Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

STABLISHED E$k1 NEWBERRY TU1"0 O 3 1 __l W W903 0V,I'T..... mI.i I. ^ TUR<,DAY. oc' EVIDENCE ALL IN. THE CASE WILL PROBABLY G0 TO TIE JURY TOMORROW. James H. Tillman Tells His Story Graphi cally and In an Impressive Manner. The Arguments. [Special to Herald anid News] Lexington, S. C., .October i r. The taking of testimony ii the case of James H. Tillnan, charged with murder in the killing )f N. G. Gonzales, was concluded at 4 o'clock Saturday afternoon, and the record is complete so far as, under the circumstances, it could be made complete. When the last witness catne off the stal the trial had lasted through exactly two weeks. Two days will be given to the ar gunents, and His Honor judge Gary will charge the jury on Wed nesday. Thus the case will go to the jury on Wednesday morning, the third day of the third week. MR. TILLMAN'S VHRSION. The keenest public interest in the ca-ie centered in the testimony of the defendant, Colonel James H. Tillman. For the first time Ie gave his version of the affair. Col. Till man was placed on the stand an hour before the time for adjourn ment on Thursday afternoon and his testiiony was concluded a few minutes after three o'clock on Fri day. He was on the stand about six hours all together. He was col lected and bore himself with ease amounting almost to a seeming ab sence of interest. It was apparent fron his answers, however, that lie had weighed each word carefully before it was uttered. He was sub jected to a severe and skillful cross examination by Mr. Bellhinger for the State, but never once did he Jose his self- possession. THR LINE OV DEFXHNSE. A review of the State's testimony has alread.y been given in these columns, and with that side of the case the readers of this paper are entirelv familiar. The evidence for the defense was along three distinct lines: Testimony was produced to con tradict the evidence brought for ward by the State that Mr. Tilliman had made threats against Mr. Gon zales' life. Testimony was produced to prove that, on the contrary, Mr. Gonzales had long cherished bitter animosity against Mr. Tillman's family and against Mr. Tilman and had re peatedly tmade threats against Mr. Tillman's life. Testimony was brought forward to prove that at the fatal moment when Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Till man met, Mr. Gonzale;' action was such that Mr. Tillman, L..:ing it in connection with the threats which had been repeated to him as having been made by Mr. Gonzales, con sidered that action a demonstration against his own life, and fired as hie thought to p)rotect himself. "J-ad he pursued his straight course, he wvould have been safe from harm,"' testified Mr. Till man. "iuR CUT DIAGONALLY ACROSS." The str-ong point in the State's evidence,-that Mr. Gonzales, whenm he me'4 Mr. Tillmian, cut diagonally 4eross the p)avemlenlt to avoid brush ing against ii,-Mr-. Tilhuan turned to his own account. The construction p)laced on this m&ove of Mr. Gonzales, whether it was a dlentonstraitioni against Mr. Tilm ian's )jfu or an attenmpt to avoid Mr. Till. mn, has dilTerevd with the relative positions on t he pa:vemenC1t assigned Mr.. Tillhiani aid the two genitIe men with himi. All the witn;esse, for the State,,.except Senator Tal hnrl, placed Mr. Tlillman on thed piutside, Senator- TIalbird in the ceni tre, and Senator l1rownu on the in. side. Mgr. Gonzales, they said, wm~ walking dlown) the street ini the een. tre of the pavement. 'When lie ap. p)roached Mr. Tilbnani amnd Senmatori Talbird and Brown he cut diagonl ally across towards t he inside, going c.nway from Mr. Tillmnan on the out 'isle of the pavement and seeking ,toth.s through the opeing be-tweei ,The cr's.Browni and the corner o Ion the seeC r station. Therefore wee'-. Tho g, Mr. Gonzales ci on the 9th and 4-( t o avoidl brushius Mr. Haynesworthidan. lawyers of the Gr o the deCfens5 are sure willl ma:rd on the ont -udge. ,. Mr Tilbnuat - .xato)r lirOWn ov f tthe Best F.or\vyu he stree aovemenCt anm ihis coursi have passe, tor Talbird 'r, he cut di avemnent to ent toward between Seni itW tM rULIUU allui DfWjj I JULI sides agree as to the move, the State holdifig it was an attempt to avoid Mr. Tillman, the defense holding that it, taken with other circmnstances, was a demonistration against Mr. Tillmnan's life. The evidence for the State and the evidence for the defense is con tradictory at almost every pint. Both sides have been presented with consuminate skill. Which witnesscs are to be helieved? The jury must decide, and upon the answer which they give to that question must depend their verdict. COl,. IlILLMAN's TusTIMONV. James H1. Tillman, the defendant, was placed on the stand at about five o'clock Thursday afternoon. The burden of Mr. Tillman's testi mony was that for many years Mr. Gonzles has pursued him with re lentless malice; that within recent years he had repeatedly made threats against his life; that when he and Mr. Gonzales met Mr. Gon zales cut diagonally across the pave ment towards him instead of contin iing his course in order to pass, at the same time thrusting his hand deeper in his pocket as if to draw a weapon, and that these movements. taken in connection with Mr. Gon zales' bitter editorials and the threats which had been repeated to him as having come from Mr. Gon zales he considered a demonstration against his life, and shot as he thought in order to protect his own life. Mr. Tillman was examined by Col. Croft, and testified in sub stance as follows; While in Winnsboro reading law in the office of his brother-in-law, 0. W. Buchanan, he wrote an ar ticle for the Winnsboro News and Herald, replying to an article which Mr. Gonzales had written for the News and Courier (Mr. Gonzales at the time being the Columbia cor respondent of the News and Courier), in which Mr. Gonzales had misrepresented his uncle, now Senator Tillman. Mr. Gonzales wrote to ascertain the name of the writer, which was at first withheld because his friends advised him not to get into a controversy, but upon a second riuest from Mr. Gonzales his name was given. The next transaction that arose between Mr. Gonzales and himself was when he applied in 1890 for membership in the South Carolina club. Mr. Gonzales, he said, drummed up enough of his friends under the rules of the club to black ball him and he withdrew his name. Then lie challenged Mr. Gonzales to a duel to be fought over in Georgia. lie refused to reduce the challenge to writing because he was afraid it would be used against his uncle, then Governor B. R. Tillman. lie went to Georgia and waited for Mr. Gonzales a couple days, but he didn't come. In that year Mr. Gonzales made a bitter attack on him in the afternoon paper in Co lumbia and ini other papers, calling him a contempt ible scalawag and lie didn't know what else. Mr. TIilhnami said he was once thle Washington correspondent for several papers. Mr. Gonzales at that time, just after the second elec tion of Cleveland, wvas an aspirant for the position of consul general to China. Mr. Tilhn~an, upon the best information he could gather, as hie said, "all newspaper men do except in South Carolina, where they never try to hunt any facts at all,'' wrote to his papers that Mr. Gon zales would nmot be appointed. Mr. Gonzales wvas in Washington, and they met in the lobby of the Metro politan hotel, where they had sonme hot words The next (lay he wvalked up to the cigar counter andc bought s 'mje cigars A crowd was stand-. ing arotui anulibe t urned arounmd to offer- a cigar to somneb)ody. lIi did not know who was there, anid he telt he had made a mistake iri offering Mr. Gonzales one. Mr. Tlill. man saidl he came hack tq Colum.n bin, wherre lhe was Columbia cor respondcenit for the Atlanta Consti. tuitioni for some time. HeI went t< Rdgefieldl to practice law abouli 1894. When the Spanish war brok< oult he was applointe(l lieutenant colonel of the F.irst $. C. Regimenit his firjt pulic ofhice. Asked aboul the rceeence which had been mmh1(1 in art icles In the State about his try inig 10 get the regiment dilsbanded, Mr.' Tilhunan said that was true. After the war was virtually over- ht did not feel that it was just to thi. p 1rivates to go) to theC front, giviny upI htucrative~ poslt)ions for $15 40 Imnonith. Thme conucilit Of the Statt was very bitter towards huitmI duin ii) his military life, it had always hee very bitter towar<da him sinice hc was 2a years of age. Mr. Gonzale: on one occasion wanted to have lhin -court-martialed because he hin< Ssome negroes whipped because the) -had stolen a pistol from an ok( 11twu mog wit is regimen "He had me arrested and brou hefore a Magistrate, and the magistrate dismissed it." Whtu Col. Alston died he was promotedi . to the colonelcy. It was attehipteA to be represented against him that, after. he was made colonel he watited to keel) the regiment in servicf. To show the falsity of th'it, he said after his colonelcy expired, he'tried to enlist in the Third Nebraska Regiment, of which -W. J. Bryan was colonel. After that Mr. Gon zales hd villified him when -he at teimpted to organize a 'coiinpy of Indian scouts to go'to 'thb Philip pines and had ridiculed him wheti elected senior vlee-conimmabder-in chief of the Spanish War Veterans? Association, to which positidn he was elected over Gen. Joe Wheeler. Mr. Tillinan's narrative at this point reached his etitrance into political life, his campaign for lieutenant governor in 1900 The statement that lie was a traitor to his uncle and had tried to defeat hini when lie ran for governor was al)solutely false and that man (Mr. Gonzales) knew it when lie wrote it Mr Tillm:n denounced as ab sohlttviv f.d!e a nuntiber of editorials ii thte Skte ii ieference to his official aind persolial acts hiring the tite lie was lieutitenant governor. Asked about tle attacks wlich Mr. Gonzales hadi made upon him, Mr. Tillman said lie thought Mr. Gon zales' paper had been pretty well devoted to him and to men\bers of his family since 1890. These 'ar ticles had always Ieen extremely abusive and scurrilous. At this point a long argument ensued as to whether or not Col. Tillman could testify as to the truth or falsify of the editorials. In the midst of the argument the court adjourned until Friday morning. At the conclusion of the argument, Judge Gary held that Col. Tilluan could not testify as to the actual truth or falsity of the editorials, but that lie could testify what feelings those editorials engendered in his breast. Mr. Tilluan coutined his testi inony. He had given no cause for the charge in the editorials that lie had wit'-held money collected for a Confederate monument at Edgeficid, and at one of - the meetings in the last campaign had produced a tele gram from Mrs. Gen. Evans, the president of the monument associa tion in which she receipted for all the money he had collected. As to the Jenkins sword incident, Col. Tilhlman said lie withdrew the invitation to Mr. R,oosevelt to pre sent the sword at the Charleston exposition, because in withdrawing an invitation to Senator Tillman t (line at the White House becaus Senator Tillman had engaged in. fight on the floor of the senate, Mr. Roosevelt insulted the State of $outh Carolina by insulting one of her senators, who was also an uncle of his. The first thought of with drawing the inivitation came from some of the subscribers. lHe only wished he could get an other chance to withdraw an invi tation, since Mr. Roosevelt had got to dining with Booker Washington and appointing negro officials in Charleston. Mr. Gonzales' edito rials upoii this incident and others iln colnction with It, he said, con tainied about as much venom as a rattlesnake. Col. Tilbnan deniied that lie had told Mr. C. J. Tlerrell that hie would kill Mr. Gowzales. He had never been intimate with Mr. Terrell and wouldl hardly take a man inito his confidence who had fought him as bitterly as Mr. TIerrell had. Mr. Tillhnan dleniedl in toto having made any threats againist Mr. Gonzales' life, cor roborating Mr. Blease's tes timnony as to his~ conversation with Dri. Adhans. lie corroborated the witnlesses who testified to having repeated to huimu threats miade by Mr. Gonzales against his life. Col Tilhnan said that the after nooni befoue the shooting his own pistol was out of order and lhe had given it to Mr. F. Hi. Dominick ta carry to the gun-smith. In view of the threats made by Mr. Gonzales, considered it uiwise to go uinarmed and the afternoon before the shoot inig lhe borrow~ed Mr. L. J. William's pistol anud later gave it to his nephen Tlilbuiq' Biich to return. He weiit down to the State H-ouse on the morlning of t he shooting with T I main Buneh's pistol. . He found his~ p)istoi iln his wom1 at the State House; when he got there. Mr. Tillhman continuing, (de s;cribeLd the meit ting with Mr. O :0 zales, and( the shiootinig, as follows: "Well, we '. ent on out of the State Hlouse, myself and Senatot Brown and Senator TIalbird, as be. fore stated, walking down the street, across the State House grounds and tip Main street, and, just before ] got to the transfer station I noticed (Couneluded on Ath Page.) JOIN THE Newber[ BIG DRES5 TUESDAY ORi berry. Over 100,000 ya going in this great sale. ForQoign and Domestic D before. F RE E! LININGS Fl need to shop the marke are worn; we have them Styles. All the LatesC Weav Which we offer you che other stores. We want every lady in 1~ this Don't Tarn Stylish Dress Goods anc Now CROWDS Yh IS Cas We begin th Dress Goods rds Fine Dress Good Now is your chance ress Goods cheaper * U * U With ever RE4E buy thes ts, no need to worry --the correct 1903 U, iper than you can t Jewberry and surrot SA on~ the Waysid. Ladies' Favorit i Lowest Prices reigr' ~ALDWELL. Ma IFTHE tores A SLE. randest CUT PRICE Sale ever held in New s, Silks and Waistings to buy the cream of than you ever bought ^ R EE y Di-ess or Skirt you 6 BIG DAYS. No about the styles that VIodedrn Dress Goods >uy back numbers at inding Co unties to visit D, MaVrch direct to the .e Trading Place where >i suapremne. nager.