Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-12
AFTER WEEK ADJOURNMENT
Defendant Was the First Witness on
the Stand.
IMMENSE CROWD AT COURT DOOR
Only Those Directly Interested in the
Trial Were Admitted-Authen-
ticity of Letters Attacked.

PITTSBURG, Pa, July 12.-After an ad-
journment of a week to give the hand
writing experts time to examine the forty
letters introduced in the Hartje divorce
case by the plaintiff, and alleged to have
been written by the respondent. Mrs. Mary
Scott Hartje, the taking of testimony in
the case was resumed today before Judge
Frazer of the common pleas court
Long before the hour for the opening OF
the doors a large crowd embed in the
court corridors, but, by order of the judge,
all persons were excluded except those
directly interested n the trial.
1t was expected that the defense would
attack the authenticity of the letters at To-
days hearing and the first witness called to
the stand was Mrs. Hartje the defendant.
Denied Authorship of Letter.
The witness was shown exhibit g. g.
letter addressed to Susie Wagner, a former
domestic. When on the stand previously
Mrs Hartie said she had written the let
ter Today she denied it's authorship.
After examination of the letter dur
ing the weeks recess she said she had
come to the conclusion that the handwrit-
ing was not hers.
81 wrote Susie Wagner a letter." the wit
ness continued, "in which there were many
of the same expressions, but the sentence
to the effect that l wanted Susie on my
side was never written by me-"
Mrs. Hartje's statement caused commo-
tion and hurried consultation on the part
of the plaintiffs experts, the Wagner
letter was one of the standards in the case
by which the other letters were to be COM
pared. The repudiation of the letter appa-
rently indicated new turn in the plan
of the defense, and the establishment of a
new standard in handwriting from which
the other letters will be gauged by the ex-
perts.
Mrs. Hartje was then closely questioned
as to what she did during the recess as to
the examination of the standard letters.
During the course OF the examination the
witness was extremely nervous. At the
conclusion of the examination David n
Caryaiho. the New York handwriting ex-
pert, was called to the stand.
Different Handwriting.
Carvalho said he had examined the let
ters and he found that some were written
by one hand and some by others. II do not
think" said the witness "that exhibit No.
@, the Wagner letter, was written in the
same hand.
Concerning exhibit thirty-four, an en-
velope the witness said:
THE handwriting on that envelope Is not
the handwriting of the other letters but a
| fair resemblance"
On exhibit thirty-fve he found that some
of the pieces had beer misplaced and that
the pencil was applied to IL. He believed It
to have been written by the same person
who wrote the Wagner letter, and that let
ters nineteen and twenty were also in the
same hand.
Here counsel for plaintiT addressed the
court and said that as Mrs. HartJe had
this morning denied the writing of exhibit
No @ he would ask for an adjournment TO
have Nos. 8. 10 and 20 examined by ex-
perts.
Apparently the testimony disconnected
the attorneys for Hartje and they secured
a hurried adjournment of court until 2
o'clock this afternoon.