The Union & Advertiser
February 28, 1896

Mr. RAINES' Eloquent Plea

His Argument in Defense of Egbert H. CHATFIELD
A Crowded Court Room Listened to the Attorney's Masterly Address to the Jury
The Summing up for the Prosecution This Afternoon - Case to be Submitted to the Jury Tomorrow

     George RAINES made a masterly and most eloquent plea for the life and liberty of Egbert H. CHATFIELD today.  His argument that the prisoner's shooting and killing of Dominick KEARNS was in self-defense was a powerful effort and his appeal for the boy prisoner visibly touched many of the spectators.  The summing up for the prosecution by Assistant District Attorney Stephen J. WARREN will follow and Justice John M. DAVY will deliver his charge and give the case to the jury tomorrow.

                                                                      Conclusion of Evidence

     In the conclusion for the people's rebuttal testimony yesterday afternoon Edward Rosney of the fire department's veterinary hospital, testified that KEARNS reputation was good.  Others who testified in the same line were Mrs. Catherine WILLIAMS of 13 Magnolia street, Arthur BLOOM, paymaster and time-keeper for CHAMBERS & CASEY, Joseph WILLIAMS, a Powers block elevator conductor, Frank A. LITTLE, an employee of CHAMBERS & CASEY, David D. CLANCY, a sewer builder, and John NEEL, the latter being a foreman in the city's water works department.

     William HOWE was recalled to testify to Dominick KEARNS weigh. Witness said he weighed KEARNS and his weight was 165 pounds.  He also knew his height from a civil engineer's level rod.  KEARNS did not measure 5 feet and 10 inches.

William BRANNIGAN, a small boy, testified that young VOLLECK had told him of a fight in FITZ HARRIS's saloon in which one man pulled a revolver.  Mr. WARREN wanted to know who the man was but Mr. RAINES objection was sustained.
     Mr. WARREN then announce that the people rested.

Mr. RAINES then read the testimony of John MATHIAS before the grand jury, the district attorney allowing him the use of the book.  Mr. RAINES had not seen the testimony before the trial.  During a reading Mr. RAINES observed that the record showed that MATHIAS swore that CHATFIELD said to Mr. CURVIN, "let me out."
     "I call the attention of the court," said Mr. RAINES, "to this answer made by MATHIAS, with this very book before him, Mr. WARREN repeatedly asked the witness if he did not swear that CHATFIELD 'let me out.'"
     Mr. WARREN interposed some objection that it was not of great consequence.  Mr. RAINES said:  "I will have no controversy with a man who resorts to such tricks."

Charles ROWE of Brockport was recalled by Mr. RAINES.  The people had produced a large number of leading residents of Brockport to impeach ROWE's previous testimony and they ad all sworn they wouldn't believe him under oath.  Mr. ROWE made explanations of circumstances to which some of the Brockport witnesses alluded, claiming that he was an innocent victim of circumstances.  ROWE is the witness who swore when on the stand the first time that he heard KEARNS make threats on the afternoon of the tragedy to "kill the A. P. A. _____."
     Both sides rested and at 5:15 p.m. court adjourned until this morning.

                                                                       Mrs. KEARNS Present

     At 8 o'clock this morning Mrs. KEARNS, the aged widow who is the mother of the victim of the tragedy, with another woman, took her place in the corridor outside the court room in Powers block and waited for the opening of the doors.  Others soon arrived.  At 9 o'clock the corridor was filled with people who wanted to gain admission on this important day of the trial.  It was 9:15 when Sheriff Harman's deputies opened the doors and the room rapidly filled.

Egbert H. CHATFIELD, the youthful looking prisoner, took his usual seat near the jury box at a few minutes before 9:30 o'clock, the hour of opening court.  His father sat beside him, his mother and sister and a lady friend of the family directly behind him.
     Mrs. KEARNS sat across the aisle with her son, Edward KEARNS.  The older son, James KEARNS, sat beside the district attorney.  The younger Mrs. KEARNS, widow of the deceased sat near by.  In the front row of spectators sat Rev. C. A. BARBOUR.

Justice DAVY promptly opened court at 9:30 o'clock.

                                                  Mr. RAINES Opens

     Mr. RAINES in his summing up said in substance:  "If the court please and gentlemen of the jury.  On the 26th day of May, 1895, on the outskirts of the city of Rochester a homicide was committed, for which the defendant has been incarcerated since.  The grave issue is presented to you of deciding whether or not the homicide was justified under the statutes made for preserving the life of the citizens, of defining whether it comes within the statutes relating to murder and manslaughter, of defining under what circumstances a citizen is justified in taking the life of another in self defense.
     "The defendant stands on trial a typical American boy, brought up under the best possible conditions and the act he committed was in defiance of the principles taught in an American home, and not in violation of the law he was brought up to respect.  If there is a spot in Rochester which is of a rural character it is that section known as the Rapids.  The boy was reared in this spot, between city and country, subject to the influences of both kinds of life.  To the south lies the beautiful park planned as a breathing spot by the elder MOORE.  The gentle Genesee flows by, a continual temptation  for loitering to the boy seeking food for thought.  Up the river is opportunity for all the sports that delight the heart of the young boy.  Across the river lie the hills of Brighten, towards which the boy's feet may stray in peaceful wandering amid nature's charms.
     "As in every country settlement there is the country tavern with its adjacent barber shop and drug stores, places like BISNET's and CURVIN's, where the elder men congregate and recount the triumphs of their younger days.  Down the street lies the Little frame church, always a feature of the American home.
     "You will trace this defendant through all his boyish sports.  You will observe his inclination toward fishing and other sports which lead him away from the hurly-burly of city life to enjoy the charms that nature affords.  If you find that his character was such that he would be shocked by the violent act of May 26th, that his was a gentle, retiring disposition, then you will be justified in assuming that the act was not such as was prompted from within but such as was forced upon him from without."

                                                         CHATFIELD's Ignorance of Fist Fights

     Mr. RAINES claimed that there was no proof that CHATFIELD ever engaged in fist fights, so that as he stood before KEARNS no thought of using his natural weapons occurred to him.  "With all the investigation conducted by the district attorney," said Mr. RAINES, "with all the liberty allowed men on bail to assist the district attorney, I am surprised as you will be, that never was he shown to have struck an angry blow.  He always withdrew from any controversy which seemed likely to eventuate in a physical contest.  That was his uniform line of conduct.  Such was the boy that stood before the man of violence.  The study of the boy's life had been peace.
     "Therefore, gentlemen, you will conclude that this boy must have been forced to the act.  The more of a coward I have been; the oftener I have taken to my feet, the stronger is the conviction that when I do resort to holding the field in a physical contention.  I must have been forced to do so by extreme peril."

     Taking up the FITZ HARRIS incident Mr. RAINES said the prosecution had abandoned all claim of CHATFIELD drawing a revolver there.  "Even FITZ HARRIS, when put on the stand," said the attorney, "abandoned the district attorney and perhaps to justify in part what he had been saying on the streets, swore that CHATFIELD made a motion."  Mr. RAINES said the defense had not been timid but had challenged the prosecution to show anything in CHATFIELD's career showing that he had ever been anything but a peaceable man.  By putting CHATFIELD on the stand and witnesses as to his character the gauntlet had been thrown down to the prosecution for the defense well knew that the defendant's whole life was an open book to the ready and imaginative witnesses on the people's side.
     "The other element in the problem was Dominick KEARNS and I am sorry to say that his life and character are not unknown qualities. It would be pleasanter to say of him that he is dead and his deeds die with him. But they live and must be pictured in this case.  Gladly as I would spare the feelings of the devoted wife of Dominick KEARNS, yet I must tell of his character as it was.  In all I say of him, However, I will be candid and will do him no injustice.
     "The real Dominick KEARNS under liquor is not the man the Engineer BROWN saw running an engine,  No the man that a half dozen witnesses saw going to and from work with his dinner pail, but the KEARNS seen after nightfall with a disposition to fight whenever he could find an element to antagonize.  The real Dominick KEARNS was not the quiet man running an engine under the eyes of his superior, but inflamed by liquor, was seen after 6 o'clock a fiend and brute from the age of 16 to that of 38, when he met his death by an act of violence which he himself caused.

                                                        KEARNS in a Conspiracy

     Mr. RAINES argued that KEARNS had been proved to be in a conspiracy to injure CHATFIELD.  He spoke of KEARNS as being in over twenty fights; described in vigorous language many of these alleged fights, claiming that the district attorney by shutting out evidence as to most of these fights had assumed the responsibility for stabbing KEARNS reputation through the heart.  "The timidity of the prosecution on this point," said Mr. RAINES, "lies with more damning weight upon their case perhaps than would the evidence if it were allowed.
     Mr. RAINES argued that nobody disputed that JARVIS and BISNET were brutally attacked and kicked in the snow bank.  Witnesses had testified that Dominick KEARNS stopped the horses. "TUMILTY and the other witnesses for the defense," said the attorney, "claim that they didn't see Dom there, but did see Jim KEARNS there. TUMILTY says he didn't see the horses stopped.  But Dom was the leader of the gang as he always was.  And they kicked these old residents until they cried:  'Enough;
Don't kill us.'  The MAGILLs and all the boys were there.  It was a general raid by the boys on some of the old citizens who lived over the hill.  Dom was then 18 years ago, about the age that this defendant now is.
     "It was amusing to hear EAGAN come on the stand and swear to KEARNS' peaceful character. Why, EAGAN was there at the fight.  He was one of the boys and  came here to say a kind word for his friend's memory."
     Taking up the O'NEILL-HOFFMAN fight in the FITZ HARRIS saloon again, Mr. RAINES said it was a fight between two big men.  CHATFIELD's friend was attacked and finally got the other man down.  Others were going to pitch into his friend, and CHATFIELD merely told them to "let him alone."

                                                                 Prize Fights Condemned

     "Of course these things are reprehensible," said Mr. RAINES.  "It is like reading of a prize fight in the paper. You disapprove the whole thing.  Yet you read the last line.  Even the minister does.  I am not posing this defendant as a cur, but as a normal American boy.  I don't care how weak a man may be, how shriveled his liver, every fiber of his being would thrill with indignation to see his friend attacked under such circumstances.  So I cannot say that I blame CHATFIELD very much, and this is the only incident that the prosecution brings forward to show that he was otherwise than a most peaceful boy."
     On the question of weight and height of KEARNS the speaker said it was marvelous for a prosecuting attorney to endeavor to overturn the records made the purpose of the prosecution by the corner's physicians.
     "These competent physicians measured his height as he lay on the marble slab to be 5 feet 11 inches, and estimated his weight to be 180 pounds.
Yet by the wife and father-in-law of deceased the prosecution tries to show that he was a smaller man.  And Little Dr. REMINGTON was so nervous on the stand in the face of the demands of the prosecution, that he said the height might be anywhere between 5 feet 8 inches and 6 feet 2 inches."
     Counsel discoursed about the mixed cartridges in the district attorney's office, the effort as he claimed to hide the course of the bullet and the changing of the question to MATHIAS as read by the district attorney.  Mr. RAINES said it seemed as if Providence had thrown a protective influence over the innocence of defendant.  Counsel severely arraigned Mr. WARREN for purporting to read the question to MATHIAS from the record, but changing it in the spoken question "Let him out" instead of "Let me out."

                                                                  The Capacities of the Men

"Consider the capacities of the men.  And first look at their dispositions for that is the most essential point.  If one of the parties had no fighting disposition, if he wouldn't strike a man to injure him if he could, if he couldn't be offensive and wouldn't do anything except defend himself, he would have no business in a fight. CHATFIELD was that kind of a man.  I read an interview with Corbett in which he said he couldn't fight unless he was fighting mad.  That was the reason he said why when he went into the ring with Sullivan that he called the name which was printed in the papers.  Such was the temper of Dominick KEARNS, a fighting man.
     The failure of the district attorney to call KEARNS brother, and to redeem his promise to recall Pat SLATTERY, was severely commented upon by Mr. RAINES.  He said Jack STEWART was too drunk to know much of what was going on, and poor John KANE's memory was poor so that he couldn't remember anything except a Little friendly talk of wrestling.
     "KEARNS was as much larger than the defendant in circumference at the shoulder as he was taller in height.  KEARNS had all the capabilities for a fight; the defendant had none; KEARNS had the disposition to fight; this defendant the disposition to run away.  As this defendant stood there on the verge of this tragedy he was fully posted as to the character of his opponent; he knew of his power and brutality.

                                                             Instructions to CHATFIELD

"What were the instructions to the boy.  He had been told by SCHALBERT and TAYLOR and his own father if he met the gang and they asked him to drink to do so and get away when he could. SCHALBERT and TAYLOR and CONROY had told him that he would stand no show in an encounter with KEARNS, that mince meat would be made of him, as they said.  He had been warned that when the encounter which was brewing for him from the time he joined the A. P. A. took place some awful, terrible injury would be done him, if he escaped with his life.
     "Did the boy meet these warnings with bravado?  Did he say he would take care of himself; that he would shoot anybody?  Not at all.  To all the warnings he said he would keep away from the gang.

                                                                  The A. P. A. Issue

Speaking of the A. P. A. matter Mr. RAINES said:  "A society known as the A. P. A. has been gradually gathering into its membership people in various parts of the country who have peculiar ideas as to Catholic supremacy in politics or religion.  You are familiar with the religious controversies of the old world, of the antagonism between Irish Catholics and Orangemen.  There is something about a religious quarrel that inflames men to madness.  The most unholy act is enwrapt with a halo of sanctity in some minds if done in the cause of religion.  There was an element of religious fanaticism in the make-up of Dominick KEARNS.  He sought by resenting the attack on the church to expiate a life of crime.
     "I do not propose to discuss the merits or demerits of this organization.  That has nothing to do with this case more than that it is an element in inflaming the mind of KEARNS.  Personally I oppose it in its every purpose and characteristic.  But that has nothing to do with the issue.  The defendant had the right to join any organization he wished.  He joined this order, flattered, perhaps, by an invitation to join an organization, and he attended two or three meetings.  When put upon the stand he couldn't tell its object to save his life.
     "But it became known that he was a member and the antagonism of the gang against him commenced and the first demonstration was in SCHALBERT's saloon on this 26th of May.  The defendant had heard of the sentiment against him.  So after the affair with Drew the defendant realized that the gang looked upon him not only as an A. P. A. member but one who had engaged in words and a push with one of the gang.  Personal animosity was added to the other feeling of antagonism.

                                                            KEARNS the Strong Man

"So the strong man, Dominick KEARNS, went about heaping coals upon his wrath, biding his time when he could vindicate what he considered an insult to his gang.
     "It is a remarkable fact that in this trial all the respectable citizens are among the witnesses for the defense; while the scum are the witnesses for the people.  From the time of the Drew affair this boy was in mortal terror of the gang.  He remained at Charlotte over night so as to avoid the gang.  He asked people to go home with him at night frequently for protection.  All these peaceful measures he adopted to avoid an encounter and this life he lead for months.
     "He was gradually being reduced to a condition of absolute timidity, sneaking through the streets to avoid the gang, keeping away at night and getting a Little courage, perhaps by sunlight.  You have the picture of the men on this fateful day, KEARNS chasing JOHNSON out of WALTERS' saloon and CHATFIELD sneaking out a side-door to avoid a contention.
     Mr. RAINES painted a picture of the defendant, fearing the brass knuckles of the SLATTERYs, knowing that it was the practice of the gang when a man was down to kick him until he was insensible.

                                                            Went to Pay a Social Call

     Mr. RAINES said it would have been ve__ly better if young CHATFIELD had gone to church that Sunday evening as he at first intended, but being disappointed in Hulbert not going, he went to pay a social call with MATHIAS on Gus SCHALBERT, whom he had known before he kept a saloon. "We must take boys as we find them," said the speaker, "and they like company.  There was nothing worse in CHATFIELD's course than that he sought companionship of his own age; not seeking saloon company, not intending to go on a drunk or meet dissolute characters."  Mr. RAINES said while the jurymen might not approve young men of 24 drinking beer, yet they often get in the habit of taking a social glass now and then which was the extent of CHATFIELD's drinking.  He argued that the talk of wrestling was an endeavor to entrap CHATFIELD into a contest where he might be injured by one of the gang.
     "It was marvelously significant that a part of the gang which the __oping CHATFIELD left in WALTERS' went directly to the railroad crossing and anticipating CHATFIELD there.  Was it not contrived to do any injury to this boy?  The boy backs away until the cop arrived and was too much for Pat SLATTERY and his pugnacity.
     "What did the boy say when they marched out on him at the railroad crossing?  He said 'I know you Pat SLATTERY.  You are trying to waylay me.  Keep back.'  The evidence on this point is not disputed.
     "It would be interesting to hear Pat SLATTERY tell his story of this incident, but the district attorney has not put him upon the stand, although he has been in court during the entire trial.  Pat's first weapons were always his fists, although later he might kick or bite, and the boy knew that as the big man move toward him.
     "But although the district attorney did not put Pat upon the stand to tell the story, nor Peter BUTTERLY, who held Pat's coat, he did put on Mike SLATTERY.  And Mike said he was not there.  Mike was perhaps more likely to engage in other kinds of crime than acts of violence, but could hold up his end when Pat or Dom KEARNS led the way.
     At 12:30 court took a recess to 2 o'clock.  In answer to a question Mr. RAINES said he would require another hour in which to complete his argument.
     Promptly at 2 o'clock Mr. RAINES resumed his address.  He argued that the direction of the bullet holes through the coat and vest of KEARNS corroborated the testimony of all the physicians except Dr. REMINGTON; also that the defendant and MATHIAS that KEARNS had his arm raised when the shot was fired.  He argued that KEARNS went a half-mile north of the place where he would naturally turn off to go to his home.  There were a half-dozen saloons at which he could have got a drink on Plymouth avenue.  It was 10:30 o'clock at night.  Counsel argued that KEARNS motive in going a half-mile out of his way at that hour at night toward the Rapids must have intended to waylay CHATFIELD or perhaps see what had become of SLATTERY. BUTTERLY and the others who were in the enterprise "to do the boy."  CHATFIELD was trembling in fear in this encounter with the gang.

                                                 CURVIN Forced on the Witness Stand

     "Johnny CURVIN was forced upon the witness stand to testify that KEARNS said if CHATFIELD didn't have a revolver he would mop the street with him.  That was why Dom wanted to get the boy in the saloon.  In the street is not the place where Dom would attack a man with a revolver for there would be too much room there for an opponent to protect himself.
"Dom wanted to get the man with the revolver in a room where he would be within his reach; where he could grapple him.  That was the way Dom would attack a man with a revolver.  So he gave the honeyed invitation to the boy to go into the saloon." S