AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
138 
“ Now, Mr. Dodder, have j'ou not been 
trying to get me out of that house, that you 
might get your son in my place ? And have 
you not been to the Directors ? and have you 
not applied to them for your son ? and have 
you not told them things derogatory to m}/ 
character?” 
“None of your long preambles, Mr. Dod¬ 
der ; you know it is so, and I am going to 
prove it, too. Yes or No.” 
“ I can’t answer ; I must explain.” 
“ No explanations, sir—Yes or No.” 
“ No.” 
“ Did you not go to three of the Directors ?” 
“ Yes.” 
“Did you not order a window put in the 
cellar of the house, when building, and say 
you wanted it there for your son’s accom¬ 
modation ?” 
“ I might have done it.” 
“ Did you not get a warrant out for me be¬ 
fore I was bound over to appear here ?” 
“Yes.” 
“ Did you not then swear that I had only 
assaulted you by throwing stones, but did not 
hit you?” 
Dodder was completely staggered again— 
he changed all manner of colors, and moved 
about very uneasily in his chair. 
“ Come, Mr. Dodder, answer,” exclaimed 
the defendant. 
“ I can’t remember.” 
“ Yes you do—come, think—did you then 
swear I had hit you at all, sir ?” 
“ I might not.” 
“ How comes it that, you remember it now 
—three months after—and could not then ?” 
This was too much for poor Dodder. He 
looked appealingly around for relief. Noth¬ 
ing met his gaze but a room convulsed with 
laughter. His legs seemed to be under 
magnetic influence, and in a great desire to 
try their powers of locomotion. At last the 
defendant told him to go. “ That will do, 
Mr. Dodder—1 guess we are through with 
you for the present.” And off he shot as if 
death was behind him ; while the whole bar 
fairly screamed, as he made awful strides 
down the aisle, and the Court buried their 
faces in their handkerchiefs and shook con¬ 
vulsively. 
Dodder No. 2 was then called—son of the 
old Dodder—who testified as follows : 
“I was in the house—heard a noise—saw 
father driving cows; saw defendant come 
out of his house and throw stones; I ran out 
and a hill was between me and them, and 
when I got up all was over. Saw defendant 
throw three stones—did not sec any strike.” 
Cross-examined by defendant. 
“ You were in the house, you say ?” 
“ Yes.” 
“ Is there not a hill twenty feet high be¬ 
tween your house and where I was?” 
“About that.” 
“ How many stone walls, also—about 
four ?” 
“ About that.” 
“ How many plank-fences or slab-fences— 
two ?” 
“ Only one, 1 think.” 
“ Well, sir, how could you see through 
four stone walls, one slab-fence, and a hill 
twenty feet high ? That will do. sir ; you 
can go.” 
And without waiting for a reply, off went 
Dodder No. 2. 
District Attorney, on the part of the peo¬ 
ple here rested. 
The defendant, then, with all the gravity 
becoming such an important occasion, un¬ 
twisted his legs from the rounds of the chair, 
and with more than usual dignity walked out 
in front of the jury, and offered his defense 
as follows : 
“If you please, your Honor, and Gentle¬ 
men of the Jury—I am a green hand at this 
’ere bizzincss. I am ashamed that such a 
little, small consairn should ever come be¬ 
fore an Orange County Jury. It was not my 
wish, I am sure. I was taken up once before, 
and then he only swore to an assault; but 
three months’ thinking has put the battery to 
it. I acknowledge the assault, but I am jus¬ 
tified, for he was assaulting my cow. He 
has tried to pick a quarrel with me ever since 
I went to the gate. He stones my cows, my 
chickens, and I can’t stand it. I threw the 
stones ; I admit it—first, fifteen feet to the 
right, then over his head and when I saw the 
cow fall as he knocked her down, then I did 
shave him, but I didn’t hit him, and that ain’t 
all, I’ll prove it; and I ask you farmers, if 
you w’ould not do the same thing? I can 
prove he knocked her down by my brother. 
Defendant’s brother was then called, and 
stated, that it was Sunday when the occur¬ 
rence happened ; saw complainant, Dodder, 
running after and striking at defendant’s 
cows. Saw him strike and one fall—can’t 
say he struck her. Defendant ran out and 
hallooed to him—did not mind. Defendant 
then threw three stones ; none hit him, I 
went out, and when I came up to Dodder he 
said defendant had thrown stones at him, but 
he had managed by jumping and dodging not 
to have any hit him. 
The testimony here closed. 
The defendant then proceeded to sum up 
the cause. His honor dropped his pen, the 
jury leaned forward, the members of the bar 
were winking and nodding across to one 
another, and a universal tittering pervaded 
the room. He commenced, and his sharp, 
shrill voice drowned all else : 
“ Gentlemen of the Jury—This is the first 
time I was ever in such a pickle—never did 
I before appear before a jury of my country. 
This Mr. Dodder has brought me here, and 
I have to appeal to you, not knowing wheth¬ 
er you are Wooly Heads, Silver Greys, Hard 
Shells or Soft Shells. Yet I think this Dod¬ 
der will find out before I am through that I 
am a harder shell than he imagined. 
You know, gentlemen, that I am in the 
employ of the Mongaup Valley, Forrestburg 
and Port Jervis Plank Road Company, as a 
gate-keeper. This Company it seems had 
sufficient confidence in my integrity and 
honesty to place me in that important station, 
and even if I should recive S3,000 and steal 
SI,500 of it, that’s between me and the Corn- 
pan}', and its none of Dodder’s business. 
Now when the Company sent me up along 
this road to collect tolls, this Dodder was one 
of the inhabitants I found there in the woods, 
and I will say for him that he is a very fair 
specimen of the rest of the population. But 
there isn’t any of them, that seem to appreci¬ 
ate all the benefits of this Plank Road. 
It let out to civilization a class of people 
who never before had the idea there was 
such a thing as civilized life, and this Dodder 
is one of them. It is a fact that soon after I 
moved up there, a young woman, 16 years 
old, cum down out of the the mountains on 
the Plank Road, one day, and she had never 
been out before. She fairly seemed suprised 
to see a white man , and after asking a few 
questions went back into the woods. This 
Dodder was my nearest neighbor, and a good 
deal nearer than I wanted him, and I hadn’t 
been there long, before I heard that he had 
been lying about me to one of the Directors, 
and I soon found out that he wanted to get 
his son, who was sworn here against me, in 
my place. But he hasn’t done it yet, and if 
you don’t convict me T reckon he won’t very 
soon. 
It, won’t take longto dispose of Dodder No. 
2. He testifies that he saw me throw three 
stones at his father, and saw the “ old man 
dodge.” On cross-examination he says that 
he was in his own house in the woods, and 
had to look over a hill twenty feet high, and 
also over three slab-fences and two stone 
walls. Well! if he tells the truth all I wish 
is that I had young Dodder’s eyes. He is 
certainly a remarkable boy and can’t deny 
his “ father." 
I am willing to admit that I done wrong to 
throw stones at Dodder, and I apologise to 
all the world and this county particularly, 
for it. The Doctors tell us that there are 
two causes for all diseases, predisposition and 
excitability. I think it was the latter cause 
that moved me to stone Dodder. 
I therefore confess myself guilty of the 
assault, but the battery 1 deny ! and if you 
find me guilty of the battery I will appeal 
from the decision to the Court of high Heav¬ 
en itself before I will submit to it. 
Now, Gentlemen, you saw Mr. Dodder 
and heard him swear upon me. I asked him 
a great many questions and I was sorry to 
hear him answer as he did. I might have 
asked him more questions—I might have 
asked him if he didn’t stone my chickens, 
because they trespassed in his woods, where 
actually the rocks are so thick that the cats 
can’t find their way up through them ; but 
then I knew he would deny it, and it would 
grieve me to hear him. He admits that he 
was driving my three cows up the road, and 
that he struck at one of ’em, but says it was 
with a small switch. I have proved that this 
swich was a pole, about 10 feet long and 
about 2 inches across the butt end, and 1 have 
also proved that when he struck, the cow fell. 
It is true my witness couldn’t swear that the 
stick hit her, he was so far off, but take the 
blow and the fall together, and we can guess 
the rest. If you, gentlemen should see me 
point a gun at a man and pull the tricker, see 
the flash and heard the report, and at the 
same time see the man drop, I think you 
would say that I shot him, although you 
might not see the ball strike him. 
Now, the fact is, gentlemen, that on Sun¬ 
day, I was lying on my lounge in my house, 
when my wife said that Dodder was chasing 
my cows. I jumped up and the cows com¬ 
ing up the road. It is true he says he Avasn’t 
driving them, but says he and the cows were 
both going along the road in one- direction, 
and this was as near as I could get him to 
the cows or to the truth; but it is proved 
that the cows were going along ahead of him, 
and he was following after them, striking at 
them, with his little switch, 10 feet long and 
2 inches across the butt, and I reckon you’ll 
think he was “driving” them. 1 sung out 
to him, “ Dodder, stop!” but he didn’t obey 
my order, and I just threw a stone in that di¬ 
rection, which went about 15 feet over his 
head; at the same time going toward him. 
He paid no attention, and I sung out again, 
“ Dodder, stop !” Still he didn’t mind me, 
and then I just threw another stone ; but on 
he came, and on I went, and I threw the 
third stone, which he says hit him in the 
back of the neck, but which I think is rather 
strange; as we were going toward each 
other as fast as we could go. But he never 
slacked up, and by this time we were within 
about eight feet of each other. I halted and 
hallooed at the top of my voice, “ Dodder, 
why don’t you stop !” about then he did stop 
and raised his 10 feet switch, as if to strike 
me. I sang out—“ Mr. Dodder, look out! 
You may wollup my cows, but if you wol- 
lup me with that switch, you’ll wollup an 
animal that’ll hook?” [Here the orator 
made an appropriate gesture of the head, as 
in the act of hooking, which was followed 
with tumultuous shouts and Slaughter, that 
continued several minutes.] 
Now, gentlemen, if you convict me, this 
Court can fine me $250, and jug me for six 
months, and if you really think 1 ought to be 
convicted of this assault, say so, for I am in 
favor of living up to the laws, as long as 
they are laws, whether it is the Fugitive 
Slave Law. the Nebraska Bill or the Excise 
