USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The old court house : reminiscences and anecdotes of the courts and bar of Cincinnati > Part 13
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Oh, how relieved the court and the jury and the prosecuting attorney and the officers of the court and the lawyers and the scarce and few auditory were, when Riley got through and sat down; and, for fear that he might have occasion to say something more, the prosecuting attorney submitted the case to the jury under the charge of the court, and rested. When the court came to charge the jury, Riley stretched his already too long ears, to catch the words of the court upon his great and important legal point. To say that he was gratified or even satisfied, would be far, very far from the truth, for the court took pains to tell the jury that what the counsel for the prisoner had said in applying the testimony to his great and important legal point, was sheer nonsense, and the jury should so consider it. The jury, of course, returned a verdict of guilty, without leaving the jury box, and Riley was so roiled that he was raving, and did not get over his mania for several weeks.
THE YOUNG LAWYERS AND THE YOUNG LADIES.
In the days of the old court house, when our present, aged, intellectual lawyer, William M. Corry, was young and in his fresh and vigorous beginnings of manhood and of law, he took it into his head, a very gallant young man as he was, that it would be a right good thing to have an audience of ladies within the bar of the old court room, to hear, and perhaps approve and applaud and give eclat to one of his extraordinary forensic efforts. Jordan A. Pugh, another intellectual young lawyer, was colleague of Corry, and they were opposed in their great case by two veterans of the bar, and the young men being well assured of their own success in winning the case, indulged in the very fondest of hopes of the approving smiles of
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their lady friends. Young Pugh had readily agreed to the suggestion of inviting the ladies to court. The ladies came and were assigned to, and occupied a set of well- arranged chairs within the bar, just along the balustrade, in sight and full view of the jury, the judges, and all the lawyers. The argument of the case commenced, and soon it was the turn of the young, intellectual lawyers to speak for the defence. They did so, and both spoke elo- quently, long and well, but they both made one great mistake! They addressed the ladies who were invited to hear them, instead of the jury; and they spoke so much to and for the ladies, to gain and win their smiles and approbation, that the old, green-eyed men of the jury took umbrage at the youngster lawyers, and the result was, a verdict was rendered finding everything for the plaintiff, and nothing for the defendant and his young lawyers and their ladies. Instead of victory perching upon their fresh banners, a " damned defeat" was sorely experienced, and all on account of the women, for the young men had a good case, without them. Ladies were never invited to court again !
LAWYER HODGE AND HIS NOTES OF HIS DEFENCE.
Adam Hodge, as a lawyer, had very few superiors among the young members of the old bar. He was dis- tinguished for learning and legal sharpness and acumen, and was very successful in his practice. He was a tall, thin, spare man, long arms and long legs and long body, and long, but a very agreeable and pleasant face, which, when he was arguing a case at bar, lit up with peculiar, fascinating illumination ; and his eloquence attracted all his listeners, who were pleased with his use of language and his mellow, bass and tenor tones of voice. Adam
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also had wit and humor in him, and frequent sallies would issue forth from his brain, with the applause of his audi- tory, and to the discomfiture of his adversary. He was a clever gentleman and a clever lawyer, and no one who ever had the pleasure of knowing, will easily forget him. He was engaged in the defence of many prisoners in the criminal department of the court, and he seemed to love to defend such, and would gloat with positive delight whenever he succeeded in getting any defendant acquitted. He would proclaim his victory everywhere, over the prose- cuting attorney, saying that "he beat the d-d State's attorney [calling him by name personally] this time, any how." But if he happened to be defeated, he would coolly and deliberately console himself by saying, and frequently repeating, "Oh, the d-d State was too much for me, this time. It, with its tremendous grip, can throw any lawyer." In the one case he would crow over the prosecuting attorney personally, and in the other he would attribute his defeat-not to the ability of the State's attor- ney-but the great power of the State itself !
Adam used to prepare notes for his speeches that he made in court, not particular or detailed ones, but brief ones, such as would enable him, without much difficulty, to command the threads of his speech, merely heads of his subjects, or heads of the divisions of his subjects. On one occasion he was engaged in trying a very important criminal case, defending a client charged with forgery, forging a bank-note or notes. The presiding judge and his associates of the old Court of Common Pleas had ruled against Adam on the many points of the law in the case, so as to make him quite indignant, and he had fully and firmly resolved, when he addressed the jury, he would get his compensation out of the court by freely denounc-
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ing them and their unfavorable rulings. So the evidence closed, and while the prosecuting attorney was speaking, Adam prepared his notes of the headings of the remarks on the case that he should submit to the jury, and they were about these :
First-Get the good will and favor of the jury.
Second-Persecution of the defendant by the prose- cuting attorney.
Third-Merits of the case; the facts and the law.
Fourth-The good character of the defendant as proved by numerous witnesses.
Fifth-Reasonable doubt in favor of the defendant. Sixth-GIVE THE COURT HELL !
The prosecuting attorney got through, and Adam began his argument, and had his notes on a half sheet of paper in his hand, and at the third and fourth headings he grew wonderfully eloquent, and in the midst of his rhapsody, he accidentally placed his half sheet of notes upon the lawyers' table. A lawyer sitting near and fond of a good joke, saw and read what was on the half sheet of paper that Adam, in his absent-mindedness, induced by his flights of eloquence, had laid upon the table, and he (the joking lawyer,) slyly arose and handed the head- ings on Adam's half sheet of paper to Judge Brough, presiding on the bench. The judge took them, looked at them and read them, and passed them to every one of his associates, who also looked at and read them; and then they were handed back to the presiding judge, who left them right before his eyes, on the bench.
Adam reached the fifth head, " Reasonable doubt, etc.," without the help of his notes, and descanted to the jury learnedly upon the law on that point, and was near- ing his next and sixth and last heading, when, his recol-
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lection failing him, he began to look for his notes on his half sheet of paper. He looked, but looked in vain- the half sheet of paper was not on the table. He was disturbed ; he fumbled in the pockets of his person, or rather of the garments of his person, and then looked into his big, green bag, ( for lawyers carried big, green bags with them in those days,) and then he looked all over the table, but failed to descry the coveted half sheet of paper with the headings of his speech, and he, at last, in some confusion, was forced to remark, "Somebody has taken my notes. I had another and sixth and last heading, of great interest and importance, in my notes, upon which I desired to speak at some length to the jury ; but not find- ing my notes, I really have forgotten just what that head- ing was, may it please the court."
Presiding fudge-" It will not please the court, Mr. Hodge, to hear you under that sixth and last heading, for the court is already fully aware of its import and extent, and a blast from you under that heading might entirely annihilate us. We are certainly fearful."
Hodge-" How so, your Honor?"
Presiding fudge (holding up the half sheet of paper to view,)-"Here is your missing half sheet of paper and the headings of your speech. If you will please omit the terrible sixth and last heading, you will certainly better please the court, and perhaps the gentlemen of the jury."
Adam saw it all at once at a glance, and for the first time in his practice he sank down and wilted, and his client was convicted, and he resolved never to put the headings of his speech upon another half sheet of paper, come what might, again, and he never did, never, and not "hardly ever." He used to say to me sometimes, in referring to this deprecated episode in his practice, that
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" the court had me that time ; if it hadn't been for that half sheet of paper, I would have acquitted my client without fail ; I have got so now that I won't write any more upon a half sheet of foolscap paper ; it always reminds me of the fool's cap I wore that day when I saw my half sheet in the hands of Charley Brough on the bench."
LAWYER HODGE AND HIS DIVORCE CASE.
I once had dutiful occasion to hear and listen to a cross-examination of a witness in a divorce case, upon the puzzling subject of habitual drunkeness, in the old court room of the old court house. Adam Hodge was the lawyer for the husband, defendant, and the cross- examination of the witness :
Adam-" Well, witness, you have said you have seen my client drunk ; now I want to know what you mean by that?"
Witness (not used to definition, or defining anything, much less this puzzler)-"Well, Mr. Hodge, drunk, drunk like anybody else."
Adam-"Like anybody else, eh? Then he must have been sober if he was like anybody else. Eh?"
Witness-"No ; I mean like anybody else when they are drunk."
Adam-" Oh ! like anybody else when he is drunk ; and how is that?"
Witness-" When he is half seas over."
Adam-"And how is that?"
Witness-"When he is three sheets in the wind."
Adam-"I don't understand these terms; if you please, witness, when is a man three sheets in the wind?"
Witness-" When he is half seas over, I reckon."
Adam-" And when is he half seas over, please?" Witness-"When he is drunk."
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Adam-"Ah, that's it, is it? You are very intelligent and very intelligible. You've got back to where you commenced. Can't you now commence again, and tell us what you mean by saying that you have seen my client drunk?"
Witness-"Well, he was full of liquor."
Adam-" How do you know he was full of liquor?" Witness-" Because he was drunk."
Adam-" You've got right back again."
Witness-" Well he didn't know what he was talk- ing about."
Adam-" Ah, that's it, is it? He didn't know what he was talking about. Well, witness, are you now drunk?" Witness-"S-i-r ?"
Adam-" Are you now drunk?"
Witness-" What do you mean, sir?"
Adam-" You must be drunk, according to your own definition, for it is very evident to the court, and to us all, that you don't know what you are talking about, and therefore you must be drunk."
Witness-"' I do know what I am talking about, and I ain't drunk. I'd have you know, sir, I don't drink liquor at all, sir, and never did, sir, and the way you treat me, sir, you ought to take the d and e out of your name, sir, and make it, A-dam Hog, sir."
The literatim sally literally took frierd Adam aback, and he stood quite aghast for awhile, and then wisely dismissed the undefining and undefined witness from the stand, with nothing further from him on the puzzling " habitual drunkenness."
:
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LAWYER ADAM HODGE, AND HOW HE MADE THE DARK COLORED WITNESS ABSOLUTELY SO DARK, OR BLACK, AS TO EXCLUDE HIM - FROM TESTIFYING.
In long days of yore, what were called the Black Laws, used to exist on our statute books, and they existed there from most early times, having been enacted by the Legislature of Ohio, long before there were many abolitionists, or any abolition party. They deprived the black man of many privileges, and among the worst things which they did, they wholly excluded him from testifying in a civil, or criminal case, or a case of any kind, before any of the courts of the State, where a white man was concerned. These odious laws were at last repealed in the triumph of anti-slavery sentiment, as they ought to have been long before, for independent of the grossest injury and injustice upon, and to the black man, they worked also the grossest injury and injustice to the white man. At last our Supreme Court, composed of wise judges, went so far as they could, against the ini- quity of the black laws, in reference to the testimony of witnesses, and positively decided, that, when a man or woman of the colored race, was more white in color, than black, he would be a good witness, and could testify against a white man, or a white woman. Of course this good decision, as good as it was, frequently produced a great deal of difficulty in court, to show that an offered colored witness in a white case, was really more white than black. It was as the weighing but the weight of a feather over, in the case of Shylock's pound of flesh; if the colored witness was just a whit or iota of white color more than black, he was a safe and secure witness, and
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if not, he was not. And such was the state of the law, in the State of Ohio, and brother Adam Hodge well knew it, and well applied, and was well successful in it.
He was counsel for the defense in a celebrated case of the State of Ohio versus Hardy Perkins, indicted for murder in the first degree. Now Hardy, the defendant, was a colored person, but he was not a mulatto ; he was a quadroon, and Adam Hodge first astonished the court, as against the prosecuting attorney, who was my official self in those days, that his client under the law of Ohio, was a white person, as he was certainly more white than black, and Adam duly exhibited his client under a very bright light at one of the great windows of the court room ; and the court was obliged to adopt Adam's legal point, and decided on their personal inspection of the prisoner, in the light of the full and blazing sun peer- ing through the great window-where Adam put his client of course purposely -that he was a white person. This satisfied Adam, and much dissatisfied the prosecuting attorney, both of whom well knew, that the chief witness in the case upon whom the State would, and must rely for a verdict of murder in the first degree, was a colored person who it was very difficult to tell, whether he had more white than black in him. Adam chuckled over his first victory, as he was much in the habit of doing and waited for events-vastly paused for them.
It was not long in the progress of the trial before this colored witness to prove murder in the first degree, was called, and was told to take the witness stand. Now about this witness stand. It was a small round platform with an open balustrade, for the witness to stand upon a little elevation, and lean against the balustrade, and was
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quite movable from place to place on the floor of the old court room. After Adam Hodge had got the court to de- cide that his client was a white man, and therefore not a victim of black testimony, and conscious of the danger to his colored client of the evidence of the colored witness, he with the help of the facile and humorous deputy clerk William McMaster, had moved the witness stand, all un- known to anybody, to a shadier and darker position on the floor of the court room, quite away from the bright light of the great window, in which he had first shown his client, and close up to the large column of the court room, indeed, quite under its shade, and shadow. With this prepara- tion, Adam was satisfied, and he felt himself prepared for the colored witness, and equal to the occasion. Some witnesses had already been examined by the unconscious and unsuspicious prosecuting attorney, occupying their places upon this veritable witness stand placed in the shade exactly where it was ; and colored James Wilson was called to the witness stand, the most important State witness for murder in the first degree, and the colored witness took his place under the shadow of the column, on, and in the aforesaid witness stand.
" Mister Clerk," said the prosecuting attorney, "'swear the witness."
Lawyer Hodge-" I object-may it please the court."
Court-" Object to what, Counsellor Hodge?"
Lawyer Hodge -- " To the swearing of the witness !" Court-"' On what grounds?"
Lawyer Hodge-" Because he is a black man under the law of the State, and cannot testify against my client, whom the court have solemnly decided to be a white man under the law of the State. "
13
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Prosecuting Attorney-" The witness is not a black man, he is as white as your client, and comes of the same family. He is a known cousin of your client."
Lawyer Hodge-" I care not for that, I ask the court to personally inspect the colored witness in the witness box, and decide for themselves."
Court-" We will do so. Witness look at us-turn your face-full view !"
And James Wilson presented his face in full view to the court, which happened very luckily for lawyer Adam to be right in the dark shade of the large column, which cast a dark shadow over this full view so presented thus to the personal inspection of the court, and as a conse- quence, made the full face in full and fell view, look much darker than it would have done in the light, and the result was, the court decided that the witness had more black in him than white, and therefore he was not a competent witness against the defendant, a white man, under the law of the State of Ohio.
So a second complete victory over the prosecuting attorney by the chuckling Adam Hodge; and the final third triumph, of course, now came, for the verdict of the jury in the exclusion, and absence of the testimony of this most important witness, James Wilson, was murder in the second degree, and thus the saving of the neck of Adam's darkey client. The trick of the movement of the witness stand was never discovered, until afterward told by Adam himself, in his repeated chuckles and boastings that he had "beaten the d-d State this time," and the admiring observations on himself, as to how he had "come it over" the State's attorney, and saved his colored client's neck from the ignominious halter. This was really a great score for Adam! It shows too, into
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what muddles and mud-puddles courts of justice are some- times forced to get, because of the existence of unfit, and unjust laws upon the statute books. They had better not disgrace our statute books !
THE STORY OF THE OLD CORONER.
In the days agone our coroners used to be nominated by our party conventions and elected by the people, not for their ability or their competency, but because they were good Democrats or Whigs, as the case might be ; and as the latter, I am compelled to say that in the history of our county politics formerly, I never knew of a whig coroner, and so I have got no stories to tell of any coroners belonging to that party of early days, or in the times of the old court house. But I have got a story to tell of an old democratic coroner, who really possessed very little merit or ability of any kind, except that of being an old-fashioned Jackson democrat. He had served the party well-that is, he had always been at the polls during a long life, and had always voted the democratic ticket, whatever it was. Following the Jackson times, and the Jackson example, and the Jackson expression, he always was for "going the whole hog" when the democracy or democratic ticket was concerned. For this reason, and for this reason only, old Reasin (not reasoning) Reagin, a butcher by trade and occupation, and a Dimmycrat dyed in the wool, was nominated by the democratic convention, duly assembled at Carthage, in the back-yard of the old Dutch tavern, as usual, for coroner of Hamilton county, and in due time was duly elected by the democratic people. Coming in possession of the office, and thus clad in a little brief authority, which proved to be too long, however, he began to play
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fantastic tricks, not to make the angels weep, but to make the dimmycrats cry, and cry aloud. We shall not immortalize all that he did, but we will narrate one thing, which if Shakspeare had lived and had heard of, he would have immediately revised the character of the immortal Dogberry, and added the incident I am about to relate to the celebrated sayings and deeds of Dogberry.
At the dead of night, in a low coffee-house, called a tavern-Fox's Star Tavern-at the corner of Liberty street and the Miami Canal, just at the junction of the old wooden canal bridge, in a low, drunken brawl, a murder had been committed. It seems that a drunken man from the country, from White-water township, by the name of Payne, who had, with money on him, been going the rounds of the city, was inveigled into this out- of-the-way, low saloon by a couple of scoundrels, one Lecount, who was afterwards hanged for another murder, and one John Hahn, a desperate fellow. A quarrel was purposely gotten up, and these two fellows assisted by the landlord, Fox, and another villain in the fracas murdered poor Payne, their inveigled and entrapped victim. After the murder, the four rascals concluded to throw the body into the canal, to conceal their crime. At this scoundrel work they were seen and watched by two mysterious differ- ent persons, who at that late hour of night, or rather early hour of the morning, happened to be crossing the canal bridge and heard the splash of the dead body into the water, and that night or day duly reported the facts to the police, and some of the guilty parties were arrested, tried and convicted of manslaughter, and sent to the Peni- tentiary. But to Coroner Reasin Reagin ; as coroner, he was, of course, sent for, to hold an inquest on the dead . body when it was extracted from the dirty canal. It was
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two o'clock in the morning, and the old Dogberry, think- ing it was a case of flat 'burglary,' concluded to 'examinate the malefactors' right away. The night was dark, and Dogberry had to resort to the use of the lanthorn and a tallow candle, for there was no gas in those days by which to look about, and to discover and discern what he was about. The corpse was lying upon its back on the tow-path of the slimy canal, and the coroner remarking " that it was a plain case of fell-on de sea-or the canal," summoned a jury of six persons from the immediate neigh- borhood to execute things expeditiously, and very wisely, and in his selection of his men to examine the case, he positively chose three of the murderers to sit upon the jury of inquest. These three men were the villians Lecount, Hahn, and the landlord, Fox, and they constituted just one-half of the coroner's jury. Of course the jury rendered their verdict of accidental drowning, and the stupid coroner thought there was sure an end. But not so. The two mysterious witnesses who saw the deed, communicated with the police, and they immediately communicated with the attorney for the State, and he at once ordered the coroner, Reasin Reagin, to hold another inquest on the body before it was buried ; and the result of this was, the finding in the back of the head of the corpse, a large fracture and hole, which intelligent physicians testified was the cause of the victim's death, instead of accidental drowning, as the first murdering . jury had rendered as their verdict, and which they of course, purposely did not see or examine; and the further result of this repeated inquest was the immediate arrest of the three persons of the first coroner's jury as the murderers of the poor victim, Payne. Of course, the news of the mighty prudence, forecast and wisdom
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of the Dogberry coroner, were bruited about and loudly condemned all over the city-that he had held an inquest on a dead body, and had the three murderers of it to constitute one-half of the jury. The prosecuting at- torney, and many other citizens, took care that Reasin Reagin should never be coroner again ; and he was not.
ANOTHER FUNNY OLD DEMOCRATIC CORONER.
Brigadier General Charles Hales (not of the marines but just as good-of the militia, by appointment of a democratic governor, and coroner of Hamilton county by the suffrages of his democratic fellow-citizens, and there- fore an officer of the old court of the old court house), deserves some particular notice at our hands. As a general of militia-not malitia, for he was very open- hearted, frank and clever-he had no superior in his days. He in private life was a livery-stable keeper on Fifth street, where most of the stables were congregated, and therefore was fully capable of riding on the best of horses, or stallions, if you please, and he took military advantage of this, for in his capacity as Brigadier- General, he rode one of the most beautiful and prancing and dancing dapple-grey stallions that it was ever any- body's pleasure to see. Owner of a great stud of horses, he had one grand stud-horse; and to see him mounted on his faithful charger on trainin' day, was to see a sight grand and glorious to behold. He and his horse would occupy the whole width of the street, and the length of it too, and if he was out on the common, there was hardly any room for the common soldiers with their broom-sticks and cornstalks for muskets. On trainin' day, he was all fuss and feathers, and being about the only uniformed man of all his coventry soldiers, he was Jack
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