The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1909-03-05

keep the past life of the defendan
covered up, but their effort was il
vain. and the jury was given an or
portunity to learn something OF tn
real character OF the man they ar
trying for his life, and to judge wha
weight they should give his testimony
For two days he had been on thu
stand and for shrewdness and astute
ness he made it clearly evident that h
has few equals.
But he met his match in Mr.. G. T
Fitzhugh, the brilliant Memphis at
torney, and when the battle was ovel
Mr. Fitzhugh had succeeded in get
! ting before the jury what he started
out to accomplish
When Colonel Cooper took the
stand Thursday morning he had an air
OF self-confidence that looked as If ii
might never come of, but when Mr..
Fitzhugh had finished with him he was
more than glad to get out from under
the SEdLC ulHS EIOSo-S4duulndlAou Va Inc
astute Memphis attorney.
There is no gainsaying that Colonel
Cooper made a remarkable witness,
but Mr.. Fitzhugh demonstrated that
he was more than a match for him,
and when the day was over, Mr. Fitz-
hugh had laid bare before the jury
the past life of Colonel Cooper. When
it was over Fitzhugh had secured from
the witness some very damaging ad-
missions.
Hard to Handle.
The Colonel insisted on several oc-
casions on answering questions over
the protest of his own counsel, and on
only one occasion in such instances
did he give in to his attorneys. He
demonstrated his headstrong quality
on the stand, just as he had exhibited
il when he left the corner of Union
and Vine to go down and "remon-
strate" with Senator Carmack.
Several times the Colonel made ad-
missions that he later discovered were
damaging, when Mr. Fitzhugh, taking
full advantage of such slips, would
drive home some strong point. The
witness would attempt explanations,
and was at times very adroit in ex-
away what might be damag-
ng, but Mr. F'itzhugh, at other times,
vas even more adroit in fastening
Town tight some fact that the defense
would unquestionably rather the jury
would not know.
This spark from the ashes of the
I'D South" certainly has fire left in
lis body, and he was keen-in fact,
nore than keen-to defend himself
yherever possible to offer evplana-
ions of and excuses for the damaging j..
lings to his character offered by the /,
late. :
The outside world has not been in \
)rmed who gathered this evidence !,
bout the past life of Col. Cooper, but :
hoover it was he certainly gathered h
well, and Mr. Fitzhugh brought it
1t in such way as to make the +,
ost of it. Mr. Fitzhugfl uncovered =
any, many things that the defense G,
} doubt hoped would not see the light l.
day.
Hard Fight. |,
1t was hard fight. Every point r.
as contested closely Col Cooper,
pported and advised by counsel, had
ught the attorneys at every turn,
ID he was an antagonist worthy of W
e steel of anyone. But in the end NJ
e inherent weakness of his own past .
cord and the story of the assassina- y"
IN of Senator Carmack that he told 10
ere shown up clearly and sharply by III
r. Fitzhugh, and when he left the al
and he had given version of the VI
lrder that belied his own alleged VI
)tives in going over to talk to Sen Oh
Or Carmack, and that was different IN
some particulars from that of John pc
arp and OF his son, Robin, and en- M