Bemis Report of the Webster Trial, 1850 [1897], Image No: 66   Enlarge and print image (72K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
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Bemis Report of the Webster Trial, 1850 [1897], Image No: 66   Enlarge and print image (72K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
G6 TRIAL OF JOHN W . WEBSTER. room, and after it, I took the brush broom and swept up the brick floor, took the dust-pan, and threw the dirt into the fire. As I set the broom behind the door, I saw a sledge-hammer there. The door was the one leading from the back room, up stairs, to the laboratory below, and is at the head of the stairs, [The locality was pointed out to the jury upon the model of the College, by the witness.] I should think that the sledge, was one which had aeen left there. by the masons, when they worked there, a year before. It was a mason's sledge, with a handle two feet long and weighing some six or seven pounds. Both faces were rounded, like an orange cut in halves. Its usual place was the laboratory below; and I had never seen it anywhere else. It had always been kept there. To a juror.-The round face was manufactured so; not made round, by use. Resumes.-I took and carried the sledge down stairs into the labora- tory, and set it up against the box where Dr. Webster makes his gases. [Points out the place on the model.] I have never seen anything of the sledge since. I have hunted the building all over, but cannot find it. I do not recollect anything else in particular, connected with Dr. Webster or Dr. Parkman, on that day, (Friday,) until about a quarter before two, P. M. After I had eaten my dinner, I was standing in the front entry, looking out of the front door. This was as near a quarter of two, as I can recollect. When I testified before the coroner's inquest, I thought it was half-past one; but I recollect that I examined the tickets for Dr. Holmes's lecture-room, which made it a little later. I saw Dr. Parkman coming towards the College. He eras then in North Grove street, about abreast of Fruit street. He was walking very fast. I then went into Dr. Ware's lecture-room, laid do~.vn on the settee nearest the front door, waiting for Dr. Holmes's lecture to close, to attend to clearing his table. During that time, I did not hear any one go in or out of Dr. Webster's room. The door of Dr. Ware's room always shuts itself; it has a spring on the top; so, has Dr. Websrer's. I stayed on the settee, till it wanted a few minutes of two o'clock, vhen I went up to Dr. Holmes's room. I always go there before the lecture is out, to lock up the doors, and help the Doctor clear away his table. After I had put away the things in Dr. Holmes's room, I came down and locked the outside front-door. I suppose I may have stayed in Dr. Holmes's room, fifteen minutes. Dr. Holmes was the last out of the building, and I immediately locked the outside front-door. I then went down stairs to clean out the furnaces, for the fires next morning. I always prepare the furnaces in the afternoon, for the next morning. I went up stairs into the Professors', (Ware, Bigelow, and Channing's,) private back-room, and cleared out the stove there. This room is on the same floor as Dr. Webster's, [The witness here explained the locality of the three lecture-rooms, and the back private room, by the model. The anatomical, (Professor Holmes's,) was shown to be in the story above the chemical, or that occupied by Dr. Webster. The medical, or that used by Professors Ware, Channing, and Bigelow, and in which the witness laid down, before going to Professor Holmes's, was seen to be the one on the opposite side of the front entry, and on the same floor with the chemical.] I then went down stairs, to Dr. Webster's laboratory-stairs door, that leads out into my cellar, to clean out his stoves. The door is the one that I had used all that season, and by which the Doctor, himself, used to go in and out. There are two doors there; one in the inner, and one in the outer, partition-wall. I tried the outer ono, and found it bolted, on the inside. I then went round, to the other laboratory-door on the same floor, (that which leads out of the store-room,) and found it, also, bolted. I put in my key, and lifted the latch, but found it fast- ened, on the inside. I thought, that I heard him, in there, walking. I heard the Cochituate water, running,