The courtroom theatrics of the Tacoma Railway & Power trial
A witness and an attorney trade insults in court while a $10,000 lawsuit for assault turns into a chaotic spectacle.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The lawyers in the case of James L. Bell vs. the Tacoma Railway & Power company have had several clashes that caused much amusement to the spectators, and the gavel of Judge Snell was brought into use several times to preserve order. 'Sit there and grin like a hyena, if you want to!' shouted Colonel A. K. Tabb, attorney for the plaintiff, to C. W. Cromwell, the company's star witness, when he smiled at a remark the attorney made. Then up jumped Marshall K. Snell, attorney for the company, and came to the defense of his witness with the retort: 'I would rather grin like a hyena than bray like an ass.' Matters were in a fair condition to have gone further, when Judge Snell took a hand in the game and advised the attorneys to desist. This has been one of the most hotly contested cases ever tried in the Pierce county superior court, involving a claim of $10,000 for injuries Bell allegedly sustained at the hands of Cromwell, a company officer at Spanaway Park.
“I would rather grin like a hyena than bray like an ass.”
Public transit disputes have a long history in Tacoma, though today's transit battles typically center on light rail expansion rather than fisticuffs at amusement parks. The 'knockout drops' and courtroom barbs described here capture the rough-and-tumble nature of early 20th-century civic litigation.
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