Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-10
BY DUKE WELLINGTON

A NUMBER or peculiar incidents, De-
sides the unusual verdict of man.
slaughter, cropped up in the trial of
former County Engineer George F.
Drum before Judge Harry v. Osborne
the first three days OF this week One
| of them came while Drum was being
cross examined by Assistant Prose-
cutor Andrew Van Blarcom.
Drum had testified that he had been
insulted by Policeman John I. Nc
| Donald, the man he slew. and in his
statements had said he did not have
to take things like insults from any
man.
"Then you don't like to take things
from people, do you?" asked Mr.. Van
Blarcom.
mo, do you?" shot back Drum at
| Van Blarcom.
Van Blarcom smiled and shook his
head negatively and then continued
the examination.
Patrick Logan, a personal friend of
Drums, was a witness for the State
on Monday, he having been an eye
witness of the shooting. He was tell
ling of the ARRAY and stated that Drum
was about ten feet away from Nc
| Donald when he pulled his gun and
shot As he made this statement Lo-
gan leaned toward Drum and called
| to him: "Aint that right, George?"
Another laugh was caused when
John M. Rhodabeck, agent of the state
motor vehicle department, was on the
witness stand. Rhodabeck had met
Drum the night preceding the shoot
ing, and had made an engagement
with him for the following morning.
Frank NJ. McDermit, counsel for
Drum, was examining Mr.. Rhodabeck
about the meeting when the appoint
ment was made.
Drum came in while l was en-
gagged in a game of pinochle with
some friends" Rhodabeck started to
explain, when McDerrnit butted in
| with "Ah then l presume you were
at our Roseville Clubhouse, other
wise the Faust cafe" and Rhoda-
beck admitted McDermits surmise
was correct as he Joined in the
| laugh that followed.
Probably the most peculiar thing,
and certainly the most unique, In
connection with the trial, was the
| fact that Drum himself drew the
| diagram that was used for the pur-
pose of giving the jurors an idea of
| how the ground lay at the scene of
the shooting. Drum, an engineer, drew
an elaborate ground plan covering the
| entire block on the north side of
Central avenue, between First and
| Second streets. 1t was rather a
gruesome sight to witness a man on
| trial for his life place cross on a
| blackboard to indicate the exact
spot where he had stood when he
fred the fatal shots.
The verdict of manslaughter in
the Drum case was the greatest sur
| prise in the way of the verdict that
| has come into the court house since
the first trial of Allison NJ. MacFar-
| land, when he was found guilty OF
! wife murder. In that case all the
wise ones in the court house ex-
| pected an acquittal.
| In the Drum case the same wise
ones were confident the verdict of the
| jury would be murder in the first
degree. A lot of them are still try-
ing to figure out how a manslaugh-
| ter verdict, which in effect means
that the jury considered the shoot
ing accidental was arrived at. The
wise ones would have been far less
surprised with a verdict of acquitta al
That could have been based on self
defense The manslaughter decision
however, Is beyond them all.
That other counties besides Essex