Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-04
ILLNESS OF A JUROR
DELAY OF TWO HOURS IN
BINoER HERMANN TRIAL.
Reading Letters Consumes Consider
able Time-Regarded BY Defense
as Purely Personal,

The trial of former Representative Binger
Hermann, charged with destroying thirty
five letter-press copy books of the records
of the general land Office, was halted for
two hours today by what at first appeared
to be the mysterious absence of one of the
jurors. The man in question, Charles
Woodward, of 1890 18th street. failed to
answer to his name when court convened
at 10 o'clock this morning, and after a
short wait telephone message was sent
to his home. The reply was that Mr.. Wood
ward had left home at the usual hour.
After wait of nearly an hour it was
the general belief that the juror had met
with an accident. Finally Deputy Marshal
Roberts was sent to Woodward's home.
He found the latter in bed ill., Wood
wards family had not been to his room,
the members assuming he had gone to the
court house. The jurors explanation was
accepted by Justice Stafford and precisely
at noon the trial was resumed
Attorney A. s. Worthington stated the
desire of the defendant to have read the
letters which were introduced at the end of
yesterdays session. Some of them were
shown to have been letter-pressed others
not, and nearly all were to members of
Mr. Hermann's family and his intimate
friends. In an Introductory way Attorney
Worthington stated the letters would show
for themselves that no sane man would
have had them press-copied into books
which he regarded as being government
records-likely to be handled indiscrimi-
nately by strangers who should follow
him in office.
All of the remainder of the morning ses-
sion of court and part of the afternoon
were consumed in reading the letters to the
jury.
Continuing his testimony after The
Stars report closed yesterday, Mr.. Her
mann admitted he had aspirations to be-
come United States senator in 1901, and
many letters in the books were written to
his friends in Oregon on that subject.
Another large share of the correspondence
about the same time consisted of letters
written to friends concerning a pamphlet
of his own preparation descriptive of the
western boundary Of the Louisiana pur-
chase.
The daily mail of the land office coming
from the thirteen different divisions, APP
proximated $50 to $50 letters, and these,
Mr.. Hermann said, were signed as
rapidly as possible, the only care taken
being that they had been properly initiated
before reaching his desk. During all the
declared, he did not remember looking
into the personal letter books except to
obtain the addresses of correspondents.
According to Mr.. Hermann, the land
the departmental life in Washington, and
he said much of his time each day was
consumed in receiving senators, represen-
tatfves and other official callers. 1t was
brought out that Information given to
these callers was not matter of record:
During the latter years of his admins
tration, he said, the state of Oregon was
particularly in evidence in his Office be-
cause at that time there seemed to be
general rush to take up public lands and
In the business growing out of that con-
dition Senator Mitchell was probably one
of the most frequent callers. 1t was de-
clared the senator's business in the land
office, however, differed in no respect from
that of other members Of the national
legislature.
Just before adjournment of court the de-
tense placed in evidence about 100 letters,
most Of them written by Hermann to rela-
tives and friends, as illustrating the great
mass of personal correspondence ema-
mating from his office.