The Hawaiian gazette., 1907-06-28
NOT GUILTY FOR
THUMP|NG AYRES

fnlnnel sam Johnson was fOrma llN
declared not guilty of having commit
ted assault and battery on Herbert N
Ayros. the editor and proprietor Of Th,
Referee. the cause celebro having AT
airing before Judge whitney wednesda,
afternoon. Ayres was the star witness
FOR himself and johnson was the sol,
witness for the defense. He had thre.
lawyers to defend him, however
against one for the prosecution. Non,
OF the witnesses denied that there haC
been fight, although Ayres claimed
that 1t was a massacre In the night anc
johnson described 1t as a running en-.
gagement with The Referee editor IN
I front. There was a large crowd Ia
court TO hear the particulars and some
I OF the evidence seemed to tickle a lot
OF the spectators.
! Ayres described the battle. He said
that he was asleep in "a chair in The
Referee office when johnson came in
the first knowledge he had of the pres
ence of any invader being a summons
To wake up ana then an invitation to
take that. That proved to be a right
on the jaw. which was followed by a
right and left, one on the temple and
the other on the cheek. As a result of
the blows he was stunned and felled
to the floor.
What d.d you say to Mr.. johnson ?''
asked Prosecuting Attorney Thompson.
Il didn say anything, / didn't have
time" answered AyIes. After was
down he licked me couple of times."
What DO you mean by a couple OF
times?"
"Oh, he gave me a couple of parting
kicks before he left, one here and one
here" and The Referee editor gently
Indicated couple of spots, one back
of the shoulder and the other ON the
leg.
on cross-examination Ayers admitted
thai he was "a years old, weighed $50
pounds. although not much of an ath-
lete. He said that he had been prin-
cipal in a couple of prize fights, one
at Camp Mckinley ana the other at
Shanghai.
Frank Thompson, who led the trio
Of lawyers for the defense, explained
that he wanted to show the court how
"a weak. puny, little fellow, about that
high" and he held his hand some thir-
ty inches off the floor, could knock
an athlete Jpnseless with one blow"
AyreS stated that he had been sick
all week and was unable to defend
nfmself He denied having any conver-
sation with johnson prior to the as
sault.
Stuart Dunbar, the proprietor of
IT." was called but knew nothing of
the affray. Examining him gave At
torney Thompson an opportunity of
roasting Ayres. The first Dunbar had
seen of Ayres after the assault was at
half past four, two hours after the oc-
currence.
"Other persons who have been scan
daliZed by The Referee may have been
in and given him the licking that he
so richly deserved" said Thompson in
moving to have all the evidence strick-
en- out. There was no need of evidence
to show the condition of Ayres' beaten
face, as Ayres had given that evidence
himself. He has offered his jaw in
evidence, which has been in eviderce
for some time. He has put his fore
head In evidence and his mouth in evi-
dence"
Colonel Johnson gave his side of the
affair from the start. explaining that
he had been first aggrieved at certain
articles appearing in The Referee in
which his name was mentioned. These
articles connected him in scurrilous
way with certain young lady, whose
name he refused to bring into the case
and with whom he was not personally
acquainted. The article made refer
ence to the Edmunds' Act also.
n,,
remarks but had later retracted the
retraction. which led to him going to
The Referee office on Saturday last
Ayers was wide awake when he en-
tered and spoke to him. Ir explana-
tion of the latest article in his paper
he told Johnson that he could take 1t
any way he wanted to.
He reached over to pick up a weight
off his desk,'' continued johnson.
Thinking that he was going to strike
me with 1t 1 hit him. l don't Know
how often | hit him before we clinched
Then he went down and refused to get
up. He was perfectly conscious for he
answered when l spoke to him and
when / turned he got up and picked
up n chair. Then / went at him again
and he went to the corner of the room
and stood with his face to the wall
and held his hands over his face.
went down the stairs quietly and slow
ly."
An objection was made to a copy OF
The Referee going in in evidence with
a black ring around the Palolo story"
which Andrade confessed entire ignor-
ance OF but which he viewed as i'm
proper evidence nevertheless. He ask
ed Johnson what particular objection
he had to The Referee article, which
had been dubbed scurrilous, but the
only answer the defendant gave was
that he could see an awful lot in that
article" At different stages OF the
trial there were clashes between An
drade on the one side and Thompson,
Rawllns and Douthitt on the other.
In summing up Thompson handled
Ayres without gloves, calling him a
zone hundred and eighty pound hobo"
and stating that the difference between
Ayres sleeping and Ayres awake was
the difference between Ayres lying and
Ayres telling the truth,
mot guilty" was all the remark
Judge Whitney made after the argu-
ment had concluded,
-.s.$ $.s.-