The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-03-17
hours divided equally between counsel.
! Attorney Switxer Opens.

II
| Attorney Switzer Opens.
Attorney John f. Switzer opened for
the plaintiff. Beginning with the chill
| hood Of the girl, Mr.. Switzer dwelt
strongly on her training. Declaring she
was born in Topeka, the only daughter
of highly respectable parents and
reared by them in a jealous manner,
| he cited that she graduated from the
city schools and the university and be-
came ambitious to become the head OF
a fraternal organization, successfully
rose through the offices of the Eastern
Star and. other orders and was sent re-
peatedly by the united societies of the
state to their national congresses.
mot a word had ever been uttered
against her fair name until that year
of 1906 at Montreal he said, when
she went on that trip with DR.. Warner,
likewise an exemplary citizen. the
family physician and the only one of
the party to look after Miss Tilford as
her own mother asked him to do. They
went to the Windsor hotel where rooms
were supposed to have been reserved
but there was only one room empty, 50
they left-they went to the Welland,
where DR.. Warner registered their
names so that they might get the first
rooms vacant. He registered his own
name and Miss Tilford's name Do you
think that a married man intending to
stay all night with a single woman in
the same room would register their true
names on the hotel register. when he
own town would be there to see it?
You would have to prove him crazy
first. The hotel charge against both or
them at the Welland as the photograph
of the cash register shows was but 81
cents. They took lunch there and went
back to the Windsor, where they had
gotten their rooms.
"And yet Kirkpatrick comes back
here to Kansas and says that DIR.
Warner was sick at Montreal-he was
sick because of his association with
this plaintiff.
Uttered With Oaths.
LAS to the question of. malice, seven
or eight witnesses have testified as to
conversations of Kirkpatrick and he
also has gone upon the stand to give
them all the lie. Judge Huron says
that Kirkpatrick walked up and down
his office with his cane stamping the
Uttered with oaths. He said he had
been after DR.. Warner for long time
and now he had him, and he said about
the plaintiff here that she was ugly as
a mud fence, tall and angular and
bony.
He says Dr. Warner had bad
reputation for morality and chastity
and that he was justified in circulating
the nbelous story.
"But what does he say made up this
reputation? On the trip to Kansas
City he says Miss Tilford had her arm
on the back of the seat and that DR..
Warner slid down in the seat until
his head rested in the hollow of her
bare arm. bare because she wore a
short-sleeved dress. He says they got
off the boat at Mackinac at an island,
but he can not tell whether there was
a landing there or whether there was
a cafe or how many people got off
there. He simply saw them get up
and go down stairs when the boat
stopped and then he saw them again
on the return trip after they had
ing the country for evidence he has
not found thing to call improper con-
duct, and challenge any man to point
to a single circumstance which would
Justify the libel.
Brings Beard Here.
HE brings J. M. Beard here from
Chicago to testify-a man who drew
$1,000 from the Knights and Ladies'
in one year because Kirkpatrick had
appointed him. He had to come here
and testify or lose his job. what is
it that he saw? He saw DIR. War
ner and Miss Tilford in Fulton's office
in no compromising position and he
saw them in the public reception room
and he told Waters when he asked for
his deposition that he knew absolute
1y nothing against the reputation of
Miss Tflford, but he comes here now
and testif1es that he did see her with
Warner.
''Then, there is that other Chicago
hireling, Fulton, who has come here at
his own expense and has sat here day
after day waiting to give his awful
Miss Tilford out to lunch and admit
ted he had done as much.
Plea to the Jury.
you, gentlemen of the jury, have
the right in fixing damages to con-
slider the case from the point of human
life. What If it had been your own
child? Think of her coming home to
you the night after she had heard the
terrible stories circulated about her.
Think of her anguish-and yours, who
had reared her up SO carefully. Think
of the suffering of this young girl and
what she endured in her fraterEal So
cieties, the ruin of all her ambitions.
Can you fix figure for damages? Is
it $1,000? Is it $4,000, or $4,000,
the amount we ask in this suit, that
will repay the girl for the loss of her
fair name?
Then take up the punitive dam
ages-what the court has told you was
smart money. Do you think he ought
to be taught lesson? A big, square
shouldered man able to take care of
him when she with her father had
walked up to his Office to ask him what
he meant by circulating those false
hoods, and he told them 1T had served
it's purpose and when Mr.. Tilford got
angry, ordered them out of the room.
There is evidence of expressed malice
In refusing an answer"
Magaw and schenck Speak.
Judge c. A. Magaw followed Mr.
Switzer. outlining the defendants de-
Tense. His argument was sound and set
clearly the only hope of the counsel for
kirkpatrick to escape damages. PRIV
ilege" was the great defense. This con-
s1sts in the right Of a member of an
order to circulate charges against mem
bers among members so long as he does