The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-05-26
John Burgess Makes the
Admission.
MILD SENSATION AT THE
IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS
Has Already Received $40 for His
Work.
Supreme Court Hears Many witnesses
and state Finally Rests ITS Case--
TWENTY-FIVE witsesSes sworn
for tine Defenss.

coolly admitting that he had been
paid to testify for the state in the
Cazalas impeachment hearing, John
Burgess. witness. told yesterday on
the stand how J. @. Rich. said to
be high In the workings OF the Good
Government Club OF Mobile. an organ
izatior with Law and Order League
afiliatfons, had rewarded him already;
how Leon McKeon had taken him to
Rich's ONCE with the promise that
he would be paid to testify; how Dun
can Case had solicited his evidence;
and how he was to receive more after
he testified.
Burgess declared that he had already
been given a $40 bill, q ticket to Lau-
reA Miss, and So to spend; that his
Z rx{iroad fare had been paid to Mont
g0mery, and that hts expenses while
here were also being paid. Case. ne
said. was paying all expenses for the
Montgomery trip.
Burgess was the final witness Tor the
State yesterday before noon. He told.
on direct examination, that he had
heard the first rumor of the lynching
at about midnight, after he had been
to a dancing school, had taken his
partner home, and returned to town.
Coming back to town. he says, he
heard OF the probable trouble. He
stood on the corner OF Government and
st. Emmanuel, near the jail. and saw
a party of men. masked pass into the
shadow of the building, to emerge In
a few minutes with the negro. He
spoke of the presence OF John Wade
an the crowd.
A shot followed, according to the
witness, but who shot he did not know.
ST. n We
and then, after awhile, saw Gillis, the
night TALLER walk around the hanging
body with a lighted match.
It was the States announced inten~
ton to show connection between Gill
lis and the iynching.
On the cross examination the de-
Tense ELECTED the testimony as TO the
paw for giving evidence. Immediate
~ after that revelation the state rest
ed and the defense opened.
The case DRAGGED through syesteKaay.
from 10 soseleck In the morning until 8
o'clock In the afternoon, with an In
terim of two hours for dinner.
twenty-five witnesses were sworn
for the defense and the first was called
just before dinner. after the State had
rested IN Its direct testimony.
Scene Most Impressive.
The trial Is probably the most Inn
pressive in Alabama court history. The
Supreme Court chamber, rich, elegant
almost in its tapestries. its leather-
cushioned chairs It's thick carpets;
dark and cool and sombre even during
the day, with a score of staid portraits
overhanging every portion; with the
sever Justices, each in his high-backed,
ornate throne like chair--it is a fitting
setting for an impressive proceeding.
None OF the hum or buzz which
creeps into the atmosphere of the best
regulated chamber of the lesser courts,
Is perceptible-for there is an innate
sense of dignity that impresses.
Between his lawyers, Gregory L.
Smith and Francis J. Inge, the Sheriff
of Mobile County, Frank Cazalas. sits.
a slim frail old man with the traces
Of an Illness on his face; but COM
posed in spite of the charge of neglect
of duty and Incompetence.
Several feet nearer the bench Of the
Justices is placed the seats of the
States attorneys, Acknowledgement
Alex M. CARRIER, Palmer Pilians and
N. e. Stallworth. solicitor Of Mobile
County.
The witnesses. all under therule and
excluded from the court room. are
thronged, during the progress of the
trial in the Supreme Court library out
side When needed, the marshal calls
them within.
Civil War has such a proceeding oc-
CURED, and never before has the SUI
preme Court of Alabama sat on judg-
ment on a sheriff of one OF the coun-
ties. II
There are few spectators. however, in
spite of the novelty and Importance of
the case. The lack OF interest in
Montgomery, probably, comes from the
fact that none of the principals are
Montgomerians.
THE second day of the trial opened
with the introduction of witnesses for
the State. most of whom seemed cog
infant of the fact that lynching was
probable, after Fatch had died Of the
wound inflicted by the negro Richard
Robertson.
One newspaper man, N. A. Richards
OF The Mobile Item, spoke. he toid
that so impressed had The Item at
taches been of the probability Of a
1vnching that a force had been re-
tanned during the night and that all
1orenaratfons had been made to get out
On extra edition. 1t was gotten out,
after the expected lynching had oc-
Cured. at o'clock In the morning,
he said. -.
s.eta declared that rumors of the
orosnective lynching were about the
streets of Mobile as early as s o'clock
IN the afternoon.
This was In standardization OF Rich
ards'a testimony, who had told that
81 had gone to the officers, anxious
hs 70 the probability of trouble, from
newspaper mans standpoint and In
,,Astigated. He was assured. he said,
that nothing was liable to break
loose"
Mr. Haas declared that he heard OF
rumors of a probable lynching of the
negro Robertson.
Every kind and condition OF man is
,ncIuaed in the seventy-five or more
illnesses. Suspected prohibition spot
ters. discharged policemen, judges of
the Mobile courts. physicians. mer-
chants Mobiles mayor himself. Y. NJ
n A. men, and former saloon proprie-
tors are all included. There were
nublo Officers and private detectives.
men who were in jail as prisoners at
the time of the lynching, retired mer-
chants and all the rest
And. oddly enough. when the State
had closed, all OF the rumors of the
Ivncbing. which had been spread
abroad, seemed to have disappeared
Not one OF the witnesses called by