Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-02-14
WHEN DELMAS Won
How the California Attorney Up
set One Jury.

set One Jury.
HIS LOGIC BIT LIKE vITRIoL.
Winifred Black Tells How Harry
Thaw's Chief Counsel Won lii
Celebrated Will Case Dramatic In
cident at Trials End.
Dolphin M. Delmas Of California.
chief counsel for Harry K Thaw, is
the man upon whom it is said Thaw
depends most to save his life He
looks almost as much like the great
Napoleon today as he did some fifteen
crowded years ago, the first time Il
saw him in California. writes Winifred
Black in the New York American.
The first time ever looked at Mr..
Delmas l saw him over the heads Of
courtroom full of women and trial
hangers on. He was the attorney on
one side of one of the most celebrated
will cases ever tried in state famous
/ for Its will cases. 5ss
A rich man had died somewhere up
in the north of the state and, dying
left behind him some sacks Of jingling
gold somewhere outside of the lid Of
his coffin. A woman, the wife of his
dead brother. arose and claimed half
of the estate on the ground that the
dead millionaire was the father of her
child and that he had made a will in
favor Of that child and Of her.
The widow of the millionaire denied
the claim of the woman who boldly
announced herself to be the dead mans
light O. love- and the two women went
to court and tore each other to pieces
in the full gaze of the curious and not
always applauding public.
Both women were handsome, both
were clever and both were at that in
/ teresting age when the past casts
! glamour of romance over the plainest
face and where the future is not yet
close enough to be terrifying. The
widow Of the dead millionaire was tall.
slender, pale, calm and Madonna faced.
The light O. love was tall, buxom, rosy
and had pair of eyes full of the joy
of living All San Francisco fought
at the door of that courtroom for en-
4 trance to the trial.
The light O. love was represented by
yer, known to the whole coast as a
man Of amazing eloquence. Mr.. Del
mas represented the Madonna faced
widow.
The case dragged and dragged. One
i witness contradicted today what an
other had said yesterday. And tomor-
row came three who told yet a differ
ent story. There were writing experts
and medical experts and legal experts
on the stand, besides perfect cloud of
plain people.
At last the whole tedious business
drew near to the close and Mr.. John
+ son made the address for his client.
4 He made a magnificent speech, reason
D able and well considered, but at the
end of it he caught up the child who
was one of the contestants in the case
. and held him up to the jury, tangled
u, curls, blue eyes, frightened, flushed
y face and all.
S"And ii you gentlemen do not give
q my client justice" said Mr.. johnson,
i II call here and now upon the God OF
4 the widow and the fatherless to give
this innocent child his rights in the
estate Of his acknowledged father
them sneered and one of them laughed
aloud, but every one of them was
moved out of the lethargy into which
the long weeks of tiresome litigation
/ had thrown them.
IL Mr.. Delmas rose, on the heels of a fit
81 of hysteria which threatened to con-
vulse the entire courtroom. He spoke
4 as calmly as if he were ordering his
breakfast. His straight featured and
handsome face was as bereaved of any
4 trace of emotion as Is the carven face
Il of an angel on an ancient and forgotten
tomb. The singing logic of his argu-
ment bit like yitriol into every mind
that marked and understood him.. He
II tore the evidence with which Mr.. John
son had fortified his clients case to
Z pieces, bit by bit, shred by shred and
atom by atom. He did it with cold
irony that was somehow overwhelm-
4 ingly convincing.
"This won't do. !" whispered listen
ing lawyer to me. ''This will never do.
\ Delmas' logic Is all right, but Johnson
4 has got the jury into Mysteries. He'll
I get the case unless some one throws a
bucket of cold water into that jury box
Il before the Judge delivers his charge"
When the evidence had been abso-
i lutely swept out of the case as floor
i Is swept before the energetic broom of
4 conscientious housemaid, Mr.. Delmas
turned suddenly to the convinced but
mwon jury. He leaned forward and
fixed the attorney for the other side
with his piercing black eyes and said.
4 with sudden access Of fury:
TO what God does my learned friend.
Mr.. Johnson, appeal for justice in this
II case? To the God who Numbered from
i Sinai, Thou shalt not commit adul
j terry r" ${.