The Daily Alaska empire., 1935-12-06
ELSTAD GIVES
 HIS VERSION
 OF DISTURBANCE
Rusty Musket In cident Winds Up Direct Testi-
 mony for Defendants REBUTTAL TO BEGIN
 ON MONDAY MORNING Trial Expected to Take An other Week-Jury May
 Get Case by Friday

The defense in the prosecution of "A men on charges of rioting here last June "A, being heard be- fore a jury in Federal District Court, rested it's case at 2:56 this afternoon, the 18th day of the trial which started on November 12. Re- cess was taken shortly afterward until 10 o'clock Monday morning when the Government will begin calling some 30 or 40 witnesses in rebuttal, to be followed by defense rebuttal and arguments to the jury which is estimated to take the greater part of next week before the case actually goes to the jury.
 Assistant District Attorney George w. Folta said the Government re- buttal witnesses would take two days and Defense Counsel Irwin Goodman said the defense rebuttal would be comparatively short, de- pending on the matter brought out by the Government. There is a possibility the case might get to the jury by next Friday, week from today.
 Ye Old Musket
 Defense ended it's case this after noon with a humorous incident with the recalling of Charles Croz- fer to the witness stand. Crozier came into the court room carrying a rusty old musket and an equally rusty pistol which he deposited on the clerks desk in front of the jury and took the stand Senator Henry Roden of the defense counsel started to ask him relative to the guns which were reputed to be in the union hall at the time of the alleged riot, but Folta was inn mediately on his feet challenging the whole procedure on grounds that it was merely an attempt at ridicule, and demanded the Court order the witness to take the arti- cles from the court room, and the jury be ordered to disregard the whole incident.
 The Senator retorted that Govern ment witnesses had testified rela- tive to guns in the union hall and it was his purpose merely to show what the arsenal amounted to.
 Orders Them Out
 Judge George F. Alexander, how ever, upheld Folta's objection, say- ing he did not think it material, and ordered Crozier to take the old guns from the court room, commenting, Take them out, you brought them in" As Crozier walk ed from the court room amidst the smiles of the spectators with. his Daniel Boone squirrel gun and old pistol in hand, Defense Counsel Goodman announced, the defense rests"
 Sam Elstad, miner and former special Deputy Marshal at Yaku- tat, was the last witness testifying for the defense. Elstad is the man alleged to have been beaten with clubs near the A. J. mine office the day of the trouble, last June 24.
 Elstad stated that the morning of the trouble he intended to go to the sawmill to order two loads of wood. On the way, he stopped in at the union hall and then decided to go to the A. B. Hall, which he did. Leaving the hall, he started down the street and met woman with his baby in her arms. The child cried and he took the baby, he said, and con- tinued walking down the street along with the marchers, near the front. His purpose, he declared, was to find the child's mother, who was down town. He walked with the marchers, he said, because it was the easiest place because of the crowd on the sidewalk. Arriv- ing at the union hall, he took the child in the union hall and left the baby with woman there while he started across the street to