The San Francisco call., 1908-04-10

upon the extent of the examination of
talesmen in the Ruef case caused pro-
ceedings yesterday to take a new as
pect. and despite the efforts Of the
defense to prolong the empanelment OF
a jury and prevent the acceptance of
a single individual four jurors had
been passed subject to peremptory
challenge when adjournment was taken
last night.
The four men whose qualifications
10 give both the people and the de-
fendant a fair trial have been admitted
by the court, were passed in all but
one instance over formal challenges of
the defense after searching examina-
tions had failed TO shake their declara-
tions of fairmindedness and impair
tiality. These challenges, made in the
face Of the most consistent evidences
of impartiality on the part of the
jurors, were conclusive demonstrations
of the frantic efforts that the defense
is making to avoid the empanelment
Of any jury, no matter how fair 1t
might be.
FOUR ARE ACCEPTED
In addition to the four men. against
whom no cause for disqualification
could be shown. two other talesmen
were partially examined before ad-
journment was taken and declared
themselves absolutely unbiased and
able to give fair and impartial trial.
A more complete inquiry in these two
cases was put over until this morning.
The four men now in the jury box
are John Koeneman, a grocer and sR-
loon keeper at 24o1 Bush street; Isaac
Penney. general contractor. st. Fran
els hotel; Charles @. Fredel. grocer.
4ess Twenty fourth street, and r.
frost, general contractor, 11e4 Shot
well street. Patrick Sullivan of 1914
Florida street and Paul Barbieri of
1926 Haight street. retired merchants,
are the two whose examinations are
20 be concluded this morning.
Sixteen talesmen who at the outset
declared themselves biased and unable
20 give the defendant a fair and inn
partial trial on account of decided
opinions as TO his guilt, were chal-
lenged and excused after short exam
nations. In all 80 talesmen have been
examined since the trial was called
and nearly half the original panel
stin remains. koeneman and Penney
the first two Jurors accepted, were
members of the jury in the Tevis-Bul-
letin libel case. in which a great deal
of testimony concerning Ruefs ac-
tivity IN the water deal was introduced,
but both declared that this testimony
JUDGED them toward Ruef and would
have no bearing upon the eonsidera-
tion OF the evidence introduced in the
present trial
CAUTIONS RUEF,s LAWYERS
Several times during the day Judge
Dooling was forced to caution Ruefs
attorneys against transgressing beyond
the limits set for examination, and II
was this refusal to allow irrelevant
Inquiries to be made and repetitions
Of certain lines of oues tioning to be
drawn out to interminable length that
resulted in the comparatively excellent
progress that was made.
The court forced all preliminary ex-
animation to be confined to an inquiry
as 10 the talesman's opinion concern
ing the particular case on trial, and
in the event that this was passed sat
isfactorily caused the following ques-
tions to be directed at bringing out
whether an opinion concerning other
cases against Ruef would affect the
jurors mind in a determination of his
guilt in the Parkside matter.
District Attorney Langdon and AS
sistant District Attorney Heney con-
Quoted the case during the forenoon
session, but at noon Heney dropped
out to prepare for his northern trip
NJ c. Chapman of Ruefs counsel made
his first active appearance in the case
during the afternoon. He has been
constantly at the table reserved for
the defendants attorneys since the
trial began. but had taken no part in
any of the proceedings until the latter
part of the afternoon yesterday, when
after both Ach and Murphy had failed
to stem the sudden tide OF progress
he took a hand in the examination
of talesmen. His success as an OBJ
structionist was no greater than that
of his colleagues. however. and r.
frost the first talesman he questioned
was finally passed to the jury box over
his objection on a showing of abso-
lutte impartiality-
WOMAN ATTORNEY ATTENDS
During the afternoon session Mrs
F. M. B. O'Linn. an attorney of Chad
ron, Neb who was admitted to prac-
tice in the federal courts several years
ago and Is we'll known in her home
state, was an interested spectator in
the courtroom. She is making a snort
visit to San Francisco and explained
that she was particularly anxious tc
hear some portion of one of the graft
cases while IN the. city.
James J. Crowley. Robert Oxnard and
Nat Raphael. the first three talesmen