Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1895 — A BADGERED WITNESS. [ARTICLE]

A BADGERED WITNESS.

She Was Troubled at First, But Finally Told Her Story. “Your honor, .1 have a witness in the next room, who is able and ready to prove an alibi for this man,” said the attorney for the defence eagerly. “Very well, bring him in,” conjmanded the judge. “ It's a woman, your honor.” “Well, well, bring her in.’ ’ “But, your honor, I cannot have the counsel for the prosecution badger my witness. She is a very respectable person, and has never been in a court of justice before.” “ Bring her in.” The woman was brought in, and duly sworn, and told to relate what she knew, and to remember that she was under oath. She was short and red faced, and begun volubly;— “ You see, jedge, it was this way, I sez to my darter, sez I ” “ Stop, stop. You are only to make a plain statement. Where was the prisoner when you first saw him?” “That’s what I was getting at. I sez to my darter, sez I ” “Never mind what you said to your daughter. What day of the month was it that you last saw the man now on trial.” “ I guess I ought ter know. It was the day our folks went to country meetin’.” “Butwhat day of the month, and what day of the week was that?” “ Same day I made Almy’s new sage-green gown." ’ “ Woman,” exclaimed the counsel for the prosecution, “you evidently don’t know anythingabout this case. You are excused.” “ I dunno as I've done anything to be excused for. I only wanted to 1 tell you ” “Why don’t you answer a plain question? You are trifling with the Court.” “No I ain’t nuther. What question Lev you got? ” “Cun you tell the day of the month upon which you last saw tho prisoner? ” “ Yes; it is;the 15th, sartin, sure.” “Fifteenth of what?” “This month. “Why that is to-day.” “Ain’t I seein’ him now ?” “Look here.” said the wrathy attorney, rising and pointing a long lean finger at the witness, “you ought to be able to answer a simple question, a woman of your age.” “Jedge,” said witness, facing , round upon the judicial chair. “ I : ask the purtection of this court. I ■ did’nt come here to be insulted. First he called me a woman, thsn •he talks about my,age. 'Tnin’t fair. Jedge. and I ain’t goin’ to tell all I know while he’s in the room.” There was a laugh at the expense of the attorney, and by dint of much soothing the good woman was at last induced to tell all she knew—[Detroit Free Press. TUe wonderful natural soap mines at Owens Lake, Cal., are accounted foi by the following theory, which has been advanced by a well-known* western scientist: The water of the lake contains a strong solution of both borax and soda. In the water a curious speeics of grub breed by mil lions. These grubs go through theii various transformations and finally emerge as short-winged, heavv-bodied flies, very fat and oily. They‘live bul a few days, dying and falling into the lake in such numbers as to be frequently washed ashore in layers more the n a foot thick. The oily substance oi the dead flics blends with the alkali of the borax and soda, and the result is a layer of pure soap, corresponding in thickness to the drift strata of the dead flies, a foot deep of flies making a laver of soap nearly an inch thick. These strata, repeated year after year, have formed the celebrated “soap banks of Owen’s lake,” where a large force of men have been constantly employed for a number of rears. In Germany the forest land owned by the State is thirty-eight per cenK of all forest lands.