The Opium Smuggler's Family Courtroom Appeal
W. H. Horr was convicted on four counts of opium smuggling in Tacoma, but the most dramatic moment came when his lawyer brought his wife and son forward to beg the jury for mercy.
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.
TACOMA, July 28.—[Special.]—W. H. Horr was adjudged guilty of opium smuggling in the United States court today. He was indicted by the Federal grand jury on four counts, and he was found guilty as charged. Twenty days were allowed in which to file exceptions, and it is expected the case will be appealed. Horr is supposed to have smuggled opium on a large scale during the past five years. He was once before arraigned on a similar charge.
In his speech to the jury today Col. Lewis endeavored to strengthen his argument with a dramatic scene. He had Horr's wife and son step forward and called upon the jury not to disgrace them by declaring the accused a felon. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Robertson informed Col. Lewis that there was no evidence in the case to show that the young man was Horr's son. This brought out another appeal to the jury from the attorney for Horr. He turned Robertson's information into an attempt to further blacken the wife and son by the taint of illegitimacy.
But the point was lost when Robertson, in his turn to the jury, said the young man was simply Horr's stepson.
“He had Horr's wife and son step forward and called upon the jury not to disgrace them by declaring the accused a felon.”
Opium smuggling was a major Pacific Coast crime in the 1890s, and the trial shows how families were pulled into the courtroom to soften a verdict. The episode rhymes with modern drug prosecutions, where mandatory counts and family testimony still shape the stakes.
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