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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 1912)
THE OMAHA SUNDAY REE: OCTOBEK 20, 1J)1l. 7-A Famous Old Bench Now Part of Creighton Law School Douglas county's old court house, that for twenty-seven years has echoed with the storm and stress of sensational legal conflicts. Is being dismantled, its once fine furnishings discarded and even the hill upon which it has stood is being iaed, in pretentious, literal fulfillment of the prophesy uttered by the judge who dedicated the building on May 28, 1885. "Who shall say that I am not a prophet when I declare that this spa clous building must in time give place to one more modern, one even more spacious?" said John C. Cowln in his dedicatory address when the structure, now dark with ag and out-of-date, was new. Many of the members of the Doug las county bar at that time have since ceased from their labors, but many re main and the oldest of these is Eleaear Wakeley, who celebrated his 90th birth day this year. Pleased that the new building is at last complete and gratified that the county has made material progress to warrant the construction of a million dollar court house, the members of the bar, nevertheless, look with regret on the destruction of the building in which they have won so many brilliant vic tories and suffered such sore defeats. For few oourt houses in any city have been the battleground of more bitter 'wrangles or the stage for more dra matic cases. Some Thrilling; Cases. One of the most thrilling cases ever tried in the old building was that of the State against Neal. Ed Neal was charged with the wanton murder of an old man and his wife who had lived on a farm near the George L. Miller home, west of Ralston. The aged couple was found dead, all their stock, their buggies and harness and movable prop erty had been stolen. The stolen property was sold in South Omaha. ' Suspicion settled at onoe on Neal, but his arrest and conviction waa based on as odd evidence as ever fig ured in murder trial. The old woman .had worn a quaint wedding ring since she was married at early age. This ring was found in South Omaha where Neal had sold it. The murderer waa arrested in Kansas City and brought back to Omaha to stand trial. For two weeks attorneys fought the case before the court. Public sentiment was aroused and throngs continually crowded the court room. At last the case went to the Jury. After thirty hours of deliberation a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree was re turned , verdict later confirmed by the supreme; court During this trial a detective wu put on the stand to testify In behalf of the prisoner. The prosecuting attorney, riled at what he believed to be wilful misrep resentations, arose and in an angry speech rebuked the witness. As the last notes of the lawyer's speech died away, says one of the lawyers who participated in the trial, so bitter was the crowd that their breathing threat of "Hang him!" could almost be heard. . Then they arose as one and cheered the attorney who had lambasted the prisoner cheered blra until the court threatened to clear the room unless order was restored. It waa' the most remarkable demonstration ever witnessed in a court room In Doug- , las qounty. ' ' Neal Is Hanged, Neal was hanged October 1, 1891. His body swung from a scaffold on the aoutb- 4 -it; , OPP0BT8EJITV txvjRA l Httii' it I fit? CI ilii I tti Why Endure Pimples and Blackheads? If you wish a skin clear of pimples, blackheads and other annoying eruptions, begin today the regular use of Cuticura Soap assisted by Cuticura Ointment. No other method is so agreeable, so often effective and so eco nomical. TREATMENT: Gently smear the affected parts with Cuticura Ointment, on the end of the finger, but do not rub. Wash off the Cuticura Ointment in five minutes with Cuticura Soap and hot water arid continue bathing for some minutes. This treatment is best on rising and retiring. At other times use Cuticura Soap freely for the toilet andbath, to assist in preventing inflammation, irritation and clogging of the pores, the common cause of these distressing facial erup tions and other unwholesome conditions of the complexion and skin. - Ml aoftmrtlMa matll joatnthfa. al- Somm4 Wnimnt will be Mlled free, wlU B-p. SksTtas Sitek. Ltbemi asteiM OCEAN STEAMSHIPS. Orient Cruise See Eypt, the PjT mids and the Holy Land AaVlfhtfulauUeM the palatial S. S-- CINCINNATI (tT.OOO TONS) Balppe4 wiia ttt laxnry ( the Vest modern hotel 'SZS. JAN. 28, 1913 FRAVCHE. SYRA-USB, MALTA. PORT SAID; JAFFA, BfcVROUT. PIRABBS. K AL A Mli I? COK9TAN ri. NOPLB, CATT.1RO. MESSINA. PAL ERMO. AND NAPLES. 80 5iis $325 uT Send for fun lafonniHon. HAMBURG -AMERICAN LINE 150 Wnt Xandolph St., Chicago, HI, or looal atf ant. III ZMmLMMi-mmi M t awiiiliii.w x -. l v.. -s BENCH OP FORMER COURT ROOM NO. 1. THE CRIMINAL DIVISION OF THE DOUGLAS COUNTY DISTRICT COURT, BEFORE WHICH THOUS ANDS OF CULPRITS HAVE BEEN ARRAIGNED, NOW INSTALLED AS PART OF THE EQUIPMENT OF THE CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL. west corner of the lots the new court house has beo been built upon. Other criminals had met a similar fate on that Identical spot, and three had died on ' soaffold there within a year. One of these was a soldier and lawyers still tell of his dramatic death march. As he wax led from the Jail, which then stood on the same block, , a woman In the jail, who had become attached to the man, began to weep and there was no other sound but the tramp of the condemned man as the officers led him to the gal lows. On the night of the day on which Neal was executed a negro was lynched at Sixteenth and Harney streets. A play was being produced In the Boyd theater and the negro was hanged to a telegraph pole near the entrance ot the Boyd. All Omaha Interested. In the case of the state against Lauer. who was charged with the murder of his wife, all society became Interested, because of the social standing of Mr. and Mrs. Lauer. The defendant was- tried twice and finally acquitted. His defense asserted that he had shot his wife in the night, mistaking her for a burglar. Dur ing this trial women would begin de manding entrance to the court room a(j 7 o'clock In the morning, bringing their lunches, and if admitted, would sit in tently Interested throughout the trial. Claude Hoover, murderer of Sam Du Bots, a brother-in-law, who had been eleoted to the eity council in 1895, shortly before he was murdered, was executed August 7, 1896, and a man named Morgan, convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl after criminally assaulting her, was hanged from a scaffold built ?n the same spot. Hoover waa hanged within three weeks after his conviction. Barney McGinn shot Edward McKennq July 8, 1893, and Mclenna died July 31. McGinn was tried for murder and con victed, but was granted a new trial after the supreme court had reviewed the case. An amendment to the criminal code, passed without the emergency clause went into effect August 1, and gave the Jury discretion in deciding If a murderer should suffer the death penalty or life imprisonment. The court held that Mc Kenna lived two hours longer McGinn would have been tried under the amend ment. Dedicate Old Bntldlne;. When the old courthouse was dedi cated the list of speakers included such men as John C. Oowln, Elezeaf Wake ley, James Neville, James W. Savage, John M. Thurston, James W. Woolworth, John I. Redlck and A. C. Wakeley. Many lawyers recall the dedicatory exercises and their eyes moisten as they think of the number 'called since then before the Bar of Infinite Justice. A long line of Judges presided over court in. this old building, the mention of whose names calls up to the older members of the bar memories of wars waged when the county was young: A. M. Ferguson, L. A. Goff, M. R, Hope well, E. "Wakeley, James Neville, George A. Doane, Frank Irvine, . H. J. Daves, W. W. Keysor, C. R. Scott, Charles Og den, W. C. Walton, Ben S. Baker, Jacob Fawcett, C. T. Dickinson, W. W. Sla baugh, G. W. Ambrose, J. H. Blair. E. R. Duffle, Irvin S. Baxter, George A. Day, Guy R. C. Read, Willis G. Sears, Howard Kennedy, A. I Sutton, A. C. Troupe, John I. Redick and Lee Es telle. Historic Beach. In criminal courtroom No. 1, where all these sensational murder trials were held, there was an old cherry wood j bench, built at great expense and always the pride of the presiding Judge. Judge Lee Esteile watched a man making this bench and Several years later the same man stood before him on a charge of manslaughter and was sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary. This old bench, which cannot be re placed now, and all the furnishings of criminal courtroom No. 1, was sold to Creighton university and is now court room No. 1 In the moot court of the col lege of law. The "atmosphere" of- the original room has been retained as well as the chairs, the Jury box and the rail ing, which have been arranged to ex actly reproduce the original room. Judge Esteile, speaking to 600 law stu dents in the . Creighton college of law, recalled the historic incidents that cluster about this furniture. He sat again on the old cherry wood bench and pointing to the Jury box, before which he had stood as prosecuting attorney and pleaded for the eonvlctlon of "criminals," he made a "confession," and with all the earnestness at his command warned the students to beware lest they make the mistakes he made. "It was my ambition." he said, "to convict every man and woman who came before me. 1 even had an ambition, I am ashamed to say, to see a man condemned to death that I might stand in the shadow of (he gallows "I actually st.ooU before men who sat in those chairs and pleaded that a 1--year-old boy, charged with dealing a pair of shoes! worth $2.50, be sent to the reform school at Kearney. And J said to that jury, "God niado this boy a crim inal.' , "Somebody ought to have hit me with a club. God Is in better business thun making bad boys. Society and not God makes bad boys. The jury returned the verdict: 'Guilty as charged. In the man ner and form and the value of the shoes is $2.50.' "The boy pleaded with me. He said: 'My father is as good as you are and my mother is as good a woman as Mrs. Esteile. " 'You have got to take your medicine, young man, 1 interrupted. Somebody ought to have hit me with a club stuffed with feathers. It would have knocked my head off. " 'I'll come back and make you ashamed of yourself,' the boy told me. "And he did. "A few years ago I received a com munication from a man In an eastern city, asking me If It was safe to go this same young man's bond for $40,000. I Great Closing Out Sale of The Tinchner Piano Co. Stock, of Council Bluffs, : at 50c on the Dollar ' HIGHEST CLASS PIANOS MB PLAYER PIANO! "u if W5 f - l" I I 1 a a i X,X V" ' . . ,(WI . 1 -( ..y....T!sXJ.. J--!tW JH . At Less Than Cost To Manufacture. You Are ... ..... -j Allowed Three To Four Years To Pay JUDGE LRU ESTELL10 AS HE SAT ON THE BKNC'H IN COURT ROOM NO. 1 PRESIDING OVER THE CRIMINAL COURT. told him it was. "May you be saved from making such mistakes as that," said Judge Esteile in conclusion. And then he sat down for the last time on the cherry wood bench and posed for a picture. This picture is one of Creighton's prize possessions, for it marks two epochs: One, the abandonment of an old county hiilUliiif? tlmt cost $;o;,U0C, for a new on that cont $1,000,000, proof of Douglas coun ty's growth and present prosperity; the other, the establishment of a new de partment in the Creighton college of law the department of actual practice, prac tiee in a court room filled with the mem ories of Douglas county's most tempes tuous times. DON'T DELAY-ATTEND . THE SALE AT ONCE .1 Mansfield Stanley Here are two overcoats of exceptional good style and character the Mansfield, a conservative garment, made with velvet collar, and the Stanley, a shapely back coat rather close fitting at waist The new fabrics and materials of which these coats are made, enable you to select a garment which will especially suit your tastes. These are just two of the many styles we are carrying in Adler's Collegian Clothes The basis of good clothes first of all is good material, and we are hand ling this well known line because it offers better fabric values than any other. This means that they will give you good wear and satisfaction. Suits and overcoats $15. to $35. Adler's Collegian Clothes are accepted clothes of distinction everywhere. You will find all the new fabrics and shades, plain and fancy, in our assortment. If you are not acquainted with these clothes our display will be a revelation in clothes values let us show you. Never has such interest been manifested in a piano $ale'a.3 !liut which 'has been awakened by this great closing out sale of the T1NCHKR Piano Company stock at the A, 'Hottpe Storg, 1 1513-15 Douglas Street. ,t , In the first place only the highest grade instruments are found those famous old names that really informed piano buyers look for on the fall board of an instrument and thb prices are acknowledged by every one to be by far the lowest ever quoted in Omaha. , ' "4 , MAKES IN THE SALE u You will find every one of the best old makes represented iu this sale. For instance you will find a complete line of the. . famous ilallot. & Davis pianos, manufactured in Boston ancl America's favorite since 1839. The Tincher Piano Company featured them. Ileie also are Kimballs, Steinways, Chieker iugs, Conway, Segerstrom, Lexington, Iladdoroff, Krauker, King, Cable-Nelson, Werner, Whitney, etc., etc., at prices that you would scarcely believe possible. , , r $400.00 UPRIGHT MAHOGANY PIANO $227.00 I Here for instance is a fine Eastern made upright piano; tli manufacturer will not permit us to publish; the. ame, one of the newest products of the factory, worth every cent of $400.00, a month. ' , ...'"-;': '' : .. ; '.i .. Several $350.00 upright pianos, choice of 'ak, French wal nut or dull finished mahogany in this sale to close out at $2l0 Terms, $12.00 down and $7.00 a month. At $187.00 just two of these $300.00 pianos left; Hand some colonial cases, beautiful tone, responsive action. ' Terms, $10.00 down, $6.00. a month. -1 Scores of bargains equally as attractive. and at correspond ing reduction. ...... $700.00 PLAYER PIANO $355.00 . ' It will surely be sold tomorrow--for it's just as good as new in every way has been used for demonstration only. One of the best known makes, handsome upright piano, sweet, puna i l tirt Jnran firttmn ,Wa4K f lKr Cid tunc? any a itiitoif .jauiiicniv paj utuvui n vita a ui j pivvvj;x Just $355.00 buys it on terms of $30.00 down and $15.00 a month. EVERY ONE CAN HAVE A PIANO Just a glance at the prices and terms that we are makinjg on good used pianos will prove that there is no reason why any home should now be without a piano. ' ' ' " ". 1 Here are instruments, all guaranteed fully by the A. nospe Company, and will prove satisfactory in every particular. "We haven't room to list them nl), but here are a few, that. will gie i . . c ii. ii. -ii: you an mea oi me way uiey are sennig now: - Steinway Piano, ebony case $100.00 Vose Piano, walnut case $125.00 Shulhoff Piano, mahogany case. . .'. . .$135.00 Weser Piano, mahogany case. .$150.00 Brambach Piano, ebony case .$175.00 Schaff Bros. Piano, mahogany case. . $185.00 Ellington Piano, walnut case $190.00 Vose Piano, walnut case .$190.00 Ivers & Pond Piano, walnut case .$225.00 Steinway Piano, ebony case $290.00 $5.00 down and $5.00 a mouth gets any of the above. PIANOS SHIPPED ON APPROVAL If it is impossible to attend the sale in person do not think that you 'cannot share in its savings. Out-of-town people are requested to write for catalogue of sale pianos, prices and terms. We ship pianos anywhere on approval. Write today. ATTEND THE SALE NOW. . ' . Don't let delay rob you of this wonderful opportunity. Come to the sale at once. We cannot guarantee these bargains for any length of time. A. HOSPE COMPANY, 1513-15 Douglas Street. ? I lllMllUllliliillllliffl 1 PRESCRIPTIONS None but Registered Pharma cists are employed in this depart ment Have your next prescrip tion bear the Sherman & McCon nell label. It's a guarantee of quality and economy. VBXMVUM ft MoCOWHTSLL omvo co. 16th and Dodf Streets. owl mva oo, 16th and Barney Streets. IrOTAXi FXA.KMACT, Loyal Hotel. Ea.KTl.XJ) PSAKKACT, 84th and ruinam Btg. Put Your Want Ad in THE BEE IT Will IB BACK TWlCa as MAmr moioss. WM. J. BOEKHOFF, Sean Bealac ,