (Yamagata) whose clothes were on fire.
He was lying on the dirt pile with four
or five men throwing dirt on him.
IT turned the water on him for about
five minutes until all the fire was out.
Took good care that the fire was all
out. Some man sung out pau several
times before l stopped. l stood the
man up to see how badly he was burned
and took him to the lavatory.
Then l went to Mr.. Williams house.
He told me to go to the rOundhouse
and get the locomotive out to send the
man to the hospital. When back to the
lavatOry and assisted in dressing va
magata's wounds. Talked with him.
He said he was sore. | examined the
part where he said he was suffering.
II visited him in the hospital on Sum
day. Can not remember all he said, as
he didn't speak English very well.
went in and asked him how he was,
and he told me that he was too much
sore. / told him l was very sorry for
him. l can not say what answer he
made to that. / tried to have con-
versation with him, but it was hard
to make him understand. He didn't
say anything about the occurrence Of
the day before. l stayed probably about
twenty minutes Cannot remember any
more that was said"